Huawei tries. The Chinese giant, struggling with the trade ban imposed by Donald Trump a couple of years ago and still in force, is looking for its way to restart. And it does so by launching a new operating system that has been talked about for a while. This is HarmonyOS 2, which should be the answer to that Google Android that Huawei, due to the ban, cannot use.
The Shenzhen house also announced new products: from the Watch 3 to the MatePad Pro, up to the FreeBuds 4 wireless Bluetooth earphones and the MateView.
But there is no doubt that the focus was on the operating system. Because that’s where Huawei plays a large part of its future in the world of devices. The Chinese giant expects devices equipped with HarmonyOS to reach 300 million by the end of 2021 and of these more than 200 million will be Huawei-branded.
HarmonyOS 2 (Hongmeng in Chinese) is an open source system that adapts to various types of devices (not just smartphones, therefore), and could become dominant in the Chinese market, thanks to partnerships that Huawei has already entered into with other smartphone manufacturers . The real strength of this operating system, which is in any case based on an Android fork and which has been in distribution in China for a few hours, is precisely its adaptability to different devices. Adaptability that makes the devices a single “cohesive and holistic Super Device,” according to Huawei.
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However, there are three main innovations that HarmonyOS brings to the market. A multi-device control panel, thanks to which content management is very smart with simple gestures. Then the task center, which allows you to run an app on any compatible device, even if it isn’t installed on that device. And then Huawei HiLink, the platform for Huawei products that makes them part of an ecosystem with a single tap.
«There have never been so many smart devices in our daily life, – say from Huawei – but the user experience is sometimes not as intelligent. Closed systems that operate in silos tend to complicate the interaction between devices and the use of devices in a fluid way, generating a fragmented user experience. HarmonyOS is designed to solve this problem. As a next-generation operating system designed for smart devices, HarmonyOS provides a common language for different types of devices to connect and collaborate with each other, providing a more comfortable, fluid and secure user experience. HarmonyOS uses distributed technology to flexibly unpack system software and combine previously independent devices into a cohesive and holistic Super Device that integrates all hardware and resources to freely leverage the capabilities of the individual products that are part of it in according to the user’s needs “.
Huawei’s challenge, therefore, starts again from here. From an operating system that makes interoperability its strong point. If the road is the right one, we will find out soon.