It doesn’t happen every day that a business releases a new mobile operating system. But the truth is, a company the size of Huawei isn’t stuck in several key markets every day for years by a trade veto.
HarmonyOS is part of Huawei’s solution to this problem. And to be honest, it’s not a brand new operating system, as I discovered this week while testing the Software in the new Tablet MatePad Pro.
Borrowed from the best
Anyone who has used a mobile or Tablet Huawei’s recent Android devices (even those formerly compatible with Google) will instantly return to this familiar experience.
It’s pretty clear that Huawei has taken over Android (and its own skin Android EMUI) as a starting point, rather than starting from scratch. Everything from the notifications drop-down to the settings menu looks a lot like EMUI, so it’s not a radical reinvention of the mobile experience.
It helps that Huawei’s EMUI has always retained a pretty distinctive visual entity, which is also present here. It was sometimes a drawback compared to Android Stock or the skin OxygenOS from OnePlus, but that means now HarmonyOS looks more like Huawei than Google.
Huawei also took inspiration from Apple. The new emphasis on widgets home screen reminiscent of iOS 14 more than the fairly basic offering of widgets Android (although it must be said that both skin Vivo’s OriginOS and Google’s Android 12 have already extended their interactivity).
In addition, the home screen is dominated by a Dock with apps at the bottom with fixed shortcuts to some of your favorite apps, as well as the ones you’ve been using recently. This is an important feature that Apple brought from macOS to make iPads more intuitive, and it may explain why Huawei chose to display Harmony on its tablets MatePad before the arrival of P50 mobiles.
the tablets Android has always been, for the most part, a little bad. Google itself didn’t go to much trouble tablets, and he didn’t show much interest in optimizing Android either. Freed from Android code chains, maybe Huawei can finally create a Software which can compete with iPadOS in a way that Samsung has failed to do.
We can see similar benefits in clothing, because Harmony will also be used in the new connected watches from Huawei. Google’s track record in this regard is so bad that it bought Fitbit and then announced a collaboration with Samsung to fix Wear OS. But with Harmony ready, Huawei can be ahead.
Of course, while Android (and Google) has limited OEMs at times, it has generally been more luck than bad, especially in creating a stable market for an app ecosystem that rivals Apple. This is where Huawei’s decision to build Harmony from the bottom up falls into place.
All about applications
The main challenge for the company in recent years, from the point of view Software, lost access to the Google Play Store, reducing its compatibility with Software compared to its competitors. Shrinking it down a bit more would surely have killed HarmonyOS before it even started.
Fortunately, Harmony devices will be able to install all Android apps like previous versions of EMUI. This means that you can directly install Huawei AppGallery, as well as many other Android apps using Huawei’s Petal Search tool .apk files.
I write this article in Microsoft Word while checking Slack every now and then. Sometimes I’m distracted and I open up Twitter or Instagram, and when I’m done working I’m sure I’m watching something on Netflix or Disney +, all with HarmonyOS.
There are limits, but they are the same limits Huawei encountered on Android. Google’s own apps will not work (neither Gmail, nor Google Maps, nor YouTube). Android apps that use Google servers will also be billed. Apps like Todoist or Zero, which use Google’s servers for synchronization, can be installed, but won’t work.
But apps are only part of the story. Today, it’s the ecosystems that count, and Huawei has very high goals.
Ecological conflict
Even in recent years, the company has been somewhat aggressive in its attempts to emulate (or improve) the ecosystem that has retained Apple customers. With full control of your Equipment Yes Software, Apple made (almost) anything you buy from the Cupertino company to connect, pair, and communicate without a hitch. The bottom line is that when you have one Apple product, it’s easy to end up with many more.
Huawei has already done a lot of work to ensure that its mobiles and tablets
With Harmony, this connection will go even further. Huawei laptops will be able to fully display the screens of the tablets or Harmony mobiles, or exchange files, allowing you to use your Harmony device as a wireless external display for Windows.
Huawei accessories like headphones and speakers can now connect to compatible devices when you turn them on, and you can switch from your Tablet on your mobile when they call you.
There’s even a dedicated drop-down interface for connecting multiple Huawei devices to each other, which makes perfect sense when you keep in mind that Huawei also intends to run Harmony on smart TVs and all kinds of devices. ‘connected devices.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t test it myself. I don’t have a lot of Huawei tech to do this, and my MateBook X Pro hasn’t received the software update to make it compatible with Harmony yet. The company’s promises are far from eccentric, as it will already sound familiar to Apple users.
Android has always limited the ability of OEMs to offer the same. Beyond Huawei, Samsung has the closest offer, but small annoyances continue to get in the way. Without Google getting in the way, Huawei is now free to approach Apple for the first time, and looking at its laptop integration plans, it’s clearly going further.
A third option
With HarmonyOS, Huawei hasn’t solved one of its biggest problems: the fact that Google apps, and many others, still don’t work. But he positioned himself better towards the solution: creating a platform for Software compete enough to encourage global developers to support it and move closer to what could be a third major player in the market.
Equally important, it gives Huawei the freedom to play on its strengths and move away from Google’s weaknesses. Harmony can be improved for tablets, clothing and other devices in a way that Android has never been able to do, while Huawei can use its platform control to create an ecosystem of interconnected devices that, for now, only Apple was able to provide.
Will all this be enough to save the Equipment Huawei and make it play an important role again? Probably not, even Apple sometimes has to treat Google well, and unless the US trade veto ends, the Equipment Huawei won’t have a big presence in the West.
In Asia, and especially in the company’s native China, it’s a different story. There, HarmonyOS frees Huawei from its dependence on Silicon Valley and sets the company on a new path.
Now that founder Ren Zhengfei is urging to create a Software circumventing U.S. sanctions, it seems almost certain that the company’s plans for HarmonyOS go beyond its own Equipment. If he can attract other Chinese players like Oppo or Xiaomi with the promise of having an entire ecosystem functioning outside of American control, how long will it take to see them abandon Google?
Huawei can harmonize its Equipmentbut it could cause chaos for everyone.
Original article published on Tech Advisor.
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