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Huawei draws large consumer brands to run HarmonyOS, but Android smartphone rivals keep their distance
- Huawei has partnered with more than 1,000 hardware makers, 500,000 app developers and more than 300 service providers to support HarmonyOS 2
- Smartphone brand Honor, a former subsidiary of Huawei, is keeping its options open on the new mobile operating system
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Huawei Technologies Co’s opening salvo for its HarmonyOS mobile platform to go mainstream, helping the telecommunications giant overcome US trade sanctions, has drawn thousands of partners, but also delivered a stiff reality check – none of its major Chinese Android smartphone rivals are on board.
Huawei faces an uphill battle to convince other smartphone makers to change from Android to HarmonyOS over difficulties of “user conversion, compatibility issues and political risks”, which few vendors are willing to face, according to Chiew Le Xuan, an analyst at technology market research firm Canalys.
At the online launch of HarmonyOS 2 on Wednesday, Richard Yu Chengdong, the chief executive of Huawei’s consumer business group, said the company has partnered with more than 1,000 hardware makers, 500,000 app developers and more than 300 service providers, enabling the company’s mobile operating system to run on more smart devices than those on Google’s Android.
Some of the partners announced by Huawei on Wednesday include Chinese home appliances manufacturers Midea Group, Joyoung and Supor, television maker Skyworth, consumer drone giant SZ DJI Technology Co and Swiss watch producer Tissot.
The top Chinese Android smartphone vendors Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo were not mentioned at the launch, which showed how HarmonyOS 2 differentiates itself from Android and Apple’s iOS by being designed to work on a wide range of Internet-of-Things devices as well as smartphones.
Vivo on Thursday said it had no information to share about HarmonyOS 2.
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