There’s a new operating system in town, and its first order of business is to overthrow Android’s long-standing dominance of the smartphone world. It’s going by the name HarmonyOS Next, and it’s been cooked up by the folks at Huawei as it looks to tear current and future devices away from Google’s OS. Godspeed, we guess.
Huawei’s Next of Kin
Huawei unveiled HarmonyOS Next and “officially started public beta testing” the new system software on some of its devices running the company’s Kirin and Kungpen chipsets. HarmonyOS Next is currently limited to China but, according to chairman Xu Zhijun (via GSMArena) in April 2024, the eventual goal is to become the (third) global standard, despite those pesky US sanctions.
That likely puts South Africa in Huawei’s sights for an OS swap, though there’s no word on when, or even if that might happen. A report from The Register reckons the Chinese outfit was told it “currently has no plans to offer HarmonyOS Next outside of China.” Whether it’ll stick to its guns or not remains to be seen.
The biggest issue is building attractions to convince customers to get on Huawei’s level. Since Android apps will no longer work, Huawei’s entire strategy relies on developers considering HarmonyOS Next worthy of their time. That’s apparently not a problem for China’s biggest social media, shopping, and payment apps which launched alongside 15,000 other apps.
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That’s… relatively low compared to the million-or-so apps currently on the Google Play Store. If Huawei sticks with a China-only release, it might be able to get away with it, but if a global launch is on the table, it needs to get those numbers up. Way up. That’s easier said than done, especially in the West.
If Huawei’s middling app store isn’t enough to entice users, it’ll fall back on promises regarding the new OS’ massive performance upgrades. Compared to the original HarmonyOS, it boasts a 30% boost in overall smoothness and an extended battery life of 56 minutes – leaving 1.5GB of system memory behind for something other than booting the OS – thanks to its upgraded Ark system.
Huawei’s HarmonyOS Next beta currently affects devices such as the Pura 70, Pocket 2 series, and MatePad Pro 11in (2024), though it has plans to eventually port the OS over to PCs, as well. There’s no exact timeline for this supposed changeover, but we know it’ll ditch Windows entirely… one day.