Huawei has been working on its software ecosystem for quite some time now. Between luring developers onto its App Gallery platform and developing an operating system from scratch, Huawei is well on its way to free itself from Android. A company executive says that Huawei plans on running its in-house software -HarmonyOS- on all of its devices.
Huawei CEO Yu Chengdong told attendees of a conference (via ITHome) that the upcoming Huawei smartwatch will run HarmonyOS. Currently, the software is only in use on a handful of products such as Smart TVs and IoT gadgets. Future versions of the software will run on smartphones, computers, and tablets.
Compared to more traditional operating systems such as Android and Windows, HarmonyOS is relatively new. It’ll take months, if not years, for Huawei to bring it on spec with existing market alternatives. Furthermore, it’ll be interesting to see how Huawei convinces its massive userbase to make the switch from Android/Windows to HarmonyOS. Asking users to switch platforms is a daunting task, and Huawei will have to have several tricks up its sleeve if it wants to survive the transition.
It is quite surprising to hear about Huawei’s plan to move all devices to HarmonyOS shortly after reports of the company shutting down in-house silicon production emerged. Under ideal circumstances, Huawei could control just about every aspect of its hardware, ranging from the SoC to its operating system. That dream could still materialize if Huawei ever sets up its fabrication infrastructure, which will allow it to design and manufacture silicon in-house without relying on the likes of TSMC.
ITHome
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