Last year, Huawei introduced the HarmonyOS NEXT operating system exclusively for developers. This operating system does not support Android apps and could be the future of Huawei smartphones and other connected smart devices. A previous report by Nikki Asia claimed that Huawei’s HarmonyOS NEXT (which was introduced in January as the latest version of its operating system) could compete with iOS and Android in the future.
HarmonyOS NEXT aims to become the third most popular operating system for mobile devices
The latest news is that Huawei wants to make the HarmonyOS ecosystem available globally. As a result of US sanctions in 2019, the company introduced a new operating system called HarmonyOS for its smartphones, tablets and other connected smart devices.
Huawei’s own operating system has so far been limited to its own country, but the company is now looking to expand it globally. During this year’s analyst summit, Huawei’s current chairman Xu Zhijun announced the plans. Huawei believes it can establish itself as the third most popular operating system for mobile devices in the world.
The company is working closely with developers to create a strong app ecosystem for HarmonyOS. The company will initially focus on the Chinese market. According to Xu, people in his country spend most of their time on a collection of approximately 5,000 apps. As always, the company will focus primarily on the usability and flawless operation of these programs.
But building an app ecosystem and competing with well-known giants like the Google Play Store or Apple App Store can be difficult. According to Business of Apps, the Google Play Store currently has a collection of over 3.2 million apps, while the App Store has over 2 million apps. It will be interesting to see how the global market will react if Huawei manages to create a competing app ecosystem.
Speaking of HarmonyOS NEXT, the company is also reportedly working on a new native “Harmony kernel” rather than using the Linux kernel. For those who don’t know, the kernel is the backbone of the operating system. So Huawei is really trying to differentiate its operating system from Android.