HarmonyOS Next: Revival or the final nail in Huawei’s coffin?

Billions of smartphones in the world and a handful of manufacturers – yet only two major operating systems – Android and iOS reign. We cannot say that there haven't been any attempts made to enter this market – Microsoft, Firefox, Amazon, Samsung, Ubuntu Touch – every one of them tried but all failed.

In the latest attempt to tap into the smartphone operating system (OS) game, Huawei, the Chinese tech giant has recently launched their brand new operating system, HarmonyOS Next. It is China's first-ever homegrown smartphone OS.

Why did they have to build a new OS?

To give a brief history behind this move, let's go back to 2018. The then-president of the US, Donald Trump, alleged Huawei to be affiliated with the Chinese government, and that it shares user data with the said government. Consequently, this initiated the US-China trade war. The trade war garnered bipartisan support, and current President Joe Biden has upheld the Huawei ban.

On 15 May 2019, Trump issued an executive order banning telecommunications equipment from foreign companies deemed national security risks, though it did not specifically name Huawei or China. While the order's scope was not entirely clear – it appeared focused on restricting Huawei's telecom sector, particularly its 5G networking equipment.

Just a few days later, on 19 May 2019, Google announced it would comply with Trump's Huawei ban by cutting Huawei off from its digital products, including Gmail, YouTube, Google Drive and the Google Play Store.

This effectively blocked Huawei's new devices from the essential Android ecosystem, impacting its vast global user base and raising concerns over phone functionality. Existing Huawei devices launched before 15 May 2019, retained access to Google apps, but newer devices would be "Google-less." 

Following Google's lead, other US firms like Qualcomm, Intel, Arm and Microsoft also suspended business with Huawei.

Huawei tried to fight back against the US ban, but its efforts were largely ineffective due to the difficulty of overturning a presidential executive order. Despite support from US tech firms, Huawei eventually accepted the restrictions. After Trump's departure, Huawei renewed its efforts under Biden's administration but very little success has been seen.

By late 2020, companies like Qualcomm, Sony and Samsung received approval to sell limited smartphone components to Huawei. Even though this marked some progress, these partial deals were insufficient for Huawei to fully restore its operations.

Besides all these efforts, they had to go through a large number of compromises – including selling off its most valuable sub-brand Honor, hurting Huawei's business even further.

While Huawei cannot use Google services, it can still use the basic Android framework – as Android is an open-source platform. To reduce its reliance on Android, Huawei developed HarmonyOS as a backup – and was launched in 2019.

Announced in 2023, and recently released, the HarmonyOS Next is now completely devoid of Android – making it a true alternative operating system. The previous versions of Harmony supported Android apps while the new HarmonyOS Next does not.

This poses a set of new questions and challenges in the direction Huawei is approaching. 

App compatibility

While Huawei has claimed that the new OS supports 15,000 apps natively – which might seem a good number to begin with, it still falls far behind Android and iOS that support millions of apps. According to a report of China Observer, many users have claimed that many of the 15,000 native HarmonyOS Next apps do not work properly – as the OS is still in the public beta stage.

Development of new apps

Developers need to completely rewrite their apps to work on Huawei's new platform, in addition to Android and iOS. However, there's little incentive to do so since Huawei has a small market share outside China. This could worsen Huawei's situation, as customers may choose other brands if essential apps are unavailable on Huawei devices.

User experience

Both Android and iOS have been polished over almost two decades to reach their current state. HarmonyOS Next, will not probably take such a long time, but still, a considerable amount of time will be required for them to catch up. 

Global release

HarmonyOS Next, along with the existing array of questions pending over Huawei's head, will have to face even more questions regarding privacy and security in case they want to release it globally.

While it is still quite not evident what will happen to Huawei, their effort for revival remains a question of time. Whether it makes a comeback or faces the same fate as Microsoft's Windows phone, the Chinese government's persistent support and push for patriotism among its citizens remain the only hope for them.