Within the seven years since CEO Richard Yu’s notorious heartfelt keynote speech at CES 2018, Huawei has confronted a rollercoaster that will shake any model. On the peak of its international recognition, Huawei was added to the US Entities listing, which hampered its skill to entry one of the best processors and expertise available on the market.
The restrictions compelled Huawei to search out various options rapidly. The reply to many lies in HarmonyOS, an working system that Huawei has been creating for years and that powers lots of its wearables, tablets, and IoT merchandise.
Regardless of the restrictions in opposition to it, Huawei continues to innovate and push the boundaries of smartphones. Gadgets just like the world’s first tri-fold smartphone, the Huawei Mate XT Final, and the tablet-size flip telephone, the Huawei Pura X, run on HarmonyOS.
After spending a while with the Mate XT and the Pura X, might HarmonyOS be a viable competitor platform to iOS and Android? Like all issues Huawei, the reply is difficult, made extra so by the 2 generations of HarmonyOS.
A short historical past of HarmonyOS
Within the eighteen months following the CES keynote, Huawei accelerated plans to launch a homegrown platform and, in June 2019, it introduced HarmonyOS. The platform is for way over simply smartphones; it’s designed to be a unified platform that may energy all units within the Huawei ecosystem.
Counterpoint Analysis exhibits that HarmonyOS is already the third-largest smartphone platform, with roughly 4% of worldwide market share. Extra importantly, at the very least for the quick time period, is the corporate’s market share in China, which continues to develop and not too long ago surpassed iOS to turn into the quantity two platform on this planet’s greatest smartphone market.
Key to this progress is a give attention to modern {hardware} paired with HarmonyOS. It’s nonetheless extremely succesful for smartphones however can help a variety of units, and the unified platform method ensures cross-compatibility. It even runs in Huawei’s first co-developed automotive, the AITO M5.
HarmonyOS and HarmonyOS Subsequent are completely different.
The Huawei Pura X marks an attention-grabbing second for Huawei. Earlier generations of HarmonyOS got here with Android libraries pre-installed on the system, making it straightforward for third-party builders like MicroG that will help you rapidly set up and allow all Google providers in your telephone.
This implies the tri-fold Mate XT Final has entry to the total suite of Play Retailer apps, together with straightforward sign-on. It’s not as flawless as if it had been preinstalled, but it surely works nonetheless, and it means the expertise is basically the identical with some quirks.
Because the title suggests, HarmonyOS Subsequent is the subsequent era of HarmonyOS. One enormous distinction: this model was developed to help native HarmonyOS apps and ships with out preinstalled Android kernels. The end result? You must use third-party app shops to have the ability to set up and run a number of the hottest apps. That is the place issues are acquainted, however nonetheless difficult.
Sure, there’s an app hole, but it surely’s shocking
To know the viability of HarmonyOS Subsequent proper now, I put in the EasyAbroad app by following this video. As soon as performed, it provided a collection of Western apps that it thought I’d need to set up. There are mentions of MicroG providers, so that is an evolution of MicroG for HarmonyOS Subsequent units. Nevertheless, does it have all the important thing apps?
Right here’s the short abstract: widespread apps like Google Maps, Chrome, Uber, Starbucks, and YouTube can be found, as are Airbnb, Reserving.com, Gmail, Pinterest, ChatGPT, and Amazon. There are others, however many aren’t out there. Some examples embody banking apps, most streaming providers, and various mapping options like Waze. There’s no Google Assistant or Gemini app, however that is to be anticipated. Different out there apps embody Google Docs and Sheets, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Steam.
Then there are the actually essential apps. Social networks like Fb, Instagram, Messenger, and X (aka Twitter) are all out there. Though TikTok can be out there, it’s listed in Mandarin, so it will not be the worldwide model. Messaging apps like WhatsApp, WA Enterprise, Telegram, and Sign are additionally out there. On the lookout for meals supply apps? You may simply set up Uber Eats (and Uber), Doordash, Simply Eat, Deliveroo, and lots of extra.
The earlier model of HarmonyOS provided a a lot wider choice, but the apps run easily, and the Pura X is especially speedy at working any process. Huawei has bolstered the lesson that Apple taught the business: when you management the {hardware} and the software program, you possibly can supply a extremely optimized expertise.
Past apps, that is largely acquainted and quick.
What if the app hole didn’t exist? HarmonyOS Subsequent continues to be pretty new and contains a substantial structure change, so there seemingly hasn’t been sufficient time to port extra apps. Assuming the corporate or third-party builders can bridge the app hole, what about the remainder of the platform and interface?
If this have been to occur, HarmonyOS Subsequent might be a viable challenger to Android. It has many similarities with different Android interfaces, like Honor and Oppo. There’s a break up management middle paying homage to Oppo, and a settings menu that jogs my memory of the iPhone. Huawei has been impressed by one of the best elements of many different interfaces, and the end result is a good interface to make use of.
Should you put money into the Huawei ecosystem, HarmonyOS will serve your wants in addition to Android or iOS, if not higher in some methods. Huawei’s native App Gallery has each standard native app, and the third-party app shops have much more you could need to set up.
HarmonyOS Subsequent runs on over 1 billion units throughout numerous kind components, and with over 2 million builders reportedly onboard, it’s seemingly that lots of the lacking apps will ultimately turn into out there. HarmonyOS is already the second-largest platform on this planet’s greatest market, however Android has a 64% market share in China, which means HarmonyOS gained’t surpass it anytime quickly.
HarmonyOS is pretty spectacular, however there’s a a lot bigger studying curve than switching from iOS to Android or vice versa. Nonetheless, Huawei has developed many processes to switch core providers provided as a part of GMS, and the result’s a clean platform that’s very nice to make use of. Gadgets just like the Mate 60, Pura X, and Mate XT Final will proceed to make sure that the variety of customers continues to develop.