Caixin Weekly | HarmonyOS Takes Flight (AI Translation)
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文｜财新周刊 张而弛 覃敏
By Caixin Weekly's Zhang Erchi, Tan Min
文｜财新周刊 张而弛 覃敏
By Caixin Weekly's Zhang Erchi, Tan Min
2月22日，华为在海南三亚举行发布会，时隔近两年发布新款小折叠手机Pocket 2。在发布会的末尾，华为终端业务集团CEO余承东预告，华为的鸿蒙操作系统将于2024年秋季迎来版本大升级，采用鸿蒙单框架系统，包括Pocket 2在内的华为手机在升级后可能会有30%的性能提升，包括流畅度提升、续航时间增加。
On February 22, Huawei held a press conference in Sanya, Hainan, unveiling the new foldable smartphone Pocket 2 nearly two years after its last release. At the end of the event, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's Consumer Business Group, announced that Huawei's HarmonyOS would undergo a major upgrade in the fall of 2024. The upgrade to a single-framework system could potentially boost the performance of Huawei smartphones, including the Pocket 2, by up to 30%, with improvements in smoothness and battery life.
1月18日，华为刚刚在深圳举行发布会，正式推出鸿蒙星河版（HarmonyOS NEXT）的开发者预览版，只能运行鸿蒙原生应用、不再兼容安卓应用，被外界称为“纯血鸿蒙”。这意味着，诞生四年多的鸿蒙操作系统终于要脱离安卓生态“单飞”，变成像苹果iOS那样的独立王国。
On January 18, Huawei held a press conference in Shenzhen, officially launching the developer preview of HarmonyOS NEXT, which can only run native HarmonyOS applications and is no longer compatible with Android apps. This version has been dubbed by the public as "pureblood HarmonyOS." This signifies that after more than four years since its inception, the HarmonyOS is finally breaking away from the Android ecosystem to become an independent realm akin to Apple's iOS.
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- Huawei unveiled the new foldable smartphone Pocket 2 and announced a major upgrade to HarmonyOS for fall 2024, aiming to boost performance by up to 30%. The HarmonyOS NEXT developer preview, launched in January, marks Huawei's move away from Android compatibility towards a "pureblood" system. The commercial version is expected with the flagship Mate series in late 2024.
- Since being placed on the U.S. Entity List in May 2019, Huawei accelerated the development of HarmonyOS for its devices, expanding from TVs to smartphones. By January 2024, over 800 million devices were running HarmonyOS, achieving a 16% market share in China's smartphone OS sector.
- Huawei's shift towards an independent ecosystem with HarmonyOS faces challenges but also opens opportunities for full autonomy similar to Apple. Despite past failures of other companies to establish a third operating system, Huawei's strategy includes significant developer engagement and training programs aimed at creating a robust app ecosystem and leveraging AI technology for future growth.
In February 2022, Huawei introduced the Pocket 2 foldable smartphone and announced a major upgrade for its HarmonyOS set for fall 2024, promising up to 30% performance improvement [para. 1]. Earlier, in January, Huawei launched HarmonyOS NEXT, marking a significant shift from Android compatibility to a purely HarmonyOS environment [para. 2]. This move towards an independent ecosystem mirrors Apple's iOS strategy, with plans to release a developer Beta version in Q2 2024 and a commercial version in Q4 2024, potentially alongside the Mate series smartphones [para. 3].
HarmonyOS was initially developed for IoT applications but pivoted to smartphones following U.S. sanctions that barred Huawei from using Google's Android system. Since its hurried introduction in 2019, HarmonyOS has expanded across various devices, reaching over 800 million by January 2024. It now holds a significant market share in China's smartphone OS sector and is growing globally [para. 4].
Despite early challenges and criticisms of being "Android in disguise," Huawei's development efforts have paid off with the successful launch of devices like the Mate 60 series using self-developed chips. This resurgence has significantly boosted Huawei’s market position in China [para. 5]. The transition to HarmonyOS NEXT signifies Huawei's ambition to create an independent ecosystem free from Android's influence [para. 6].
The push towards native HarmonyOS applications has gained momentum with major companies like Bilibili and Alipay starting development on this platform. Overcoming the challenge of establishing a robust app ecosystem is crucial for HarmonyOS’s success [para. 7]. However, notable absences such as Tencent’s WeChat and ByteDance’s Douyin highlight ongoing negotiations and challenges in securing widespread app support [para. 8].
Huawei believes that technical advantages of HarmonyOS over Android will attract developers by offering smoother performance and better integration across devices. The company aims to leverage its user base's purchasing power to entice developers into creating native apps for its OS [para. 9]. Efforts are also underway to cultivate talent through university collaborations and training programs aimed at addressing the developer shortage for HarmonyOS [para. 10].
As competition intensifies with other domestic manufacturers launching AI-powered operating systems, Huawei remains focused on enhancing user experience through AI integration within HarmonyOS. The future direction seems geared towards creating personalized operating systems centered around user needs rather than being tied down to specific platforms like Android or iOS [para. 11].
This strategic pivot towards an independent operating system underscores Huawei’s resilience against external pressures while highlighting the broader industry trend towards more integrated and user-centric technology ecosystems.
- 2015：
- HarmonyOS initiated, originally designed for the Internet of Things.
- May 2019：
- U.S. Department of Commerce placed Huawei on the Entity List, preventing new Huawei phones from using the Android system developed by Google.
- August 2019：
- Huawei introduced HarmonyOS at its Developer Conference, initially deploying HarmonyOS 1.0 on its smart screen TV products.
- End of 2019：
- Huawei launched a significant development push at its Songshan Lake campus in Dongguan, Guangdong, to make HarmonyOS viable for smartphones.
- May 2020：
- U.S. escalated its sanctions against Huawei, limiting the company to using only Qualcomm's 4G chips for its smartphones.
- August 2023：
- Mate 60 series phones, equipped with Huawei's self-developed Kirin 9000S chip, went on sale online without a launch event.
- January 2024：
- Huawei held a press conference in Shenzhen, officially launching the developer preview of HarmonyOS NEXT, which can only run native HarmonyOS applications and is no longer compatible with Android apps.
- Second quarter of 2024：
- Developer Beta (test) version of HarmonyOS will be released to application developers.
- Fourth quarter of 2024：
- Commercial version of HarmonyOS will be made available to general consumers.
- Fall of 2024：
- HarmonyOS will undergo a major upgrade to a single-framework system.
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