Huawei introduced the launch of its proprietary HarmonyOS for smartphones on Wednesday, because the embattled firm seems to get well from US sanctions which have hobbled its handset enterprise.
Huawei will begin rolling out HarmonyOS on sure fashions of its smartphones from Wednesday night, providing customers the possibility to change from the present working system that’s based mostly on Google’s Android platform.
The use of HarmonyOS means the corporate will not be wholly reliant on Android. USÂ sanctions banned Alphabet’s Google from offering technical help to new Huawei cellphone fashions and entry to Google Mobile Services, the bundle of developer providers upon which most Android apps are based mostly.
Rather than being a like-for-like substitute, Huawei is billing HarmonyOS as an ‘Internet-of-Things’ platform, geared toward working on and connecting different gadgets akin to laptops, smartwatches, vehicles, and home equipment.
Huawei is aiming to have HarmonyOS rolled out on 200 million smartphones and 100 million third-party sensible gadgets by the year-end, stated Wang Chenglu, president of Huawei Consumer Business Group’s software program division, who has led Huawei’s efforts to develop HarmonyOS since 2016.
Wang spoke at a media roundtable a day earlier and his feedback had been embargoed till Wednesday.
China’s main telecommunications gear maker discovered itself on a USÂ commerce blacklist in May 2019 because of nationwide safety issues. Huawei has repeatedly denied it’s a danger.
The ban put Huawei’s handset enterprise beneath immense stress. Once the world’s greatest smartphone maker, Huawei now could be ranked sixth globally with a 4 p.c market share within the first quarter.
But Wang stated the corporate was wanting past smartphones with HarmonyOS. He stated the smartphone market had plateaued and that smartphones stay the dominant gadget in individuals’s lives largely as a result of most builders have few different platforms to develop for.
Instead, there was a necessity for a system to bridge the hole between gadgets, Wang stated.
“The problem with existing operating systems is that devices can’t be connected easily,” with customers typically having to obtain separate apps to get issues to attach, Wang stated.
“But Harmony can enable devices to be connected to form a super device. It will work as one file system, literally one device,” Wang stated.
Wang stated he would welcome different smartphone makers adopting HarmonyOS, however added that Huawei sees huge alternatives in working with makers of non-smartphone gadgets.
Will Wong, an analyst at IDC, stated it was not important for Huawei that different smartphone makers undertake HarmonyOS.
“(But) for Huawei to achieve its ambition, it will be important to get other electronics brands and even automakers onboard for the OS, and China provides a favourable market ecosystem to achieve this,” stated Wong.
© Thomson Reuters 2021
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