Huawei’s Harmony OS seeks to eliminate China’s dependence on Windows and Android.

SHENZHEN, China – In a small room packed with a drone, a bipedal robot, a supermarket checkout, and other innovative devices, a vision of China’s software future is being showcased. This future envisions an operating system developed by national champion Huawei replacing Windows and Android. This vision is being brought to life at the Harmony Ecosystem Innovation Centre in Shenzhen, a local government-owned entity that encourages the development of software using OpenHarmony, an open-source version of Huawei’s operating system.

The Harmony Ecosystem Innovation Centre aims to drive the adoption of OpenHarmony by authorities, companies, and hardware makers. Huawei launched this operating system five years ago after U.S. sanctions cut off support for Google’s Android.

While Huawei’s recent smartphone launches have been closely watched for advances in China’s chip supply chain, the company has also been quietly building expertise in sectors crucial to Beijing’s vision of technology self-sufficiency. This expertise spans from operating systems to in-vehicle software. President Xi Jinping emphasized the need for China to localize operating systems and other technologies as the U.S. imposes restrictions on exports of advanced chips and other components.

In the first quarter of 2024, Huawei’s HarmonyOS surpassed Apple’s iOS to become the second best-selling mobile operating system in China, trailing only Android, according to research firm Counterpoint. This milestone highlights the growing traction of HarmonyOS within the Chinese market.

OpenHarmony, widely promoted as a “national operating system,” addresses concerns that other major companies might be severed from Microsoft Windows and Android products. Sunny Cheung, an associate fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, predicts that this strategic move will erode the market share of Western operating systems in China.

Although Huawei no longer controls OpenHarmony, having gifted its source code to the OpenAtom Foundation, the innovation centre and government documents often refer to OpenHarmony and HarmonyOS interchangeably as part of the broader Harmony ecosystem. Analysts expect the growth of HarmonyOS, which is set to be rolled out in a PC version soon, to spur the adoption of OpenHarmony.

Huawei first unveiled Harmony in August 2019, three months after Washington placed the company under trade restrictions due to alleged security concerns, which Huawei denies. Since then, China has intensified its efforts toward self-sufficiency, cutting off from the main code-sharing hub Github and championing a local version, Gitee. In 2014, China banned the use of Windows on government computers, which now mostly use Linux-based operating systems. Microsoft earns only about 1.5% of its revenue from China, as stated by its president this month.

This year, Huawei launched its first “pure” version of HarmonyOS, which no longer supports Android-based apps, further bifurcating China’s app ecosystem from the rest of the world. A report from the Jamestown Foundation indicated that OpenHarmony’s owner, OpenAtom, appears to be coordinating efforts among Chinese firms to develop viable alternatives to U.S. technologies, including for defense applications such as satellites.

OpenHarmony was the fastest-growing open-source operating system for smart devices last year, with contributions from over 70 organizations and more than 460 hardware and software products built across various sectors, including finance, education, aerospace, and industry. The aim of making OpenHarmony open source is to replicate Android’s success by removing licensing costs for users and providing companies with a customizable springboard for their products.

Charlie Cheng, deputy manager of the Harmony Ecosystem Innovation Centre, expressed confidence in Harmony’s future: “Harmony will definitely grow into a mainstream operating system and will give the world a new choice of operating system besides iOS and Android. China is learning from the West.”

The Harmony ecosystem has received strong support from Huawei’s home city of Shenzhen, historically used as a trial site for policies later adopted across China. Along with a Harmony centre in Chengdu, 10 more centres are expected to open in various cities.

Key OpenHarmony developers include Shenzhen Kaihong Digital, led by Wang Chenglu, known as Harmony’s “godfather,” and Chinasoft. These companies have worked on infrastructure software projects at Tianjin Port and for mines in Shaanxi, China’s top coal-producing province.

While OpenHarmony remains largely confined to China, the Brussels-based open-source group, the Eclipse Foundation, is using it to develop a system called Oniro for mobile phones and Internet-of-Things devices. Huawei’s growing smartphone market share and efforts to develop a broader ecosystem give Harmony an advantage, despite previous struggles to gain traction among developers.

More than 900 million devices, including smartphones, watches, and car systems, are running on HarmonyOS. Additionally, 2.4 million developers are coding within the ecosystem, according to Huawei’s Yu.

“Harmony has created a powerful foundational operating system for the future of China’s devices,” said Richard Yu, chairman of Huawei’s consumer business group, at a recent developer conference. “OpenHarmony will need more time and iterations so that developers will be more confident to work with it. But the reputation, behavior, and confidence that HarmonyOS has achieved will definitely bring a positive effect.”

Huawei’s HarmonyOS and OpenHarmony are at the forefront of China’s push for technological self-sufficiency. With strong support from local governments and increasing adoption across various sectors, these operating systems are poised to become mainstream alternatives to iOS and Android. As China continues to innovate and develop its technology ecosystem, the Harmony platform stands as a testament to the country’s determination to achieve independence in the tech industry.

Featured Image courtesy of Caixin Global