By Dan Strumpf
HONG KONG -- Huawei Technologies Co. on Wednesday launches its
self-developed operating system for mobile phones, the company's
latest bid to break free of U.S. suppliers and an attempt to
challenge Google's dominance in smartphone software.
The Chinese tech giant plans to launch its new operating system,
known as Harmony OS, across a large number of its smartphones
during an online-only event, as well as unveil smart devices that
will also run the company's latest homemade software.
Huawei gadgets have been cut off from updating Google's Android
operating system since August, following a series of U.S. sanctions
against the Shenzhen-based company. The ban also cost Huawei access
to the U.S. company's package of smartphone software known as
Google Mobile Services, used widely across the industry.
While Huawei's own smartphone sales are in free fall after
briefly topping the world a year ago, the company is targeting
other handset vendors that they hope will adopt Harmony OS, posing
a direct challenge to Google Android's dominance of the market.
Samsung Electronics Co., Xiaomi Corp. and the rest of the
world's top-selling phone makers besides Apple Inc. all use
Google's Android. Chinese sellers make up 57% of the global handset
market, according to market-research firm Canalys and could be
potential takers if Huawei's Harmony OS develops into a worthy
match.
Convincing vendors to adopt Harmony OS, however, may be an
uphill battle. With an established network of software developers
and billions of consumers used to its interface, Google Android
dominates the smartphone market. More than eight out of 10
smartphones sold run Android. A Google spokesman didn't respond to
a request for comment.
Other challengers have had limited success unseating Google.
Years ago, Samsung launched a rival operating system called
"Tizen," but it has failed to gain traction among the company's
smartphone users. Microsoft Corp. also tried selling smartphones
with a version of its Windows operating system to little
success.
Huawei, the world's largest maker of telecommunications
equipment, has been racing to cut its dependence on U.S.-made
technology and shifting its focus to software after selling off its
budget phone unit last year. The effort has grown more urgent since
Washington blocked Huawei from buying chips from its main suppliers
last August.
Earlier this year, Wang Chenglu, Huawei's head of consumer
software, said the company's goal was to end the year with Harmony
OS installed on more than 200 million Huawei devices, including
smartphones, and more than 100 million devices made by outside
companies.
Huawei's challenges include building a large enough ecosystem of
software developers, building a large enough user base that entices
developers and convincing outside vendors to abandon a tried and
tested product, analysts say.
"It's a giant leap," said Nicole Peng, an analyst at market
research firm Canalys. There isn't a successful case of an
alternative operating system out there, she said. "It takes many,
many years to be able to build up that ecosystem and get all the
stakeholders to be able to agree on it and see the benefit of
it."
Handel Jones, chief executive officer of consulting firm
International Business Strategies Inc., said Huawei will have an
easier time fostering adoption of its new operating system in
China, where dependence on Google apps is lower. The odds of
mass-market adoption of Harmony OS in the next decade "is 80 to 90
percent," he said.
The challenge is in the U.S., Europe, India and other countries
where Google Apps dominate and China-based vendors don't want to
sacrifice sales, he said.
Huawei has released scant details about how the new operating
system will look and feel. Huawei unveiled Harmony OS at a
developers conference in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan in
2019. It has since rolled it out to an array of consumer devices
since then -- including on its line of laptops, PCs and
smartwatches -- but until now has stopped short of making it
available on its smartphones.
Huawei has for years been pushing developers to build programs
for the company's nascent app store, called AppGallery. The store
has 540 million monthly users and 2.7 million developers to work on
new apps, Huawei said. The company has already launched some apps
to replace those whose access it lost. For example, a program
called Petal Maps replaces Google Maps, while Petal Search replaces
the phone's Google search bar.
The new operating system won't restore user access to popular
apps such as Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, from which Huawei is
cut off. Many such apps have long been unavailable in China, the
world's biggest market for smartphones.
Last year, Huawei's consumer-business chief, Richard Yu, said
the company could eventually make Harmony OS available to other
smartphone vendors, saying that it would be an open-source
operating system similar to Google Android.
Representatives at Xiaomi Corp., and BBK Electronics Co.'s Oppo
and Vivo -- China's three largest mobile phone brands -- didn't
respond to questions about whether they are open to using Huawei's
operating system. Honor, the midrange phone brand spun off by
Huawei last year, didn't immediately comment.
A handful of Chinese manufacturers are already running Harmony
OS on their smart appliances, including home-appliance giant Midea,
both companies have said. The operating system pairs with Huawei
smartphones, though the devices are only for sale in China, Huawei
said. Midea's website features gadgets like water purifiers and
ovens running on the new operating system. Midea didn't respond to
a request for comment.
Ms. Peng, the Canalys analyst, said Huawei may have greater
success selling its operating system to vendors dominant in markets
such as Africa, where Google's mobile software is less entrenched
and local software developers are more prominent.
"It may be a stretch, but it's still possible," she said.
Write to Dan Strumpf at daniel.strumpf@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 01, 2021 12:02 ET (16:02 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Samsung Electronics (PK) (USOTC:SSNHZ)
Historical Stock Chart
From Dec 2024 to Jan 2025
Samsung Electronics (PK) (USOTC:SSNHZ)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jan 2024 to Jan 2025
