Huawei system update interrupts the “two-horse race”

Huawei’s improved HarmonyOS, currently available in 900 million smart devices, will begin commercial use in the fourth quarter and will come with integrated artificial intelligence features, the tech giant said on Friday.

Richard Yu, chairman of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, called it a “technical breakthrough,” pointing out that Huawei is changing the landscape of operating systems, he said in a keynote speech at the Huawei Developer Conference on Friday.

The improved HarmonyOS Next is nature’s new Harmony system that breaks ties with Google’s Android. The update makes Huawei the third major operating system in the world, alongside Android and iOS. This helps Huawei reduce its dependence on U.S. technology and avoid related technology sanctions, industry insiders say.

Ti Gong

Harmony truly realizes a system that unifies the ecology of all devices and connects multiple devices across multiple scenarios. It is the first operating system to enable everything to be interconnected, including tablets, mobile phones, dashboards and IoT (Internet of Things) devices, Huawei said.

A new AI feature called Harmony Intelligence will also be integrated into HarmonyOS Next.

The move follows similar strategies adopted by Google, Apple and Microsoft, highlighting artificial intelligence as a key battleground for innovation

The recent surge in Huawei smartphone sales and the success of Huawei-backed electric vehicles are expected to further accelerate the adoption of HarmonyOS.

Huawei returned to the top spot in China’s smartphone market in the first quarter, selling 11.7 million smartphones and gaining 17 percent market share thanks to enthusiastic market response to the Mate and Nova series. As a result, HarmonyOS also achieved 17 percent market share this quarter, surpassing iOS’s market share in China, according to researcher Canalys.

Huawei’s key strategy for 2024 is to focus on building artificial intelligence capabilities for smart devices, from hardware to software at the system level. With the continuous development of the HarmonyOS ecosystem, Huawei is emerging as the third operating system for smartphones and other edge devices, breaking the “two-horse race of Android and iOS in China,” Canalys said in a statement to Shanghai Daily.

Zhu Shenshen / FLASH