Home appliance giant Gree will install Huawei’s HarmonyOS operating system in its connected home appliances, president Dong Mingzhu said on June 7.
Huawei released HarmonyOS 2.0 last month, specifically billing it for smart home appliances. Major brands like Midea, Supor, and Joyoung already embed Huawei’s software in some of their products, including blenders, steam ovens, and kitchen ventilators. Automaker Arcfox’s α-S crossover sedan also comes with HarmonyOS installed.
Appliance manufacturers are intent on upgrading the connectivity of their products to compete in the smart home market, but lack a vital component for controlling smart home networks—a smartphone. To complete its smart home ecosystem, Gree released its first smartphone in 2015, but it did not gain traction.
So far, Huawei has had more success integrating HarmonyOS into white goods like washing machines, dishwashers, and refrigerators rather than integrating the system in electronics like smart TVs, speakers, and even smartphones. Original equipment manufacturers like Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo are eager to retain control over the software used in their hardware products and keep Huawei out of their supply chain.
By tapping Huawei for its products’ distributed operating system, Gree looks to rebound after losing the top spot in the air conditioner market to Midea this year, while Huawei looks to add heads to its pool of 25 million HarmonyOS users.
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KrASIA Connection features translated and adapted content published by 36Kr. This article was originally written by Yuan Silai for 36Kr.