Chinese technology hub Shenzhen, home of telecommunications equipment giant Huawei Technologies, plans to expedite the adoption of the company’s self-developed mobile operating system HarmonyOS, as it competes with Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS in the world’s largest smartphone market. The Shenzhen municipal government intends to boost the number of its native apps built on HarmonyOS and push for their adoption across several major sectors, according to a 2024 action plan published by the city’s Industry and Information Technology Bureau.
Under that initiative, HarmonyOS-based apps would be adopted in sectors that include government services, education, healthcare, banking and finance, transport and welfare. Companies in Shenzhen, widely regarded as China’s Silicon Valley, are expected to account for 10% of the total number of HarmonyOS-built apps in China by the end of this year, according to the plan.
The municipal government will also support universities and training institutions across the city to establish HarmonyOS developer courses, and set up at least two new industrial parks for companies to develop products based on Huawei’s mobile operating platform. Shenzhen’s move further bolsters Huawei’s strategy to widen the adoption of HarmonyOS as an alternative ecosystem as set out by company Founder Ren Zhengfei last year to counter the impact of U.S. sanctions. HarmonyOS was unveiled by Huawei in August 2019, three months after the United States government put the company on a trade blacklist that restricted it from buying chips and software that use U.S. technologies without Washington’s approval. The mobile operating system is used on smartphones, tablets, smart televisions, personal computers, smartwatches and various home appliances.
Shenzhen’s action plan on HarmonyOS adoption comes as Huawei climbed back to the No 1 spot in China’s smartphone market earlier this year, according to a report by research firm Counterpoint. That resurgence was jump-started by Huawei’s surprise release last August of its Mate 60 Pro 5G smartphone – powered by its advanced Kirin 9000S processor, which was locally developed in spite of U.S. tech sanctions, and running HarmonyOS. The operating system is predicted to surpass Apple’s iOS as the second-biggest mobile operating system in mainland China this year amid the growing domestic demand for Huawei’s latest 5G smartphones. A developer preview version of HarmonyOS Next, the latest iteration of Huawei’s mobile operating system, was made available to coders in January. It will be launched for commercial use in the fourth quarter of this year, according to Huawei. Internet search firm Baidu and online shopping platform JD.com have announced they will build apps based on HarmonyOS Next, while Chinese financial technology firm Ant Group said in December that it is building a new HarmonyOS version of mobile payment app Alipay, the South China Morning Post reports.
