And why Apple should be worried, too.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

At the start of last year, Huawei was leading the race to become the next big tech giant globally. However, things didn’t go down as planned.

Since the past year, Huawei has been making headlines and for all the wrong reasons. Huawei faced various allegations, from spying to stealing trade secrets.

In May 2019, Donald Trump banned Huawei from dealing with any USA-based organization. Other countries like the UK and Australia have also followed the footsteps of the US and banned the 5G network of Huawei.

In a nutshell, these trade restrictions not only prevent Huawei from expanding to foreign markets but also hinders their supply in countries where they allowed to trade. They can’t work with Google, Qualcomm, and Intel — all three are crucial for Huawei.

It doesn’t take a genius to notice the glaring efforts to strangle Huawei.

Huawei, however, is not looking to back down. Starting next year Huawei is going to remove Android from its devices. And when I say Android, I don't just mean the mobile operating system but the entirety of devices that Android supports. This includes Android TV, Android Auto, and even the Wear OS by Google.

Huawei has a masterplan in the form of Harmony OS

Huawei is taking a last stand by launching its proprietary operating system named Harmony next year.

Having learned from the mistakes of those who have challenged the likes of Google and Apple in the past, Huawei has put together a pivotal blueprint to restore their former glory.

AppGallery

Google Play Store is the largest app market with over 2.56 million apps, even larger than Apple’s App Store. Without a shadow of a doubt, applications are an integral part of smartphones.

Windows Mobile OS managed to get everything right, from the modern interface to reliability and trust of the Nokia brand, but where it failed greatly was in the app market. Windows Mobile struggled to attract developers to build apps for Windows and due to the lack of these apps, users didn’t consider Windows phones worth trying.

Huawei recognizes the crucial role third-party apps play in the success of any operating system. Therefore, they have made Harmony OS capable of running Android apps out-of-the-box.

Source: Huawei

However, since Huawei devices can’t use the Play Store, Huawei is trying to lure developers to upload their app on AppGallery, Huawei’s app market. Huawei will have a significant advantage because developers will be able to simply upload their existing Android apps to AppGallery without any changes in code.

From the developer’s perspective, this is a huge opportunity as they will be supplying their apps to an untapped market, and AppGallery has fewer apps meaning less competition.

But how will apps that use Google Mobile Services run? This is where HMS (Huawei Mobile Services) comes into play.

Huawei Mobile Services (HMS)

Huawei Mobile Services is Huawei’s answer to Google Mobile Services(GMS). The main goal of HMS is not just to fill the void left by the absence of GMS but also to provide more granular and flexible control to developers.

Source: Huawei

Huawei wants to provide developers with access to services that form the cornerstone of their apps like how Google Maps forms an integral part of Lyft and alike apps. This includes offering Huawei-built alternatives to Google’s Map, Analytics, Play Store, Play Games, and much more. HMS aims to go a step further and provide hardware-specific controls to developers as well so they can utilize the device hardware efficiently.

For instance, HMS allows third-party apps access to the inbuilt AI chip in Huawei devices. This isn’t possible with GMS yet. In layman's term, it means apps that leverage HMS will use less battery, render content much faster, have better image processing, and much more.

Open source

Harmony OS is an open-source operating system which means that everybody has access to the original source code and has the right to distribute and modify it. In simple terms, other companies can ship their devices running Harmony OS without any restrictions.

This is the sole reason why Android has secured over 85% market share. Android, unlike iOS, is open-source. Hence any company can easily download and run Android OS on their devices. Huawei has attempted to reach a larger userbase by making Harmony OS go in the same direction as Google, which means you can see devices from other companies running Harmony OS.

Google is banned in China and thus Chinese manufacturers won’t have any strong reasons not to switch from non-GMS Android to Harmony, and this is a huge strategic move by Huawei as China had 882 million smartphone users in 2019.

Distributed operating system

Harmony OS is a microkernel-based, distributed operating system. In other words, Harmony OS code isn’t specific to a particular type of device. Hence, the same Harmony OS can run on watches, refrigerators, cars, TVs, and smartphones.

Hence, Harmony OS will provide smart and fluid interconnectivity among various types of devices. If Huawei manages to pull this off, then it will surely turn people’s heads, which is critical for the growth of Harmony. Moreover, it allows developers to share the code while building apps that run on different types of devices.

Source: Huawei

This enables devices to connect with each other better. For instance, if you are on call with someone on your phone, and turn on your laptop, you will get in-call options like ending the call even on your laptop. Or, if you are listening to music on your phone and enter your car, your phone will start playing the music via your car speakers, if you want it to.

This will give a direct competition to Google's in-development Fuschia OS and the recently announced Apple’s Mac Catalyst, but if Huawei manages to come to market first with this, they will certainly have the first-mover advantage.

Why Apple should be concerned

At first glance, it appears that Huawei is going head to head with Google. However, practically Huawei is challenging both Google and Apple at once. With Harmony, Huawei is offering the large app market and open-source nature of Android as well as a robust ecosystem similar to Apple’s.

Most Apple users embrace the ecosystem that Apple has created so diligently. It is very much evident in Apple’s conferences as well, as they only compare their products and services to other Apple products, completely disregarding competition from other brands such as Samsung. Apple’s idea is to give the users a feeling that they are locked into the Apple system and the competition doesn’t exist.

Android, on the other hand, promotes a range of brands like HTC, Samsung, and Motorola, and tends to give consumers numerous options in any price segment.

Source: Huawei

What Huawei is giving to end-users is the best of both worlds, and it simply hasn’t happened before.

Huawei is determined to nurture and promote Harmony OS and even if it may not be able to succeed in the US market, it might still take a good chunk of Apple’s market share, which is merely 13–14%, and just like Apple, they will be building their own hardware and software thus having a top-down control, which means more optimized devices. Huawei has already surpassed Apple to become the world’s second best selling smartphone manufacturer in 2019.

Furthermore, Huawei claims they can come to market with smart interconnected devices running Harmony by next year which will serve as a big blow to Apple as Apple, as well as Google, have been trying to advance the interconnectivity between devices for years now.

Final thoughts

Huawei is looking all set to take on Google. As they announced recently, Huawei will start pushing devices pre-installed with Harmony OS starting next year. This implies that they will fully back Harmony OS as their first choice for devices.

Huawei Roadmap. Source: Huawei.

Even so, it is noteworthy that all the previous attempts to resist Android by companies like Samsung and Amazon failed miserably only because of their imperfect software, and although Huawei claims to have a fully-fledged software, in the form of Harmony OS, their problem runs much deeper than just software.

The dramatic nature of the US ban has exaggerated the trust issues associated with Huawei products.

Ben Wood, from the consultancy CCS Insight, said: “Huawei has the engineering talent, the ambition, and a home market advantage”. However, even he agrees that expanding elsewhere will be tough.

“But in terms of global aspirations, history shows it’s still a very difficult thing to achieve.”

Although Harmony OS is looking really promising, I personally don’t think that they are the solutions to Huawei’s problems. The ban goes way beyond Android and high-ranking apps like Uber, PayPal, and Facebook can’t be ported to Harmony OS. Moreover, with increasing trade tensions, these apps might never come to Harmony OS. Huawei has also taken a hit financially as the trade bans affect its telecom and networking equipment as well.

Nonetheless, it appears that Huawei has been working on Harmony OS for quite some time now and the pieces have begun to fall into place for them. But only time will tell if the situation forced Huawei’s hand by banning them.

As an end-user, I am positively looking forward to seeing how Harmony OS pans out.