Huawei's HarmonyOS Is Set To Launch

There is a new OS in town that is touted as an alternative to Apple's iOS and Google's Android. Huawei Technologies is set to launch its highly anticipated home-grown mobile operating system HarmonyOS in the next couple of days. The telecommunications equipment giant led the domestic tech firms in time to build a Chinese mobile ecosystem to counter the US sanctions.

On 8 October, HarmonyOS Next will be publicly available on Huawei's Mate 60 series, the Mate X5 foldable smartphone and its 13.2 inch tablet MatePad Pro.

HarmonyOS Next, which Huawei is considered as being entirely independently developed, no longer supports Android-based applications and has been dubbed "pure blood" HarmonyOS in China.

The new mobile platform, which was made available for developers in China in January this year, is "a new life striving to grow", said Richard Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei's consumer business group, at a company event in Shanghai last month.

"We covered the path of over a decade of foreign operating system ecosystem development in just one year," Yu added.

Ahead of the launch, Huawei mobilised China's app developers to support the operating system in what it called an "oath-taking ceremony" last month, according to a 26 September blog post on Huawei's website.

Prominent Chinese Big Tech firms, including Baidu, JD.com, Meituan and Tencent Holdings, all attended the meeting, Huawei said. More than 10,000 applications and native services have been developed for HarmonyOS Next, according to the company.

"Only with our own ecosystem can HarmonyOS truly be a mobile operating system," deputy chairman Eric Xu Zhijun said at the meeting, according to Huawei.