China’s Huawei to launch ‘milestone’ smartphone with homegrown OS

BEIJING - Chinese tech giant Huawei launched on Nov 26 its first smartphone equipped with a fully home-grown operating system, a key test in the firm’s fight to challenge the dominance of Western juggernauts.

Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android are currently used in most mobile phones, but Huawei hopes to change that with its newest Mate 70 devices, which run on its own HarmonyOS Next.

The launch caps a major turnaround in the fortunes of Huawei, which saw its wings clipped by US sanctions in recent years but which has since bounced back with soaring sales.

“The search for a viable, scaleable mobile operating system largely free of Western company control has been a lengthy one in China,” said Mr Paul Triolo, a China partner and technology policy lead at consulting firm Albright Stonebridge Group.

The new smartphone – powered by an advanced domestically produced chip – shows Chinese tech firms can “persevere”, he said.

Over three million units of the Mate 70 have been pre-ordered, according to Huawei’s online shopping platform, though that does not require them to be purchased.

The risks are high: Based on Android’s open-source code, HarmonyOS Next requires a complete rewiring of all apps on the smartphones it powers.

“HarmonyOS Next is the first home-grown operating system, a milestone for China to move away from reliance on Western technologies for software with performance improvement,” said Natixis senior economist Gary Ng.

But “while Chinese firms may be willing to allocate resources to contribute to Huawei’s ecosystem, there are challenges to whether HarmonyOS Next can offer the same number of apps and functionalities to global consumers”, he said.

‘High expectations’

Huawei found itself at the centre of an intense tech rivalry between Beijing and Washington, with US officials warning its equipment could be used to spy on behalf of Chinese authorities.

Since 2019, US sanctions have cut Huawei off from global supply chains for technology and US-made components, a move that initially hammered its production of smartphones.

That fight is set to only intensify under US President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised huge tariffs on Chinese imports in response to what he says are Beijing’s unfair trade practices.

“Rather than Huawei inspiring the tech industry as a whole, it is the self-reliance trend of the Chinese tech industry that has made Huawei’s progress possible,” said Mr Toby Zhu, a senior analyst at technology research firm Canalys.

The success of Huawei’s new generation of smartphone products will be a key gauge of whether that drive has worked, he said. “This generation of products cannot afford to miss the mark because everyone has high expectations for them.”

Huawei was once China’s largest domestic smartphone maker before it became embroiled in a tech war between Washington and Beijing.

The company shipped more than 10.8 million smartphone units in the third quarter, capturing just 16 per cent of the Chinese market, according to a recent Canalys report.

It is unclear whether developers overseas will be willing to spend the money needed to build a completely new version of their apps for the latest smartphones, said Mr Rich Bishop, co-founder and chief executive of AppInChina, a publisher of international software in China.

One third-party agency in China quoted a price of two million yuan (S$372,500) to custom-fit a foreign app for HarmonyOS Next, he said.

To convince them, “Huawei needs to continuously improve the software, provide better support for developers and convince the developer community that it is committed to the long-term development of the Harmony ecosystem”, said Mr Triolo. AFP