- HarmonyOS surpasses Apple’s iOS to become second-best-selling mobile operating system in China, behind only Android, and now available on more than 900m devices.
- Mate 70 smartphone, to be launched later this year, will run on the HarmonyOS Next platform, severing any remaining ties to Android.
In a remarkable display of technological prowess, Huawei Technologies, the Chinese tech giant, has announced a series of breakthroughs in fields ranging from operating systems to artificial intelligence.
According to Richard Yu, the chairman of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, speaking at the opening of a three-day developer conference in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan  said the company has managed to achieve in just 10 years what took the US and Europe more than 30 years to accomplish.
Huawei’s Harmony operating system, launched in 2019 after the company was cut off from Google’s Android support, has now become available on more than 900 million devices.
The rapid adoption highlights the company’s ability to develop and deploy its own software solutions, challenging the long-standing dominance of Western technology giants in this arena.
Furthermore, Huawei’s Ascend artificial intelligence infrastructure has become the second most popular in the market, trailing only Nvidia, which has traditionally dominated the AI chip sector.
The achievement underscores Huawei’s commitment to developing robust and competitive domestic technological capabilities, reducing its reliance on foreign suppliers.
Yu said that Huawei has seized the opportunities presented by the era of the Internet of Things, where the company has been able to outpace its European and American counterparts in building the core technology of an independent operating system.
Significant milestone
The milestone is particularly significant, given the historical dominance of Western companies in the software and operating system landscape.
Huawei’s smartphone business has also experienced a remarkable resurgence, with the launch of the Mate 60 smartphone and the growing popularity of its Harmony-equipped devices.
In the first quarter of 2024, Huawei’s HarmonyOS surpassed Apple’s iOS to become the second-best-selling mobile operating system in China, behind only Android.
The company’s commitment to further advancing its technological capabilities is evident in its plans to release a successor to the Mate 70 smartphone later this year, which will run on the HarmonyOS Next platform, severing any remaining ties to Android.
The move underscores Huawei’s ambition to establish its own mobile ecosystem, challenging the established players in the industry.
Moreover, the Chinese giant is getting more aggressive to profit from HarmonyOS as its user base surge.