Huawei's Harmony aims to end China's reliance on Windows, Android

Devices running on OpenHarmony, an open-source version of Huawei's Harmony operating system, are displayed at the Harmony Ecosystem Innovation Centre in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China April 9, 2024.SHENZHEN, China — Packed into a small room, a drone, bipedal robot, supermarket checkout and other devices showcase a vision of China's software future — one where an operating system developed by national champion Huawei has replaced Windows and Android.

President Xi Jinping last year told the Communist Party's elite politburo that China must wage a difficult battle to localise operating systems and other technology "as soon as possible" as the US cracks down on exports of advanced chips and other components. In the first quarter of 2024, Huawei's HarmonyOS, the company's in-house version of the operating system, surpassed Apple's iOS to become the second best-selling mobile operating system in China behind Android, research firm Counterpoint said. It has not been launched on smartphones outside China.

"Harmony has created a powerful foundational operating system for the future of China's devices," said Richard Yu, the chairman of Huawei's consumer business group, at the opening of a developer conference last week.Huawei first unveiled Harmony in August 2019, three months after Washington placed it under trade restrictions over alleged security concerns. Huawei denies its equipment poses a risk.

A report from the Jamestown Foundation last month said OpenHarmony's owner OpenAtom appeared to be coordinating efforts among Chinese firms to develop a viable alternative to US technologies, including for defence applications such as satellites.

Key OpenHarmony developers include Shenzhen Kaihong Digital, headed by Wang Chenglu, a former Huawei employee known as Harmony's "godfather", and Chinasoft. Both have worked on infrastructure software, at Tianjin Port and for mines in China's top coal-producing province Shaanxi.

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