On June 2, Huawei released the HarmonyOS 2 (Hongmeng) operating system, along with a number of mobile phones, tablets and Pad devices equipped with the new system, including the Mate 40 4G version, MatePad Pro, MateView display and third-generation smart watches.
The P50 flagship model, which was supposed to be released in the spring, only left a glimpse. You can see the dual camera group and the Leica logo, but the specific time to market cannot be determined.
The conference showed an extremely convenient world. Huawei hopes that Harmony OS (Hongmeng) can open up a new interactive mode: touch and connect. Users can directly control the drone position on the mobile phone, adjust the temperature of the refrigerator, operate the mobile APP on the Pad, and read WeChat messages on the TV.
Huawei eagerly wants to distinguish it from Android and iOS. They even gave a new concept for mobile phones: “Super Terminal”, and introduced a new interactive method “Card”, which can be manipulated in the card-like “Unified Control Center”. Different IoT devices save the steps of interface switching and matching Bluetooth and WiFi.
Through Harmony OS (Hongmeng), Huawei has created a new mobile device interaction mode.
The heart of this system is still the mobile phone. Two years ago, when Yu Chengdong brought Hongmeng to the show, its relationship with Android was still a bit ambiguous. At the time, Hongmeng, it can be said that Huawei was ready to replace Android, but it was still not determined to replace Android.
Now that Huawei brings Harmony OS to the mobile phone market, strategic considerations are more likely to be a choice for fighters. This small screen is the origin and destination of Harmony OS (Hongmeng). No matter how grandiose the IoT narrative is, this screen cannot be missing.
Harmony OS (Hongmeng) has been destined to conquer the mobile phone market since its birth. This is the first battle of Harmony OS, but it is Huawei’s final battle in the terminal market.
Facing the future of IoT
Harmony OS (Hongmeng) is an ambitious system. In Huawei’s vision, Harmony OS (Hongmeng) is geared towards an infinite network of devices, which, in addition to mobile phones, also includes tablets, TVs and mass wearable devices.
When the “smooth and easy-to-use” Microsoft WP mobile phone was completely withdrawn from the market at the end of 2017, I looked back at the bones of WP and found that the IoT “ambition” of Harmony OS (Hongmeng) could take it to bypass the swamp and lead to another self. Take some kind of “curves” where overtaking is possible.
The underlying logic based on the Internet of Things is different from the mobile platform, so Harmony OS (Hongmeng) uses a different “microkernel” and distributed architecture from the Android “macro kernel”. The main purpose is to make development more efficient and make the system more efficient. Copy to different devices quickly.
In the past, if a developer wanted to adapt Android on a tablet, it would take a lot of time to split it, usually using a team of manpower. The distributed architecture is different. To use an unsuitable analogy, Harmony OS (Hongmeng) is similar to a Tangram. Developers can quickly tailor and splice and adapt to different devices quickly.
Google also knows the advantages of distributed operating systems. In 2016, Google announced its own Fuchsia OS, which also uses a microkernel and distributed architecture, but Google has been very low-key about this.
In December last year, after five years of brewing, Fuchsia was officially open sourced to the outside world, and it appeared on Google’s Nest Hub, a smart device in early May this year, quietly, and there was almost no splash in the industry.
In contrast, Huawei’s actions are larger and faster. “Fuchsia has just been open source, and it is still code level. Harmony OS (Hongmeng) has a commercial version today, and Harmony OS (Hongmeng) OS still has obvious advantages.” Zhao Li, founder of Hongmeng Ecological startup Haoba Technology, told 36Kr.
But there is no doubt that whether for the more radical Huawei or the more prudent Google, IoT is a big story and a big market in the future.
In August 2019, Harmony OS (Hongmeng) was officially released and open sourced at the same time. However, Huawei deliberately or unintentionally avoided the mobile phone market, and instead became the entrants to the home appliance companies and automobile manufacturers that are most closely related to IoT. Last year, Midea launched kitchen heaters and air conditioners equipped with Harmony OS. It also announced that nearly 200 SKU products will use Harmony OS (Hongmeng) this year, including washing machines, rice cookers, and refrigerators.
Picture from official
This is the cleverness of Harmony OS (Hongmeng).
The quiet home appliance industry waited for a long-lost new vent, and Hongmeng also quickly took off. Next, the new energy vehicle market opened smoothly, and new energy vehicles that were born with intelligent genes also found a fulcrum through Hongmeng.
This year’s Shanghai Auto Show, BAIC’s new energy vehicle brand ARCFOX released Alpha S, which is equipped with Harmony OS for the first time. Not only has it earned enough attention, the stock price of the listed company BAIC Blue Valley has risen by 137 in less than 2 months. %.
But Huawei knows that IoT faces the future, and smartphones are the current scene and the only way to the future.
However, domestic users who spend more than 6 hours on mobile phones a day are obviously not ready to accept a completely different operating system.
This is the reality that Huawei must face. Even though there are differences in the underlying architecture, they still try to make Hongmeng seamlessly connect with Android. Huawei has repeatedly emphasized “one-click upgrade” to reduce the psychological burden on users and minimize migration costs.
The interface and operation of Harmony OS (Hongmeng) are surprisingly similar to Android on the screen of the smartphone. Zhao Li, who has experienced the Hongmeng OS 2.0 Beta version before the release, also told 36 krypton that the Harmony OS (Hongmeng) interface and the APP to migrate to the new system There is no difference in usage, but fluency has been significantly improved.
Harmony OS is indeed a smooth and lightweight system. However, the unavoidable question is: how to make mobile phones and devices other than Huawei carry it?
Life and death
It is foreseeable that the mobile application of Harmony OS (Hongmeng) in Harmony OS (Hongmeng) will be shorter and more difficult than household appliances or even new energy vehicles.
Compared with Android, which was born more than 10 years ago, now the development environment is mature, the development tools are rich, and the business model has already run smoothly. It seems that Harmony OS (Hongmeng) will be able to emerge as soon as the east wind arrives.
But where is the wind, will it rise as promised?
Harmony OS (Hongmeng) is based on the microkernel framework, and Android is based on the Linux framework and uses the macro kernel. It can also be understood literally that the macro kernel takes care of everything, and all application requirements are directly proposed to it, including basic network protocols, memory management, etc. The micro kernel is more like a coordinator, only retaining the most basic thread management, etc., and the rest The processes are independent and run in parallel outside the nuclear.
This kind of defect is also obvious. There is one more step in the communication outside the core, which will inevitably increase the overhead of the system. In switching back and forth, if blocking occurs, the system is easily down.
Huawei seems to be looking for a certain unity of the two. Harmony OS (Hongmeng) still uses Linux in the kernel layer subsystems, not all of the microkernel mechanisms are enabled. They seem reluctant to emphasize the kernel issue anymore.
Even if the lower-level technical constraints are resolved, Harmony OS (Hongmeng) must face another more ultimate test: system and ecology.
Yang Haisong, vice president of Huawei’s consumer business software department, once said: “For underlying platforms such as operating systems, software usage and market share are the core factors for its survival and success. 16% of the market Occupation is a life-and-death line.”
Today, the advantages of Android and iOS have not only code, but also a closed-loop system built by the joint efforts of platforms, developers, and users. Based on this system, Android’s business model was born: in-app purchase + advertising platform, which is the nourishment for the continuous growth of the system and the key to the system’s “ecology”. .
Picture from official
“16% market share” has become a familiar figure before this conference. This figure stands in front of Hongmeng with a clear shadow: Harmony OS (Hongmeng) system is between open Android and closed iOS In the meantime, for Huawei who owns Harmony OS (Hongmeng), it is not only its own hardware, but also an open source system code provider.
Google and Microsoft have also made hardware pieces, including smartphone pixel and tablet surface, but this part has never been their business focus. Pixel hides in “other income” in Google’s financial report, and is in revenue of hundreds of billions of dollars. It is almost negligible. And Google is still an Internet company through and through.
Harmony OS (Hongmeng) is backed by Huawei’s own strategy: “1+8+N”. In the center of the ring, it is the core hardware that Huawei can hardly give up, such as tablets, smart TVs, and smart wearable devices. In these categories, if Huawei is willing, it will soon become a giant among them. After all, Huawei is a powerful hardware manufacturer. Even if the Harmony OS (Hongmeng) code is open source, it will be difficult for opponents to completely dispel their concerns and use the operating system code of “friends”.
Huawei’s approach is to hand over the open source part of Harmony OS (Hongmeng) OpenHarmony to a third-party organization to open the Atomic Foundation for management, which is also an international practice. As a developer, Huawei also needs to call code through this foundation.
In contrast, the migration system is probably a secondary consideration for the hardware company’s injuries.
If Harmony OS (Hongmeng) is to truly become the one-third of the operating system, the fate is ultimately determined by “friends” and users. “The concept of interoperability of all things is like dry firewood and requires fire. If the collaboration of Harmony OS (Hongmeng) equipment produces another super-intelligent terminal, which is widely recognized, consumers will pay the bill. As a manufacturer, we must not want outsiders to the authorities.” Zhao Force expression.
“In the era of the Internet of Everything, no one will be an island.” This is Yu Chengdong’s conclusion of the press conference. However, that era of connectivity has yet to come. On this ambiguous eve, if Harmony OS (Hongmeng) crosses the “16%” road sign, the road ahead will be broad. If it breaks, the situation will be more complicated and changeable. In this sense, Harmony OS (Hongmeng) will attack this time. The mobile phone market actually opened the prelude to the life and death battle of Harmony OS (Hongmeng).
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