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Harmony OS Attracts Lots of Attention, But No Smartphone OEMs
Last week’s biggest Huawei’ news the official launch of its own operating system on consumer devices, dubbed HarmonyOS 2. Originally designed for Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, HarmonyOS also runs on smartphones and smart devices. Nationalists and China-boosters have already started crowing that China now has its answer to US-controlled iOS and Android, but its market prospects remain murky. During the prerecorded launch event, Huawei announced a long list of partners that will include support for the new OS, including 1,000 hardware makers, 500,000 app developers and more than 300 service providers such as home appliance maker Midea, Shenzhen-based drone maker DJI, and Swiss watch producer Tissot. Conspicuously missing from the list was any mention of any smartphone maker. Not even Honor, the budget smartphone brand spun out of Huawei into an independent company last year, will run HarmonyOS, preferring to keep its options open. Huawei has admitted that it uses some code from the open-source version of Android to ease the transition for developers and users, but many still think that Harmony relies more on Android code than Huawei is willing to admit. Since Harmony’s source code has not been made public it’s difficult to tell.
Given the lack of support for HarmonyOS from OPPO, Xiaomi, vivo and Realme, all trying to fill the gap left by Huawei’s majority exit and their desire to expand outside China, Android market share for smartphones is pretty secure.
Last week’s biggest Huawei’ news the official launch of its own operating system on consumer devices, dubbed HarmonyOS 2. Originally designed for Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, HarmonyOS also runs on smartphones and smart devices. Nationalists and China-boosters have already started crowing that China now has its answer to US-controlled iOS and Android, but its market prospects remain murky. During the prerecorded launch event, Huawei announced a long list of partners that will include support for the new OS, including 1,000 hardware makers, 500,000 app developers and more than 300 service providers such as home appliance maker Midea, Shenzhen-based drone maker DJI, and Swiss watch producer Tissot. Conspicuously missing from the list was any mention of any smartphone maker. Not even Honor, the budget smartphone brand spun out of Huawei into an independent company last year, will run HarmonyOS, preferring to keep its options open. Huawei has admitted that it uses some code from the open-source version of Android to ease the transition for developers and users, but many still think that Harmony relies more on Android code than Huawei is willing to admit. Since Harmony’s source code has not been made public it’s difficult to tell.
Given the lack of support for HarmonyOS from OPPO, Xiaomi, vivo and Realme, all trying to fill the gap left by Huawei’s majority exit and their desire to expand outside China, Android market share for smartphones is pretty secure.
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