Chinese tech giant Huawei has said the company won’t launch a Harmony OS powered phone this year. Harmony OS is Huawei’s own operating system and the company touts it as a potential alternative to Android.
As of now Huawei wants to stick with a single ecosystem – Google’s Android for its upcoming phones. ‘We want to maintain one standard, one ecosystem and the Harmony OS would serve as an option B for the company,’ Vincent Yang, Huawei’s Vice President, said at a media event in New York.
Earlier this week, the US Commerce Department has extended temporary license which will allow the Chinese major to continue doing business with the US companies. However, the Harmony OS will act as a fail-safe if the US opts to enforce a ban which would prevent Huawei from using Google’s services including Android OS, Maps and the Play Store.
In early August, Huawei at its Developer Conference, announced Harmony OS – a new microkernel-based, distributed operating system, which the company will use in smart watches, smart screens, in-vehicle systems, and smart speakers. Huawei said that the Harmony OS is clearer than Android as it contains less lines of code.
Huawei has been deeply affected by the US-China trade war with many US companies cutting ties with the Chinese telecom major after the US President Donald Trump’s administration issued a trade ban against it.
The company could also launch a Harmony OS powered TV and a smartwatch as well. As a brand-new OS, the Harmony OS has no app support and according to analysts it will be hard for the company to sell a Harmony OS powered phone in the western markets as it would lack Google's services – must have for any consumer.
