Perhaps the most significant event for Huawei in the last ten years took place yesterday. The company officially introduced Harmony OS for smartphones, which should replace Android on the company's branded devices. The Chinese went to this for several years, although they were in no hurry to admit it. But last year, when the United States imposed sanctions on Huawei and barred it from cooperating with American companies, it had no choice but to openly develop its own independent platform. But the fact that it is ready does not mean at all that Huawei will release it.
Huawei wants users to decide the fate of Harmony OS
Despite the fact that Huawei announced its intention to launch a beta testing program for Harmony OS by the end of this year and release a smartphone based on its own operating system next year, everything is written with a pitchfork on the water. The fact is that the Chinese themselves are not yet sure that their platform will be in demand among users. Therefore, they decided that they would take into account the opinions of their customers before launching Harmony OS on smartphones. The head of the consumer sector Huawei Yu Chendong mentioned this during the first day of the HDC conference.
When is Harmony OS coming out?
HarmonyOS beta test will begin in December, but the official release may not take place
It is not yet clear whether Huawei will conduct a public survey or conduct a closed study on this topic. But whatever one may say, the idea of understanding user preferences is not devoid of sense. Still, now there are two global operating systems in the world that have their own audience, and it would be strange to enter this market without understanding whether someone needs a new platform or not. After all, if the Chinese, by and large, have no choice, because all smartphones that are sold by them, fate can await everyone Huawei, then everyone else has a choice.
I have studied people's preferences on social media and in general I see a fairly unanimous reaction from the audience. For the most part, users do not want to switch to Harmony OS, because they are not ready to endure the inconvenience and hardships that are typical for new platforms. After all, it is logical that it can take quite a long time before it becomes as functional and convenient as Android. And few are ready to be a beta tester at their own expense. My own position is a little more controversial.
Which is better: Android or Harmony OS
Most users are not very excited about launching Harmony OS
On the one hand, I understand that Harmony OS is unlikely to be as cool as Android right after launch, and most likely it will not be possible to use it in full mode. But, on the other hand, as an observer, it is very interesting for me to see how Huawei plans to develop in this direction in general, what steps she intends to take and, most importantly, what will come of it. Indeed, until now, no other manufacturer has tried to change the existing status quo, except Microsoft.
Does Harmony OS have a chance of success? Most likely it does. Having started expansion from China, Huawei can begin to systematically capture more and more new markets, along the way developing its operating system, taking into account the requirements of users. Moreover, the company already has a lot of experience working with firmware for smartphones, because the previous decade it developed its own EMUI shell, which, although it was built on the basis of Android, had quite a lot of differences and unique developments. So why not. We will see.