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Operating Systems Android

Huawei Makes a Break From Android With Next Version of Harmony OS 27

China's Huawei will not support Android apps on the latest iteration of its in-house Harmony operating system, domestic financial media Caixin reported, as the company looks to bolster its own software ecosystem. From a report: The company plans to roll out a developer version of its HarmonyOS Next platform in the second quarter of this year followed by a full commercial version in the fourth quarter, it said in a company statement highlighting the launch event for the platform in its home city of Shenzhen on Thursday.

Huawei first unveiled its proprietary Harmony system in 2019 and prepared to launch it on some smartphones a year later after U.S. restrictions cut its access to Google's technical support for its Android mobile OS. However, earlier versions of Harmony allowed apps built for Android to be used on the system, which will no longer be possible, according to Caixin.
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Huawei Makes a Break From Android With Next Version of Harmony OS

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  • by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Friday January 19, 2024 @03:23PM (#64173603)

    Huawei Makes a Break From Android With Next Version of Harmony OS

    I first thought it said "Hawaii" then [cleans glasses] ... But now I'd kinda like to read *that* story. :-)

  • by ukoda ( 537183 ) on Friday January 19, 2024 @03:41PM (#64173669) Homepage
    Anyone remember Windows phones? My prediction is a Huawei phone that can't easily install and run Android apps will suffer the same fate that Windows phones did. Many returns when it won't run an user's must have app, and declining sales when word gets around that they are not worth the trouble.
    • by Anonymous Coward
      Yep, Sadly as shit as Android is, the ecosystem of apps trumps any Phone OS regardless of how good it is, Even Windows Phone had a faster and more consistent OS but it died relatively quickly without the ecosystem.
    • Huawei has a captive market though. People in China have to buy them because it boosts their social credit score, so Huawei could re-release Windows Mobile and still be making money hand over fist due to their position as a native Chinese company.

      Depending on how hard the Chinese government pushes, there might be a good chance that subsequent phones have some sort of Android emulation eventually, because there is a critical mass, and as the parent mentions, without that mass of apps, might as well have a f

      • They have no captive market. Chinese people can buy phones from Xiaomi, Oppo, ZTE, Lenovo, and a ton of other manufacturers.

  • by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Friday January 19, 2024 @03:47PM (#64173699) Homepage

    Microsoft already tried this and failed miserably. But admittedly I know nothing about Chinese social attitudes towards their mobile phones and maybe things will be different. I'm just looking at it from here in the US, where not being able to send text messages in the right color can be a dealbreaker for some smartphone shoppers.

  • Is this the first step in CCP banning iOS and Android? Get Huawei proving it works and is stable and then forcing all other phones to use it or go to jail? Xi has been definitely working on closing China closing the drawbridge to western influence.
    • Yes, the first step is the US government banning their access to Android support. Now instead of having a nearly universal platform, they'll have an ethnoplatform. (I know it's based on nationality and not ethnicity, but this made up word sounds cooler.)

  • "Huawei Smart Phones, for those times when you'd rather have China's Ministry of State Security poking into your affairs than the NSA."

  • by untelp ( 757176 ) on Saturday January 20, 2024 @03:01AM (#64174639)

    In China, the compatibility with apps is not that important due to Wechat and its professional counterpart Wecom.
    Those are full ecosystems within an app:
    - real identification (you have proved who you are at a desk in person with your id card at the phone company and at the bank for your linked account)
    - app store ("mini-programs") where you find absolutely everything you have on your phone in the west, and more
    - payments: both online, physical, phone to phone + bank services (loans, savings...)
    - and yes, a chat / social application

    Once your phone OS has the Wechat app running, and in a lesser extend a few other competitors you don't really care about it's heavy apps ecosystem.

  • Twenty or thirty years from now the world will look back on the China technology blockade as one of the dumbest human decisions of the century.

  • As a former (happy) user of a Huawei phone, I would say it is the kiss of death. Apps matter, if the phone can't run the apps I want/need, then it is useless to me and I am moving to a different phone.

    With this said, I can understand the reason: after those many years, Huawei tried but couldn't make their OS reliably run Android software, they are cut out from the main western platforms, practically there is no alternative. I am sorry for them, that old phone served me well for over 5 years and I still hav

There is no opinion so absurd that some philosopher will not express it. -- Marcus Tullius Cicero, "Ad familiares"

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