Chinese telecom equipment and smartphone maker Huawei announced the second version of its Harmony OS at the global developer conference it held Thursday, highlighting its another step closer to substituting its own mobile OS for Google’s Android with an aim to circumvent tightening US sanctions.
Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business which oversees the smartphones and laptops business, said at the conference that by next year all Huawei smartphones will support its own operating system.
Harmony OS 2.0 would release a beta version for mobile app developers to test out as soon as this December, according to Yu.
Since May 2019, Shenzhen-based Huawei, the biggest smartphone maker in the world by shipments, has been banned by the US government from using Google Mobile Services (GMS) and applications including Chrome, YouTube, Google Play Store, etc. from its smartphones, tools that are quite essential for Android customers.
To cope with the US sanction, Huawei launched Harmony OS, the Android-based cross-platform operating system originally developed for the Internet of things.
In the first half of 2020, Huawei shipped 105 million smartphones globally, said Yu Chengdong, the consumer business he reigns generated a revenue of USD 37 billion.
More on Huawei please read: Huawei seeks to raise fresh funds from employees amid US trade sanctions
This article is part of KrASIA’s “Key Stat” series, where KrASIA picks and presents the most significant figures of the day’s technology and business world.