Huawei’s “pure blood” HarmonyOS Next to launch within a few weeks

It’s safe to say that the US-imposed sanctions on Huawei have not destroyed the Chinese giant. After releasing the tri-fold tech marvel called the Mate XT, Huawei is now on the verge of releasing its own mobile operating systems – HarmonyOS Next.

Huawei’s home-grown HarmonyOS Next will make headlines, as it is without Android support – it’s set to launch later in September.

This may turn out to be the last chapter of Huawei’s ongoing effort to challenge Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS in the domestic market. According to reports, Chen Xinxin, general manager of HarmonyOS industry solutions, announced the upcoming release at the China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing.

HarmonyOS Next, which will be officially unveiled at the end of this month, is being described as a “pure blood” version of the system, as it will no longer support Android-based apps, unlike previous versions. Chen emphasized that the new platform is entirely developed in-house, making it fully independent and autonomous.

Huawei first introduced HarmonyOS in August 2019 as an alternative to Android, following the company’s addition to a US trade blacklist, which restricted its access to US technologies.

Currently, HarmonyOS is operating on over 900 million devices, and Huawei has attracted 2.54 million developers, according to Chen. To further support the growth of HarmonyOS, Huawei plans to invest over 7 billion yuan (approximately $987 million) in native applications and technical services, aiming to strengthen the HarmonyOS ecosystem.

HarmonyOS Next was initially introduced earlier this year for developers and is set to launch commercially with Huawei’s next flagship 5G smartphone series, the Mate 70, in the fourth quarter of this year.

Chinese developers are increasingly adopting HarmonyOS Next as part of Huawei’s push to compete with iOS and Android in China. JD.com, one of China’s largest e-commerce platforms, recently announced that its mobile app, compatible with HarmonyOS Next, will be launched in September.

HarmonyOS recently surpassed Apple’s iOS to become China’s second-largest mobile operating system. In the first quarter of this year, it accounted for 17% of the country’s smartphone market, double its share from the same period in 2022, according to a report by Counterpoint Research.