"Pure-blooded Hongmeng" is about to be commercialized, and how far is it from Android and iOS

Beijing News

2024-06-22 22:03Posted on the official account of Beijing Beijing News

"'Pure-blooded Hongmeng' is self-developed from the inside to the outside of the full stack, breaking the bipolar pattern of mobile operating systems." Yu Chengdong, Executive Director of the Board of Directors of Huawei and Chairman of the Device BG, said: "HarmonyOS is an all-scenario intelligent operating system based on OpenHarmony, which is an independent and controllable operating system originating from China. ”

At the Huawei Developer Conference 2024 from June 21 to 23, the new generation of HarmonyOS Next ("pure-blooded HarmonyOS") was released, which is no longer compatible with Android applications. Yu Chengdong mentioned that HarmonyOS native applications have entered a full-scale sprint stage, and at present, TOP 5000 applications have joined the HarmonyOS ecosystem, meeting 99.9% of users' usage time, and 1500+ applications have been put on the shelves. On the same day, "Pure-Blood Hongmeng" officially opened the developer beta (test) and will be officially put into commercial use in the fourth quarter of this year.

When will "Pure-Blood Hongmeng" be able to truly compete with Android and iOS? Ma Jihua, a senior analyst in the communications industry, said that the HarmonyOS itself was born for the Internet of Everything. "Now I feel that the ecology may be about to mature, so I will abandon Android and move forward." However, "pure-blooded Hongmeng" still has a long way to go. A senior person in charge of software development services in the industry told reporters that there are millions of APPs in the market, and Hongmeng will also promote a large number of native application development. Its future performance also needs to be tested by the market.

TOP 5000 apps have joined the HarmonyOS ecosystem, meeting 99.9% of users' usage time, and 1500+ apps have been put on the shelves. Photo by Sun Wenxuan, a reporter from the Beijing News Shell Financial Journal

The Internet of Everything gives China's operating system a chance to overtake

There are still three important "battles" of Hongmeng, and there are still three ecology left

"The operating system has been dominated by Europe and the United States for a long time, and the era of the Internet of Everything has given China's operating system the opportunity to overtake in corners." Yu Chengdong mentioned at the scene that "Pure-blooded Hongmeng" has three major characteristics: full scene, native intelligence, and native security, which can improve the performance of the device by 30%. HarmonyOS ecological equipment exceeded 900 million units.

Ma Jihua analyzed that Huawei's launch of "pure-blooded Hongmeng" shows that it has full confidence in the future development of the Hongmeng ecosystem. "The HarmonyOS system itself is not prepared for mobile phones, but for the support of intelligent terminals in multiple scenarios in the era of the Internet of Everything." He mentioned that the HarmonyOS system is a new distributed architecture, which runs fast and has the ability to call different terminals to each other. The biggest advantage is that there is no historical baggage, and it can move forward lightly, while being compatible with Android can cause bloat.

Why are leading manufacturers willing or actively engaged in the development and adaptation of native HarmonyOS systems? A senior person in charge of software development services in the industry told reporters that first of all, the external environmental factors, the rise of domestic independent systems; The head APP looks at the market share of Zhonghua as a product, and there is also a herd effect. Several head APP product leaders mentioned the advantages of the HarmonyOS system, such as the connection between devices in multiple scenarios.

"The scale of Huawei's smart terminals is quite large, and across multiple categories and scenarios, attracting a large number of developers, developers not only transplant their own Android system applications, but also develop on the bottom layer of Hongmeng, after several years of parallel development, have achieved certain results, and now these applications can get rid of Android and serve Hongmeng independently." Ma Jihua said.

In the process of promoting HarmonyOS native apps, some third-party platforms are also involved. At the conference, Ant Digital's mPaaS (Ant Mobile Development Platform), a subsidiary of Ant Group, announced the progress of tripartite ecological co-construction: more than 200 apps such as Huaxia Bank, Guangfa Bank, PetroChina, and China Mobile have launched HarmonyOS development and testing. "In November last year, we launched the HarmonyOS code layer version adaptation, and the two sides worked together in depth on performance optimization and security." Qi Xiaolong, general manager of Ant Digital Mobile Technology, said.

Yu Chengdong previously mentioned, "2024 is a critical year for native HarmonyOS, and it is necessary to accelerate the development of various HarmonyOS native applications, and focus on winning the two most difficult battles of the technical base and the tripartite ecosystem." Gong Ti, President of Huawei's Device BG Software Dept., also said that a mature operating system needs to have a solid foundation, a thriving ecosystem, and the ultimate experience, all of which are indispensable. The three major "battles" of Hongmeng have completed the base, experienced two, and one "battle" is ecology.

It is expected to break the duopoly competition pattern

The user experience is also subject to market testing

Talking about "pure-blooded Hongmeng", market research firm Canalys mentioned that the extensive user device base will promote Huawei's deep understanding of user behavior. "As the HarmonyOS ecosystem continues to expand, Huawei is gradually becoming the third largest operating system for smartphones and other edge computing devices in the Chinese market, which is expected to break the duopoly of Android and iOS."

According to Counterpoint, in the first quarter of this year, the share of the HarmonyOS operating system in the Chinese market rose to 17%, an increase of 9% from the first quarter of last year, while the share of iOS fell from 20% to 16%. This is the first time that the HarmonyOS system has surpassed iOS and become the second largest operating system in the Chinese market. However, the HarmonyOS in this statistic is still compatible with the Android version. In the global market, the share of the HarmonyOS system is 4%, the share of Android is 77%, and the share of iOS is 19%.

Although it has entered the sprint commercial stage, "pure-blooded Hongmeng" still has a lot of way to go. The person in charge of the above-mentioned software development service told reporters that "pure-blooded Hongmeng" needs to continue to expand the number of applications, and 5000 mainstream APPs seem to be considerable, but they are only a small part compared with the total number of APPs on the market. By the end of 2023, the number of apps monitored in the mainland market is around 2.65 million. However, the person in charge also mentioned that the top 5000 APPs are the most difficult to overcome, which will lay a good foundation for future promotion.

In the APP photo wall developed by the native HarmonyOS application announced on the spot, mainstream head apps such as Douyin, Meituan, Taobao, DingTalk, and Xiaohongshu basically appeared, but Tencent's WeChat APP did not "go to the wall". On June 22, an engineer from Huawei's consumer service hotline told reporters that WeChat was working with Huawei on the development, adaptation and technical communication of the native HarmonyOS system. Due to the difference in volume and function, the adaptation cycle and progress of different products are different, so you need to wait patiently.

A person close to Tencent told reporters that Tencent has been actively communicating with Huawei. In addition to Tencent Video, Tencent News, QQ Browser, Sogou Input Method, Tencent Self-selected Stocks, QQ Music, Kugou Music, Kuwo Music, National K Song, Lazy Listening, and Starting Point Reading, many of its products are being developed and adapted to the HarmonyOS system, hoping to ensure a smooth, safe and stable transition to the new system as soon as possible.

In addition to the scale of application, the actual experience of "pure-blooded Hongmeng" in the future also needs to be tested by the market. The person in charge of the above-mentioned software development service also said that the specific performance of "pure-blooded Hongmeng" in the future is still unknown, and consumers still have to look at the experience when buying mobile phones, and there are also some uncertainties.

"If HarmonyOS wants to continue to go better, it must have a sufficient scale of full-scene Internet of Everything applications and terminal support, and the entire industry, including terminal manufacturers and application developers, needs to form a complete ecosystem, which must allow all participants to have economic benefits and outputs. In fact, it is very difficult to build a new business model and support an ecosystem, and of course, sometimes there is a lot of chance and luck. Ma Jihua said.

Beijing News Shell Financial Reporter Sun Wenxuan

Edited by Fang Jingyi

Proofread by Lucy

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