Huawei launches new version of HarmonyOS, Chinese alternative to the American system

The Chinese company has started rolling out the latest HarmonyOS update, which the company says has 15,000 native apps and services

A Huawei Technologies launched the HarmonyOS 5.0 aiming to expand adoption of its mobile operating system, following a year of strong growth in the Chinese smartphone market, driven by an innovative processor.

The latest version of HarmonyOS — which was called HarmonyOS Next during the testing period, when it moved away from Android’s roots — it already has 15,000 native apps and services, it said Richard Yu Chengdongpresident of Huawei’s consumer business group, at an event last Tuesday (22).

The number of native apps is 10 times greater than in June, when Huawei launched a beta version of HarmonyOS Nextaccording to Yu. “We have conquered a new field in just one year and achieved what foreign ecosystems have been doing for more than a decade,” said Yu.

O HarmonyOS Nextwhich Huawei presents as an independent development, is no longer compatible with Android-based applications, being dubbed HarmonyOS ‘pure blood’ that China.

The company announced that public beta testing of HarmonyOS 5.0 began to be made available on Tuesday for series smartphones Pura 70 e Pocket 2in addition to the tablet MatePad Pro.

The system will be available on more devices next year, including the latest triple smartphone Mate XT and mid-range models Novadepending on the company. THE HarmonyOS Next is now available in the series Mate 60on the foldable smartphone Mate X5 e no tablet MatePad Pro 13.2 inches.

The company did not mention the highly anticipated series Mate 70successor to the Mate 60, which was launched last year with a processor entirely developed in China. Huawei had previously reported that the Mate 70 would be released in the fourth quarter, when the HarmonyOS 5.0 will be made available for “commercial use”.

The telecommunications manufacturer, based in Shenzhenhas sought to expand the adoption of HarmonyOScollaborating with major Chinese technology companies to develop native apps for the ecosystem.

Last Tuesday, Huawei also announced an incentive plan for developers, offering up to 1 million yuan ($140,600) in cash and 5 million yuan on display for those who qualify.

Huawei launched the HarmonyOS as an alternative to Android for the Chinese market in August 2019, just months after Washington included the company on a commercial blacklist that prevented the sale of products with US technology without explicit approval.

Initially, similarities in the kernel — the core of the operating system that manages the interaction between software and hardware — made HarmonyOS compatible with Android applications, something that began to change with the HarmonyOS Next.

Adoption of the mobile platform grew significantly last year, with the series Mate 60 marking Huawei’s return to the device market 5G.

Sales of Huawei’s flagship devices grew 71% in the first three quarters of this year compared to the same period in 2023, Yu said at the event. Sales of the series Pura 70launched at the end of April, were 154% higher than the previous generation in the second and third quarters.

O HarmonyOS was responsible for 17% of China’s smartphone market in the three months to March, doubling its share from the same period last year and surpassing Apple’s iOS to become the second largest mobile operating system in the country, according to a report from Counterpoint in June.

While the Android continued to lead the Chinese mobile market, with 68% of participation in the same period, the iOS was right behind, with 16%as reported by the research company.

With information from the South China Morning Post*