Huawei Technologies Co. displayed its much-anticipated in-house operating system Harmony OS on Friday, marking what some call the Chinese tech giant's biggest push yet to build its own software ecosystem for the era of the internet of things.
The move is also expected to weaken the influence of the United States government's restrictions on Huawei using Google's Android operating system in smartphones, analysts said.
Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's consumer business group, speaking in Dongguan, Guangdong province, said it is difficult to deliver a smooth experience across different devices with the huge amount of codes involved in the Android and Linux operating systems. Linux is an open-source operating system widely used in personal computers and other hardware.
"Harmony is a next-generation operating system designed to address the challenge," Yu said, adding that it will be able to support a wide range of application situations, including smart TVs, automobiles and wearables.
The internet of things refers to a network of devices and other objects that can connect with each other and exchange data.
Yu said the US government's restrictions have accelerated the company's marketing of the system, which now has about 4,000 employees working on it.
The senior executive said Harmony can be used in its smartphones. But Android is still Huawei's preferred choice for handsets if the company is allowed to use it.
"But when Android is not available, Harmony can be applied immediately to smartphones. Harmony is ready," Yu added.
Jia Mo, an analyst at market research company Canalys, said even if Huawei does not use Harmony in its smartphones in the short term, its smartwatches and smart TVs can be equipped with Harmony to widen its use and accumulate more experience in building an ecosystem.
"Also, more importantly, Huawei chose to build Harmony into an open-source operating system and allow it to be compatible with Android. Thus Harmony will be more accepted by current Android users. This will prevent Huawei from repeating the fate of Microsoft in promoting smartphone systems," Jia said. Microsoft failed to popularize the use of its Windows system in smartphones years ago.
