"Beyond Google" aimed at Huawei's original OS

"Batteries have improved and they work faster. It's great."

A man in his 40s living in Shanghai, who is a fan of Huawei products, will announce the original basic software (OS) "Hongmon, English name Harmony 2.0" on June 2nd. , Immediately started the update work. "It took about 30 minutes. I didn't have to trip over the settings on the way," he said.

Men aren't just satisfied with their performance benefits. Harmony OS is compatible with a wide range of products such as smartphones, tablets, TVs, home appliances, smart watches, and in-vehicle devices. "For example, you can easily display the screen of your smartphone on your computer or tablet and operate or move the photos saved in your smartphone."

Huawei executive Wang Seung-ruk, who leads the development of Harmony OS, explains, "Multiple terminals can be used to configure a super terminal." The true value of Harmony OS is that by installing the same OS on different models, it will be possible to handle various data such as voice and images smoothly beyond the boundaries of terminals.

Another user who uses the company's high-end smartphone model "Mate 40" testifies that "although it was operating smoothly after switching to the harmony OS, it sometimes became sluggish and the main body became hot." However, after applying the update distributed by Huawei, the problem was solved.

Regarding the OS of smartphones, Google's "Android" and Apple's "iOS" occupy an overwhelming share. So far, various leading companies such as Microsoft in the US and Samsung Electronics in South Korea have been trying to get the position of "third OS", but all of them have failed. Of course, US sanctions are the reason why Huawei is tackling a challenge that seems reckless in common sense.

Huawei is currently unable to equip new smartphone products with Google's GMS (Google Mobile Service) apps such as search, maps, and email. Since the core part of the Android OS is open sourced, Huawei can continue to be used, but GMS is not open sourced and is subject to sanctions.

In mainland China, Google's services are originally unavailable except for a small part, so the presence or absence of GMS has almost no impact on the smartphone business. However, in the overseas smartphone market, the reality is that it is difficult to even reach the stage of competition without GMS. Huawei has also blocked imports of advanced semiconductors for smartphones. It is said that a large amount of semiconductor inventories were accumulated by rushing to procure just before the sanctions came into effect, but it was impossible to aggressively sell new smartphone products at the same pace as before.

Designed with IoT in mind from the beginning

In November 2020, Huawei, whose limbs were tied up in terms of both software and hardware, was forced to separate and sell its middle- and low-end smartphone models. According to research firm IDC, Huawei's global share of smartphones, which was the world's top in April-June 2020, fell out of the ranking in January-March 2009, not being in the top five. Sales in the January-March period of 2009 decreased by 16.5% from the same period of the previous year to 152.2 billion yuan (about 2.6 trillion yen), the second consecutive quarter of decline following the October-December period of 2008.

What kind of future does Huawei envision in a difficult situation? The whole picture has emerged from the announcement of this Harmony OS.

Huawei has open sourced the core of Harmony OS so that anyone can use it. On top of that, we will provide "HMS (Huawei Mobile Services)" such as an app store as an original service. So far, you can understand it as a strategy similar to Google's Android.

The difference is that while Android was developed with smartphones in mind, Harmony OS was originally developed for use in IoT (Internet of Things) devices and industrial devices, so it is lower than smartphones. It is a design concept that works even with spec devices. The concept seems to be close to the new OS "Fuchsia" that Google is developing as a "long-term project to build an OS for a wide range of devices", but Huawei is one step ahead in commercialization.

With the growth of the smartphone business no longer expected, Huawei has set its sights on the IoT field such as automobiles, home appliances, and smart watches. If the Internet connection of various devices becomes full-scale, there is a lot of room for expansion of the market scale such as replacement and creation of new demand.

However, it is not realistic for Huawei to offer all of the highly competitive final products. Therefore, Huawei took the position as a "platformer" by providing an OS that can be used on various devices as open source. It is difficult to beat Google and Apple with smartphone OS, but we are trying to find a win by changing the playing field to OS including IoT devices.

Whether you can get a 16% share is the difference between life and death

In the automotive field, as soon as a finished vehicle manufacturer adopts Huawei's platform, it will be able to produce electric vehicles (EVs) equipped with IT (information technology) such as autonomous driving. Called "Huawei Inside," the strategy is to supply parts such as motors and batteries, as well as in-vehicle devices equipped with a harmony OS.

In the home appliances field as well, the strategy is to have other companies' TVs, speakers, refrigerators, microwave ovens, etc. equipped with Harmony OS. It is affiliated with Midea Group, Skyworth, a major Chinese consumer electronics company, and Kuyo, a kitchen appliance company.

On smartphones, Huawei announced that the brand "HONOR", which was separated and sold, will gradually support existing models, but this can be said to be an exception. For rival smartphone makers such as Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo, it is irrational to abandon the combination of Android and GMS in overseas markets, so all of them are reluctant to adopt harmony OS. I'm out. The fact is that even Honor is refraining from making explicit statements about the support for models to be released in the future.

However, if the presence of 1.4 billion people as an OS for IoT devices in the Chinese market increases, each smartphone maker may have to consider supporting it. Expectations in China for the domestic OS that finally appeared in earnest are higher than expected, and the stock prices of companies that are expected to benefit from the harmony OS are rising across the board.

Huawei executives said, "Whether or not you can get a 16% share will make a difference between life and death." Initially, the target for the number of terminals equipped with Harmony OS was set at 300 million units by the end of the year. The target has been revised upward to 360 million units in response to the favorable launch. Is it possible to maintain this momentum, incorporate partner companies, and expand the "harmony economic zone"? That is likely to be directly linked to Huawei's future.

(Nikkei BP Shanghai Bureau Chief Nobutaka Hirooka)

[Nikkei Business Electronic Edition Reconstructed Article on June 18, 2021]