What you should know
- Android is the most popular operating system in China, followed by iOS. However, due to the release of Huawei’s Mate 60 line, the first 5G phone produced by the company in three years, HarmonyOS is expected to surpass iOS and become the second most popular platform in the country.
- HarmonyOS was developed by Huawei after the company was placed on the U.S. Entity List for security reasons in 2019. This prevented Huawei from working with its U.S. supply chain, including Google.
- The next version of HarmonyOS, HarmonyOS Next, will not support any Android apps. Huawei is currently in talks with major companies in China to develop native apps for the next iteration of HarmonyOS.
- More than 700 million devices run HarmonyOS, with more than 2.2 million third-party developers writing apps for the platform. This data comes from Richard Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business.
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Android is king in China, with iOS coming in second. However, TechInsights (via SouthChinaMorningPost) predicts a major shakeup this year. This is all thanks to Huawei’s surprising launch of the Mate 60 line last year. This was the company’s first 5G phone in three years, despite U.S. sanctions. HarmonyOS, the new kid on the block, is expected to snap up Android and iOS users in China. It’s even predicted to overtake iOS, becoming the second most popular platform in the country.
HarmonyOS is Huawei’s brainchild, born out of necessity after the company was placed on the U.S. Entity List for security reasons in 2019. This meant Huawei couldn’t work with its U.S. supply chain, including Google. A year later, U.S. export rules changed to prevent foundries using American technology from shipping cutting-edge chips to Huawei without a license.
Now, let’s talk about the Huawei Mate 60 Pro. It’s powered by the controversial Kirin 9000s 5G chipset. Before the Mate 60 line’s release, Huawei got licenses to use 4G versions of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon SoCs. These powered the P50, Mate 50, and P60 flagship series in 2022 and 2023. There’s still some mystery around how China’s largest foundry, SMIC, managed to manufacture the 7nm Kirin 9000s without using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines. These are banned in China, you see.
These lithography machines etch circuitry patterns on silicon wafers that are thinner than human hair. They’re as big as a school bus and necessary to help small chips accommodate billions of transistors. The more transistors a chip has, the more powerful and energy-efficient it is.
HarmonyOS Next, the next version of HarmonyOS, won’t support any Android apps. A developer preview version of HarmonyOS Next is expected to be released this quarter. Huawei is already talking with major Chinese companies to develop native apps for HarmonyOS Next. We might see a new version of Alibaba’s mobile payment app Alipay and its workplace collaboration app DingTalk for the platform.
Other major Chinese firms, including e-commerce company JD.com, video gaming leader NetEase, and food delivery firm Meituan, started recruiting developers in November to write native apps for HarmonyOS. McDonald’s China, with over 5,500 units in the country, more than 200,000 employees, and over 1 billion customers served annually, is one of the first multinational corporations to develop an app for HarmonyOS Next.
More than 700 million devices run HarmonyOS, with over 2.2 million third-party developers writing apps for the platform. This data comes from Richard Yu Chengdong (known by his Americanized name of Richard Yu in the U.S.), who is the CEO of Huawei’s consumer business.
The next big thing from Huawei is the photography-based P70 line, expected during the first quarter of this year.
