(Yicai) April 8 — Huawei Technologies’ self-developed HarmonyOS ecosystem has expanded to more than 4,000 native mobile apps as the Chinese tech giant expands the influence of its Android or iOS equivalent.
The number of HarmonyOS apps has grown more than 20 times since it first reported 200 such apps in January, the Shenzhen-based phone maker announced yesterday.
Huawei released the proprietary operating system in August 2019, three months after the US government restricted the Chinese company’s access to key US technologies.
The plan is to launch a beta version of HarmonyOS Next, the latest iteration of HarmonyOS that no longer supports Android apps, in the second quarter, and a commercial version in the fourth quarter. About 800 million devices, including mobile phones, tablets and wearables, use HarmonyOS, according to data released by the company in January.
Huawei phone users can enjoy applications in areas such as e-commerce, local services, tourism, as well as culture and entertainment. Nearly 90 percent of China’s top 20 apps have started developing Huawei’s original version, and leading Internet companies such as Alibaba Group Holding, Meituan, Xiaohongshu and JD.Com have already released such native apps.
This year, Huawei intends to work with partners to create 5,000 original HarmonyOS applications, Zhu Yonggang, president of the consumer cloud business, said earlier. The ultimate goal is to reach more than 500,000 units. “This will also be the first time in history that the OS ecosystem will be based on the Chinese market and eventually go global.”
“Harmonization” is also reaching administrators as the Shenzhen municipal government announced an action plan last month, becoming the first city to promote such apps. But the administrations of Shanghai and Zhejiang have also started working on Huawei’s public service applications.
The Securities Times reported today that the tech company will hold its HarmonyOS spring meeting on April 11 to announce products for cars and personal computers.
Editor: Emma Laine