Despite the fact that a year ago the conflict between Huawei and the United States, which led to the deprivation of the first opportunity to cooperate with American companies and use Android, seemed like something out of the ordinary, today everything somehow calmed down. No, Huawei they never managed to get Donald Trump to change his anger to mercy and regain the right to install Google's mobile OS on his smartphones. But either the coronavirus overshadowed all other events, or Huawei took the blow very well, but now no one even really remembers the deeds of the past. Except for Huawei itself.
Harmony OS is undergoing a major update. At least I wish I could believe it
Huawei will introduce Harmony OS 2.0. The update is planned to be announced during the annual Developers Conference Huawei, which is scheduled for September 10-12. Despite the lack of official confirmation from the outside Huawei about the release of Harmony OS 2.0, there are rumors that the company is already ready to hold a presentation and, obviously, to conduct a larger-scale launch of the updated operating system, which is still available in a very limited format.
What is Harmony OS
Harmony OS presented at the previous developer conference Huawei
Harmony OS is its own operating system Huawei, based on a unique microkernel, created from scratch by the company's developers. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it allows the OS to scale to any limits, like gas filling the available space. That is, Harmony OS, unlike Android, is not at all resource-demanding and can equally form the software basis of both a smart light bulb and a full-fledged smartphone and even a computer. True, at this stage it is presented only in the TV version.
If Huawei introduces Harmony OS 2.0 at its September launch, it should be a really big update. However, I would not count on the fact that the company will release a smartphone version. It takes too much time to transform the purely technical platform, which was originally intended to support the operation of servers, into a full-fledged operating system capable of ensuring the performance of smartphones. After all, if you remember, Huawei herself said that if this happens, it will be closer to 2025.
When is Harmony OS coming out?
But the launch of the version available on devices other than TVs is quite possible. I would suggest that Huawei could represent Harmony OS for wearable electronics and primarily smartwatches. Firstly, it is obvious that the operating system must evolve, and TVs alone will not go far. Secondly, it is easier than making an interface for smartphones, tablets or computers. Well, and, thirdly, Huawei one of the few continues to develop the direction of smart watches, which means that it would be quite logical to start with them.
Harmony OS now only works on TVs, but this is clearly not the limit.
Management Huawei is very controversial about the future prospects of Harmony OS. On the one hand, Yu Chengdong, head of the consumer sector Huawei, says that the operating system is already ready and could work on smartphones. Harmony OS is faster and safer than Android, he says, although it still needs some external work. But on the other hand, CEO Huawei Ren Zhenfei says it will take Huawei 300 years to make Harmony OS a more or less adequate alternative to Android and iOS. In general, nothing is clear.
However, I do not rule out that all these contradictions are stages of a campaign to deliberately mislead competitors. After all, no matter what the Chinese say, but before the conflict with the United States, no one knew that they had their own operating system, albeit in its infancy. Moreover, in less than a year they were able to assemble a platform for TVs out of it, which turned out to be even more functional than Android TV or Tizen OS. Therefore, it is quite possible that Huawei knows what it is doing, and in the foreseeable future we will see the rise of Harmony OS.