The history of Huawei and its relationship with the US government is long. The Chinese tech conglomerate was blocked from doing business with U.S. companies, including Google, in 2019, citing security concerns by U.S. authorities.
Five years later, Huawei mobile devices use the company’s HarmonyOS system and the brand is experiencing a resurrection in the Chinese smartphone market.
The latest figures from research firm Counterpoint showed that while Apple’s first-quarter sales fell from 19.7% in 2023 to just 15.7% this year, devices powered by Huawei’s HarmonyOS are on pace to overtake their American rival with a market share of 15.5%.
Huawei is poised to surpass iOS’s market share in China this year and perhaps even compete for the top spot on this list of best-selling smartphone brands, currently occupied by Vivo’s 17.7% . However, Huawei’s ambitions go far beyond the domestic market, with HarmonyOS being the key element.
As The Register reported, Huawei has a plan that should ultimately allow HarmonyOS to compete with iOS and Android on the global stage, citing recent statements from the company’s rotating chairman, Erik Xu, who also said :
“In the Chinese market, Huawei smartphone users spend 99% of their time on around 5,000 applications. We have therefore decided to dedicate 2024 to porting these applications to HarmonyOS as a first step, with the aim of truly unifying the operating system and the application ecosystem. We also encourage porting other applications to HarmonyOS.
Xu said Huawei is in the process of porting the first 4,000 apps while discussing with developers the remaining 1,000 apps. Once this crucial pool is filled and supplemented by thousands of other apps, HarmonyOS will be ready to make its way out of China.
While Xu says Huawei’s “massive project” has broad support in the industry, the fact is that creating a relevant mobile platform to compete with iOS and Android is a huge challenge, one that many others, including Microsoft, have failed to meet.
Windows 10 Mobile suffered from an “app gap” and bridges, such as Project Astoria, were in the works to provide an easy way to import popular apps from competing platforms. Attracting developers and proving that Microsoft’s mobile platform is relevant was essential. However, Microsoft never achieved this goal and the rest is history.
HarmonyOS will certainly face similar challenges. Huawei is working with Chinese academia to attract young developers and teach them how to work with the platform. The company will need to replicate this abroad, however. In the meantime, Huawei’s plan is… just a plan.
The history of Huawei and its relationship with the US government is long. The Chinese tech conglomerate was blocked from doing business with U.S. companies, including Google, in 2019, citing security concerns by U.S. authorities.
Five years later, Huawei mobile devices use the company’s HarmonyOS system and the brand is experiencing a resurrection in the Chinese smartphone market.
The latest figures from research firm Counterpoint showed that while Apple’s first-quarter sales fell from 19.7% in 2023 to just 15.7% this year, devices powered by Huawei’s HarmonyOS are on pace to overtake their American rival with a market share of 15.5%.
Huawei is poised to surpass iOS’s market share in China this year and perhaps even compete for the top spot on this list of best-selling smartphone brands, currently occupied by Vivo’s 17.7% . However, Huawei’s ambitions go far beyond the domestic market, with HarmonyOS being the key element.
As The Register reported, Huawei has a plan that should ultimately allow HarmonyOS to compete with iOS and Android on the global stage, citing recent statements from the company’s rotating chairman, Erik Xu, who also said :
“In the Chinese market, Huawei smartphone users spend 99% of their time on around 5,000 applications. We have therefore decided to dedicate 2024 to porting these applications to HarmonyOS as a first step, with the aim of truly unifying the operating system and the application ecosystem. We also encourage porting other applications to HarmonyOS.
Xu said Huawei is in the process of porting the first 4,000 apps while discussing with developers the remaining 1,000 apps. Once this crucial pool is filled and supplemented by thousands of other apps, HarmonyOS will be ready to make its way out of China.
While Xu says Huawei’s “massive project” has broad support in the industry, the fact is that creating a relevant mobile platform to compete with iOS and Android is a huge challenge, one that many others, including Microsoft, have failed to meet.
Windows 10 Mobile suffered from an “app gap” and bridges, such as Project Astoria, were in the works to provide an easy way to import popular apps from competing platforms. Attracting developers and proving that Microsoft’s mobile platform is relevant was essential. However, Microsoft never achieved this goal and the rest is history.
HarmonyOS will certainly face similar challenges. Huawei is working with Chinese academia to attract young developers and teach them how to work with the platform. The company will need to replicate this abroad, however. In the meantime, Huawei’s plan is… just a plan.