HarmonyOS, or Hong Meng in Chinese, is Huawei’s bid to reduce its reliance on Google’s Android, whose parts and apps it has had trouble accessing since the US slapped sanctions on Huawei in 2019. The release of Harmony 2.0 this week, the first iteration to be available on Huawei’s mobile phones, will give users a sense of whether the operating system is simply an Android knock-off, or a platform that can help the Chinese company shift its focus from hardware to software, noted Quartz in a newsletter.
Once the world’s biggest smartphone maker, Huawei now is ranked 6th globally with a 4% market share in the first quarter.
The previous Trump administration argued that the Chinese telecommunications giant posed a threat to U.S. national security – a charge that Huawei has denied.
Yet, Huawei’s challenge goes beyond Android. Yes, it has to deal with semiconductor chips and equipment which are also banned by the US government.
After the Launch
After the launch this week, it does not seem like many are on board. Going with Huawei could get a company into US sanctions as the company may be mandated to prove that its products are free of Huawei technologies before being exported into the US. So, I expect many global hardware makers to be cautious on adopting this new operating system.
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Huawei Technologies Co ’s opening salvo for its HarmonyOS mobile platform to go mainstream, helping the telecommunications giant overcome US trade sanctions, has drawn thousands of partners, but also delivered a stiff reality check – none of its major Chinese Android smartphone rivals are on board
Huawei faces an uphill battle to convince other smartphone makers to change from Android to HarmonyOS over difficulties of “user conversion, compatibility issues and political risks”, which few vendors are willing to face, according to Chiew Le Xuan, an analyst at technology market research firm Canalys.
At the online launch of HarmonyOS 2 on Wednesday, Richard Yu C., the chief executive of Huawei’s consumer business group, said the company has partnered with more than 1,000 hardware makers, 500,000 app developers and more than 300 service providers, enabling the company’s mobile operating system to run on more smart devices than those on
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Taking the political risk into consideration I don’t see a future for the Software, however, that doesn’t mean there is no hopes for it.
Earlier, EU came up with their ambitious goal of become a notable player in the Semiconductor market and no one raised an eyebrow, so, if Huawei stick to Asia and increase her dominance then its a big win for them.
As for EU I am wondering who they would be selling the produce to aside the union member.