Huawei says it’s Harmony OS will power a number of its products and this will also include devices, even though the firm has not said which ones at this point. Huawei unveiled the proprietary OS early August this year which will work as an alternative to Google’s Android following the ongoing trade restrictions by the US government. The OS according to Wang Chenglu, The President of Huawei Consumer Group’s software division, “the OS is rolled currently to smartwatches, speakers and other virtual reality devices” “The phone will stick to the Android OS in the meantime”, he added. As cited by Reuters, the Harmony OS was first connected to a smart TV as its first product to use. Currently, no smartphone has been connected to the Harmony OS and chances are Huawei might be skeptical to use it on its premium or high-end products. Firstly, because the market might shun away from the products especially its functionality with the new OS. Secondly, no OS is perfect, especially at the early stages. Harmony OS might take time to come into shape and be as smooth and perfect as Android OS which powers the biggest part of mobile smartphones globally. in the market, there are only two successful players in the mobile operating system that have been recorded or rather are successful. The two systems are that of Google’s Android OS and iPhone iOs. As by Ircrwireless, if harmony happens to a viable competitor to the current operating systems then convincing the market to adopt it will be challenging. Some unidentified sources note that the Os has the potential to the National OS of China. Neil Shah, Research Director for Devices and Ecosystems at Counterpoint Technology Market Research, according to Techradar. “Huawei has a big chance to scale the OS in China across multiple device categories and to build a robust developer community as at the moment, the Chinese government is pushing for a ‘national OS’ become less reliant on foreign providers like Microsoft and Google” He added that, if other Chinese brands such as Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi are pushed to develop smartphones and other products such as TVs, the Harmony will definitely scale to become more attractive to the market. This is because Chinese brands hold more than 40 percent of the smartphone market share globally. Statistics by counterpoint reveal that Huawei holds 15.8 per cent, Xiaomi 9 per cent, Oppo 8.1 per cent, Vivo 7.5 per cent, Lenovo 2.6 Per cent and Realme 1.3 per cent as of quarter of 2019. Secondly, Neil argues that the Microkernel architecture of Harmony OS which is quite disruptive and scalable put’s it at the forefront of its competitors who are yet to adopt it. Another analysis by Researcher Jeff Kagan, argues that if the US ban is not lifted, things can get tough for Huawei. He points out that, in as much as the Chinese government is in support of Harmony rollout, there is no guarantee users will love it. Chances or Huawei surviving and Harmony working are high but the future is not as pretty for them.
