The creators call her “purebred Harmony”
Today a very important event took place: Huawei introduced in China the latest operating system HarmonyOS NEXT, which, unlike the regular HarmonyOS, is not based on Android AOSP. Moreover, this OS is not compatible with Android and its applications at all.
The creators call HarmonyOS NEXT «purebred Harmony» — due to the fact that it is built on the Harmony core and uses applications written specifically for it.
At today's press conference, Yu Chengdong said that the HarmonyOS kernel is superior to the traditional kernel (one should assume — Linux) and is well suited for use on a variety of devices in all scenarios. HarmonyOS — it is a real operating system: from the programming language to the compiler, it is completely developed in-house.
Huawei has revealed the structure of the OS, and it even has an integrated AI model (Pangu) that works with the MindSpore framework. Naturally, it has its own development and programming environments, a compiler (Ark Compiler), and programming languages (ArkTS/Cangjie). The kernel is called — HarmonyOS, file system — EROFS/HMDFS.
According to Huawei representatives, more than 200 applications are currently being developed for HarmonyOS NEXT. More than 60 development teams are involved in the game creation project, in the development stage — more than 70 games. In total, by the end of the year, it is predicted that more than 5 thousand applications will appear for HarmonyOS NEXT.
It must be said that HarmonyOS NEXT is being created primarily with an eye on the Chinese market, where Huawei’s position is especially strong. Considering the success of the flagships of the Mate 60 and nova 12 lines, the company’s partners prefer not to ignore Huawei’s complete abandonment of Android — and are actively involved in development. Analysts predict that by the end of the year, HarmonyOS could overtake iOS and become the second mobile operating system in the country after Android. And considering the capacity of the Chinese market, this is quite a lot.
The closed beta version of HarmonyOS NEXT has now been released for Huawei Mate 60, Mate 60 Pro and Mate X5. The final version of the OS is promised in the third quarter of 2024.