Huawei's system upgrade breaks a 'two-horse race'
Huawei's upgraded system of HarmonyOS, now available in 900 million smart devices, will start commercial use in the fourth quarter, with integrated artificial intelligence capabilities, the tech giant said on Friday.
Richard Yu, chairman of Huawei's Consumer Business Group, hailed it a "technical breakthrough," indicating that Huawei is changing the operating system landscape, he said in a keynote speech at the Huawei Developer Conference on Friday.
The upgraded HarmonyOS Next is a new nature Harmony system which cuts ties with Google's Android. The upgrade makes Huawei a growing third major operating system globally besides Android and iOS. It helps Huawei reduce reliance on American technologies and avoid related tech sanctions, industry insiders said.
Huawei's Richard Yu speaks against a background of pictures of apps supporting HarmonyOS.
Harmony truly realizes a system that unifies all-device ecology and connects multiple devices and multiple scenarios. It is the first operating system for the interconnection of everything including tablets, mobile phones, cockpits, and IoT (Internet of Things) devices, Huawei said.
A new AI capability, called Harmony Intelligence, will also be integrated in HarmonyOS Next.
The move aligns with similar strategies adopted by Google, Apple, and Microsoft, highlighting AI as a crucial battleground for innovation
The recent surge in Huawei smartphone sales and the success of Huawei-backed electric vehicles are expected to further propel HarmonyOS adoption.
Huawei returned to the top spot in the first quarter in the Chinese smartphone market, shipping 11.7 million smartphones and capturing a 17-percent market share, thanks to an enthusiastic market response to its Mate and Nova series. As the result, HarmonyOS also reached a 17-percent market share in the quarter, surpassing the market share of iOS in China, according to researcher Canalys.
A key strategy for Huawei in 2024 is to focus on building AI capabilities for smart devices from hardware to software at a system level. With the continued expansion of the HarmonyOS ecosystem, Huawei emerges as the third OS for smartphones and other edge computing devices, breaking the "two-horse race of Android and iOS in China," Canalys said in a statement to Shanghai Daily.
Huawei's upgraded HarmonyOS Next cuts ties with Google's Android.
