Huawei, the Chinese smartphone and telecoms company, has made it clear that US-backed sanctions will not affect its supply chain. After being placed on the US Entity List, Huawei lost access to Google software — an integral part of smartphones that don’t bear the Apple insignia. Now, the smartphone maker has announced its mobile operating system called Harmony OS, and it’s ready to deploy.
Reports suggest that the company’s been in discussions with other Chinese phone makers like Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Meizu to make HarmonyOS based phones. While nothing points to any official partnerships in China, a Finnish smartphone company may be the first non-Huawei device to play host to Harmony OS — Nokia.
A Taiwanese tech news website, ITHome reports that Nokia is planning to launch the X60 and X60 Pro this year. Both will be the brand’s first to run Huawei’s Harmony OS operating system, which may indicate that, if all goes well, it’ll roll out to more smartphones under the name.
Will Nokia ditch Android?
It’s important to note that these are very early reports, and Nokia may pull out of the deal before the devices are even produced. Switching over to an entirely new OS could have ramifications after all.
Nokia devices currently form part of the Google One ecosystem — running the cleanest version of Android bar Google’s own Pixel devices. The brand has a longstanding relationship with Google, so opting for a competitor at this stage may seem out of place. Harmony OS would need to sweeten the deal quite a bit.
Nokia’s X60 series slated for release later this year may bear some new features, however. So we’re interested to see how Nokia navigates launching handsets with a new, largely untested (in the public) operating system. Maybe the brand will opt to only sell Harmony-based devices in China. We’ll have to see come launch.
