Huawei Technologies said in Shanghai on Friday that an upgraded system of HarmonyOS, which covers 800 million smart devices globally, will start commercial use in September, a major step for the tech giant’s alternative to Android and iOS.
Several dozen Shanghai-based firms, from finance, education to automotive industries, signed with Huawei to join the HarmonyOS family on Friday.
HarmonyOS NEXT, which cuts ties with Google’s Android, is the the third major operating system globally besides Android and iOS. It helps Huawei reduce reliance of American technologies and de-risk from related tech sanctions.
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Shanghai firms signed with Huawei to join HarmonyOS system on Friday.
Currently, more than 800 devices and over 4,000 apps support the HarmonyOS system in smartphones, electronics and cars.
Huawei invests heavily to support developers to upgrade to HarmonyOS NEXT. It plans to invest 7 billion yuan (US$972 million) to offer related resources and support, including a plan to cultivate 100,000 HarmonyOS developers every month by Huawei and its partners.
In China, the adoption of HarmonyOS is growing rapidly, thanks to booming sales of Huawei phones and new-energy cars, which often feature smart systems.
In the first quarter in the Chinese smartphone market, Huawei led the top five in Canalys statistics and tied with Honor for first place in International Data Corp data. Both showed Huawei with a market share of around 17 percent.
FinVolution, a local online finance service provider, signed to join HarmonyOS on Friday, to offer users “safe, easy and high-efficient” finance services.
Up to now this year, more than 400 localized apps from Shanghai have joined HarmonyOS, Huawei said.
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Another batch of Shanghai firms sign up to the HarmonyOS system.