Huawei has launched its HarmonyOS Next, and according to Chinese media it’s been dubbed the “pure blood” version of the Harmony operating system, as it no longer supports Android applications.
The controversial Chinese company has been banned from getting involved in 5G networks and/or selling its handsets in some countries, including Australia and the US.
The situation is fluid as governments wrestle with how much access they should allow Huawei, but Reuters reported in late 2023 that European countries that have blocked Huawei in some form include Sweden, Romania, Portugal, Italy, Lithuania, Denmark and France.
According to the US Council On Foreign Relations: “The United States and other countries claim that Huawei threatens their national security. They say it is beholden to the Chinese government, which could use the company to spy. Huawei denies the accusation. The United States, Australia, Japan, and others have effectively banned Huawei from building their 5G networks, but it remains popular in low-income countries.”
On Tuesday, Richard Yu – Chairman of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group – said at a launch event for HarmonyOS Next, also known as Harmony OS 5.0, that the operating system was expanding overseas. He pointed to partnerships with ride-hailer Grab and Emirates airline.
Emirates has launched an app on HarmonyOS, Yu said.
He claimed Harmony was being used as the operating system on one billion devices, from smartphones and tablets to PCs, cars and wearables.
“Our HarmonyOS has all the foundational core technologies, and has realised full autonomy, and has become self-secured and self-controllable,” Yu said.
He said HarmonyOS Next had 15,000 native applications and services, which is a 10-fold increase on what it had in June, when the beta version was released.
“We have carved out a new field in just one year, and achieved what foreign ecosystems have been doing for over a decade,” Yu boasted.
Yu said thousands of Chinese state-owned enterprises were adopting Huawei’s operating system, as part of Beijing’s efforts to free itself from US tech such as Microsoft Windows and Office.
“Huawei has developed its own document systems, though its platform also can handle other file formats,” Nikkei Asia reported. “Several major government-backed organizations, including Xinhua News Agency and China Media Group, now use Huawei’s operating system.”
The South China Morning Post reported that public beta testing for HarmonyOS 5.0 started to roll out on Tuesday to Pura 70 and Pocket 2 series smartphones, and the MatePad Pro tablet.
