After months of debating on Huawei’s plan B to Android, since the US ban came into effect, Huawei has officially launched HarmonyOS. Unlike Android and iOS, HarmonyOS is – a microkernel-based, distributed operating system designed to deliver a cohesive user experience across all devices and scenarios.
These could power smartphones, laptops, and even IoT devices. In a statement at the Huawei Developer Conference held today, Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group said the is a need for an operating system that could enable seamless interaction between all devices and scenarios.
“We’re entering a day and age where people expect a holistic, intelligent experience across all devices and scenarios. To support this, we felt it was important to have an operating system with improved cross-platform capabilities.”
According to Yu, the new OS “has trustworthy and secure architecture, and it supports “seamless collaboration across devices.” Additionally, HarmonyOS reduces much work needed of developing apps for different platforms since apps developed for a given platform can seamlessly run on other platforms as well.
The OS will be first deployed in smart devices like smartwatches, smart screens, in-vehicle systems, and smart speakers later this year. Moving forward, Huawei will also bring the OS in other smart devices.
The company also reveals that the new OS is “a lightweight, compact operating system with powerful functionality” and will be integrated across a shared ecosystem of devices to “create a secure and reliable runtime environment.”
Huawei plans to cement HarmonyOS’s presence in the Chinese market first owing to their strong app ecosystem and massive userbase but will later expand it to the global ecosystem.
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