Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's consumer business, unveils Huawei’s HarmonyOS on Huawei Developer Conference 2019. The self-developed operating system targets the Android ban and IoT devices.
Huawei Developer Conference, photo credit to Huawei
Huawei's self-developed HarmonyOS(鸿蒙) is released on its annual developer conference on August 9. The self-developed operating system targets the U.S. Android ban and internet of things.
The HarmonyOS is a microkernel-based, distributed operating system for all scenarios. Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's consumer business, said that future OS should be used for any type of terminal devices.
"Harmony is open-source, stronger and safer," said Richard.
The current Huawei handsets are still using Android. Once affected by US Entity List, Huawei would take one to two days to switch to Harmony.
The distributed structure allows deployment in various terminal devices, a feature benefits developers with improved efficiency compared with Company G and Company A. Besides mobile phones, this Chinese OS is deployable for tablets, speakers, smart wearable devices, and automotive systems.
Though the system seems to be ready, it takes time to test and develop applications and to create its Harmony ecosystem.
According to Richard, the first devices with Harmony OS is to be released this September. Next year, HarmonyOS 2.0 is supported in its personal computer, smart wearable devices and automobiles, and 3.0 is for speaker and smartphones.
Harmony system is originally made for IoT and manufacturing. This May, the Trump administration put Huawei onto the U.S. Entity List, and Google accordingly banned future Android updates for Huawei phones for U.S. national security.
Afterward, Huawei and Google's partnership have been reportedly changing back and forth. Some industry analysts argued the trade bar would limit China's tech capability in the short run but force the nation to gain independence in the long term.
Last month, whether this mysterious OS could be used in cellphones is uncertain. Now as the Harmony officially debut, the second-largest smartphone manufacturer and the top 5G player is one step closer to "building a better connected world".