Huawei’s HarmonyOS to beat Apple’s iOS as the No. 2 smartphone operating system in China in 2024: TechInsights report

Increased HarmonyOS adoption is expected to be driven by Huawei’s return to the 5G smartphone segment
TechInsights also expects Huawei’s supply challenge, driven by shortages of Kirin 9000s chipsets, to ease in the next few months

Huawei

Iris Dengin Shenzhen

Published: 11:00pm, 3 Jan 2024

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Huawei Technologies’ mobile platform HarmonyOS is projected to surpass Apple’s iOS as the second-biggest operating system in China this year driven by the US-sanctioned firm’s comeback with the Mate 60 series, according to a report by TechInsights.

While Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS will continue to dominate the global smartphone operating system sector, Huawei’s self-developed HarmonyOS will take some ground from both US giants in China, Canadian research firm TechInsights said in a report released on Wednesday.

Increased HarmonyOS adoption will be driven by Huawei’s return to the 5G smartphone segment, which started with the surprise launch in late August of its Mate 60 Pro, a handset equipped with an advanced, home-grown 5G chip despite US tech sanctions intended to block access to such technology.

TechInsights also expects Huawei to make a solid recovery in 2024, according to the report.

Huawei’s smartphones are all powered by HarmonyOS, its self-developed Android alternative launched in August 2019, three months after the US government added the firm to its Entity List. Under this trade blacklist, Huawei is barred from buying software, chips and other US-origin technologies from suppliers without Washington’s approval.

On its release, the Mate 60 Pro inspired a wave of patriotic fervour among Chinese consumers, and the Shenzhen-based firm faced supply issues as it scrambled to crank up production to meet demand.

Huawei sees 9 per cent sales growth in 2023, boosted by Mate 60 Pro 5G comeback

TechInsights expects Huawei’s supply challenge, driven by shortages of Kirin 9000s chipsets, to ease in the next few months. Huawei’s product portfolio further expanded last week when it launched new smartphone models under its mid-range Nova series.

HarmonyOS is also projected to reach a milestone in 2024 with the launch of HarmonyOS Next, which will not support Android-based apps.

Huawei is expected to launch a developer preview version of HarmonyOS Next in the first quarter of 2024, and is already working with China’s major companies to develop native apps based on the system.

Last month, Chinese financial technology giant Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of South China Morning Post owner Alibaba Group Holding, said it is building a new version of mobile payment app Alipay based on HarmonyOS, after Alibaba started development on a new version of DingTalk, its workplace collaboration app, for the platform.

Other major Chinese internet companies – including e-commerce firm JD.com, video gaming giant NetEase and food delivery market leader Meituan – in November already started to recruit developers to build native apps for HarmonyOS.

McDonald’s China – with a network of more than 5,500 restaurants and over 200,000 employees serving more than 1 billion customers each year – became one of the first multinational food companies on the mainland to adopt HarmonyOS Next.

It remains to be seen whether these efforts will have a halo effect on other smartphone makers and make HarmonyOS a default operating system for not just smartphones but also laptops and cars in China, TechInsights said.

More than 700 million devices currently run on HarmonyOS, with more than 2.2 million third-party developers creating apps for the platform, according to Richard Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business group, speaking at the company’s annual developer conference in August.