SHANGHAI, China - Chinese telecom giant Huawei on Thursday said its nascent homegrown operating system could be available on smartphones early next year, as it pushes to build an alternative app ecosystem after the US barred it from using Google's Android.
The source code for HarmonyOS will be made available beginning in December to software developers who create apps for smartphones, said Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's consumer products division.
HarmonyOS is so far used only with certain products including smart TVs, in-car entertainment systems and wearable devices, not the company's smartphones.
Huawei is the number-two smartphone producer in the world after Samsung, but tech market analysis firm Canalys said Huawei surpassed the South Korean company in the virus-affected second quarter.
Huawei is facing an intense campaign by the United States to isolate the firm, saying it poses a cybersecurity threat. Both Huawei and China's government deny the accusation.
The US has been pushing allies to shun products made by Huawei, which is also the global market leader for 5G and other telecom-network equipment.
The Trump administration has essentially barred Huawei from the US market and introduced a series of steadily escalating moves to cut off its access to the computer chips and other technology the company needs to survive.
Huawei's announcement on HarmonyOS was made at an annual software developers conference that it organises at its headquarters in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.
The move indicates Huawei intends to push ahead with plans to create its own ecosystem, a challenge analysts say is daunting in a world dominated by Android and Apple's iOS.
Yu, however, expressed hope that China's huge smartphone market, the world's largest, could remain a safe space and a platform for drawing global users to HarmonyOS.
"We are dedicated to introducing Chinese developers’ work to global consumers, hoping to see more TikToks in the future," said Yu, a reference to the wildly popular Chinese-owned short-form video app that also is now in Trump's crosshairs.
Yu also said overseas developers could continue to find a large market among Chinese users via HarmonyOS.
"We would like to be the bridge in between," he said.
Agence France-Presse
DONGGUAN, China - Chinese telecom giant Huawei, which has been caught in the crossfires of the Washington-Beijing trade war, on Saturday unveiled a new smart television, the first product to use its own operating system.
The television will be available from Thursday in China and marks the first use of HarmonyOS, chief executive George Zhao said, adding that it will be marketed by its mid-range brand, Honor.
Huawei revealed its highly-anticipated HarmonyOS on Friday as an alternative operating system for phones and other smart devices in the event that looming US sanctions prevent the firm from using Android technology.
American companies are theoretically no longer allowed to sell technology products to Huawei, but a three-month exemption period -- which ends next week -- was granted by Washington before the measure came into force.
That ban could stop the tech giant from getting hold of key hardware and software, including smartphone chips and elements of the Google Android operating system, which runs the vast majority of smartphones in the world, including Huawei's.
Huawei -- considered the world leader in fast fifth-generation or 5G equipment and the world's number two smartphone producer -- has been blacklisted by US President Donald Trump amid suspicions it provides a backdoor for Chinese intelligence services, which the firm denies.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
DONGGUAN, China -- Chinese telecom giant Huawei unveiled its own operating system on Friday, as it faces the threat of losing access to Android systems amid escalating US-China trade tensions.
Richard Yu, the head of Huawei's consumer business, told a press conference in the southern city of Dongguan that the new system, called HarmonyOS or HongMeng in Chinese, would "bring more harmony and convenience to the world."
The highly-anticipated software is considered crucial for the tech group's survival as it confronts a looming White House ban on US companies selling technology products to Huawei which could remove its access to Google's Android operating system.
Yu said the new system was a "future oriented OS" to be "more smooth and secure," which he said was "completely different from Android and iOS".
Huawei said the first version of the operating system would launch later this year in its smart screen products.
Over the next three years it will be developed across a range of smart devices including wearable technology.
In May the company was swept into the trade war between Beijing and Washington which has seen punitive tariffs slapped on billions of dollars of two-way trade.
Huawei -- considered the world leader in superfast fifth-generation or 5G equipment -- has been blacklisted by US President Donald Trump amid suspicions it provides a backdoor for Chinese intelligence services, something the firm denies.
Beijing on Thursday said US rules banning Huawei and other Chinese companies from government contracts amounted to "abuse of state power".
source: news.abs-cbn.com
