Discover How Huawei Is Building A Unique Harmonyos Ecosystem

At the 2020 Huawei Developer Conference (HDC), the spotlight was on HarmonyOS 2.0. It was at this event that Harmony 2.0 was officially made open source, meaning that Huawei's in-house operating system had finally stepped on the stage to be tested by others. 

Nevertheless, there are still many misconceptions about HarmonyOS. For example, some think that HarmonyOS is some hastily thrown together Android replacement that Huawei introduced in response to U.S. sanctions. However, at last year's HDC, Huawei articulated a much more interesting vision of what HarmonyOS could be. They spoke of it not as a smartphone OS, but as a system that would run on various smart devices, providing them with a lingua franca they can use to communicate and share information with each other. More interesting still is that Huawei expects that many of these devices will not be Huawei devices. The company intends to partner with other manufacturers to jointly create an all-scenario ecosystem.

Wang Chenglu, President of the Software Engineering Dept of Huawei Consumer Business Group (BG), explained in detail how Huawei would co-create an ecosystem based on Harmony 2.0 with partners. "HarmonyOS is not an operating system for a single type of devices, rather it supports a diverse range of devices," Wang Chenglu explained. In his words, the HarmonyOS ecosystem provides developers with the possibility of going beyond the limitation of mobile phones, and this is achieved by upgrading three core technologies: the distributed virtual bus, distributed data management, and distributed security. Content, apps, and use cases are the soul of the ecosystem. Huawei is attempting to enable the ecosystem development by helping hardware vendors and app developers to thrive in this ecosystem.

When HarmonyOS comes to mobile phones sometime this year, it will mean that phones are no longer isolated devices. Instead, they will be able to seamlessly connect to and share capabilities with various devices in the home. For example, a mobile phone can be used as the remote control of an air conditioner, and having a mobile phone screen at their disposal will allow air conditioner manufacturers to create a user interface that is more intuitive and detailed than users have seen before.

HarmonyOS can support smartphones and other smart devices including TVs, automotive head units, and wearables. In the past, users enjoyed personalized apps. With HarmonyOS, users can have personalized devices, which better satisfy their needs. In the era of feature phones, the hardware and software of a phone were fixed. In the smartphone era, hardware was still fixed, but new ability to download apps offered users a more personalized experience. Now, the revolutionary distributed technology of HarmonyOS means that capabilities can be decoupled from hardware, allowing multiple physically independent devices to converge into one "Super Device". It can flexibly invoke and combine the software and hardware capabilities that are most suitable for the current use case, providing users with a smooth, seamless AI experience. HarmonyOS enables devices to provide services based on users' requirement and defines devices based on use cases to deliver optimal experience.

On the application side, the distributed capability of HarmonyOS also brings great possibilities to ride hailing, food delivery, and e-commerce companies. For example, after hailing a taxi, you can see where the driver is, not just as a dot on a map, but through a HarmonyOS compatible dashboard camera that is sending a video feed via the driver's phone. Different people in your family can place orders in different devices (for example, you could order on your phone, your wife could use her tablet, and your mother could use her laptop) and you can then merge all the orders into a single purchase.