Canalys: Samsung and Xiaomi see shipment surges in Q2 in Europe
Huawei suffers due to political controversy
Jasper Hart
August 12, 2019
New OS will be open source
Huawei has announced its own operating system, called HarmonyOS.
The Chinese manufacturer announced the operating system this morning (August 9) at its Huawei Developer Conference in Songshan Lake, China.
#HarmonyOS was created with four major building blocks in mind, ensuring a new generation OS that is best suited for our digital world today. #HDC2019 pic.twitter.com/7vgEuwuUG6
— Huawei Mobile (@HuaweiMobile) August 9, 2019
In China, the software will be known as Hongmeng OS. Huawei says that it can be used for smartphones, IoT devices and smart devices. The company’s consumer business group CEO Richard Yu said that it is said to be faster and safer than Android, and that in the event of Huawei no longer being able to access Android, Huawei can deploy HarmonyOS “at any time”.
He said: “We’re entering a day and age where people expect a holistic intelligent experience across all devices and scenarios. To support this, we felt it was important to have an operating system with improved cross-platform capabilities. We needed an OS that supports all scenarios, that can be used across a broad range of devices and platforms, and that can meet consumer demand for low latency and strong security.”
Huawei says the operating system will be adopted in its smart screen products, due to launch later this year, and will be expanded over the next three years into wearables and other devices.
The announcement follows a period of speculation since the company was placed on the US government’s Entity List, and Google subsequently suspended its Android licence.
HarmonyOS will be open source. Yu added: “We believe HarmonyOS will revitalize the industry and enrich the ecosystem,” said Richard Yu. “Our goal is to bring people a truly engaging and diverse experience. We want to invite developers from around the world to join us as we build out this new ecosystem. Together, we will deliver an intelligent experience for consumers in all scenarios.”