Huawei officially launched HarmonyOS 2 onJune 2. Since then, an average of eight users per second have updated theirdevices to the operating system, the company said. The users of HarmonyOS 2,the operating system for the smartphones of Chinese telecom giant Huawei, have exceeded40 million. Huawei expects the number of devices equipped with HarmonyOS toreach 300 million by the end of 2021, including more than 200 million forHuawei devices.

Huawei launched the latest version of itsOS, Harmony-OS 2, in June for the internet of things devices, including smartphones,tablets and smartwatches.

That marked a crucial step for Huawei,which had prepared for its transition from Google's Android operating system toHarmonyOS for a long time after the US government restricted its access toGoogle software and services in 2019.

At the start of July, Huawei said therewere more than 30 million users of HarmonyOS. Stated differently, every second,eight users upgrade the OS of their older models of Huawei smartphones onaverage, replacing Android with HarmonyOS.

Zhang Wentao, a Beijing-based bank employeewho recently upgraded the software of his Mate 30 smartphone to HarmonyOS, saidthe new OS offers a very smooth experience across his phone and Huawei tablet.

Huawei said earlier it expected the numberof devices equipped with HarmonyOS to reach 300 million by the end of thisyear, including more than 200 million Huawei devices, with the rest coming fromthird-party companies' equipment.

More than 20 of Huawei smartphone models supportthe HarmonyOS system. In terms of ecosystem, more than 300 partners, includinghome appliance maker Midea, artificial intelligence company iFlytek andcookware company Supor have embraced the HarmonyOS.

Huawei expected that more than 40mainstream brands will become new partners of HarmonyOS by the end of thisyear.

Wang Chenglu, president of the softwaredepartment at Huawei's consumer business group, said earlier that theshort-term market share goal for HarmonyOS' ecosystem is 16 percent.

"Sixteen percent is a threshold for anoperating system's ecosystem to develop prosperously. It is a threshold thatHuawei must pass," Wang said.

Yin Dong, a Beijing-based softwaredeveloper who has been using tools from HarmonyOS to develop mobile applicationsfor months, said he is very optimistic about the operating system's future.

"It is very convenient to developapplications for cross-device experiences based on HarmonyOS, which is designedfor IoT devices including watches, TVs, cars and even ovens, and enables themto easily connect with each other and deliver new functions," Yin said.

On September 9, Huawei Technologies Co saidthat its in-house operating system HarmonyOS will be used in smartphones nextyear, marking a breakthrough in Chinese companies' efforts to commercializeself-developed operating systems and to build their own globally competitivesoftware ecosystems.

Analysts said the increasing use ofHarmonyOS showcases Huawei's resilience and technological prowess, butchallenges still exist as the latest US chip bans weigh on Huawei's smartphonebusiness.

Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's consumerbusiness group, announced the system update HarmonyOS 2.0 at its annualdevelopers' conference on September 9 in Dongguan, Guangdong province, and saidthe system will be used in its smartphones next year.

HarmonyOS was unveiled a year ago, afterWashington restricted Huawei from using Google's Android operating system.HarmonyOS is arguably the biggest push by Huawei to build its own softwareecosystem, and it is already used in Huawei's smart TV products.

With the upgrade of the system, HarmonyOSwill be used in smartwatches, personal computers and other internet of thingsdevices later, Yu said.

The progress came after the US governmentexpanded a series of chip restrictions on Huawei in the past few months thathave limited its access to semiconductor components and equipment produced bycompanies using US technology.

Jia Mo, an analyst at market researchcompany Canalys, said the tightened restrictions will result in a shortage ofchips for Huawei to produce enough smartphones next year, which will make itdifficult for the company to popularize HarmonyOS on its handsets.

But the US government is also facingmounting pressure from the country's own semiconductor association and chipcompanies. This may force it to relax the regulations in the near future,experts said.

Gao Feng, a spokesman for the Ministry ofCommerce, said that as China is a major global manufacturing powerhouse of electronicproducts, its demand for semiconductors has been growing steadily, and thenation has become a major driving force of the global semiconductor market.

Boston Consulting Group said in a reportthat if the US government increases restrictions on semiconductor trade withChina, this could endanger the country's own position as a leader in thesector.

BCG warned that if shipments of US chipsand chipmaking equipment to China were stopped, and China were to ban importsof US electronics and software, it could cost US companies 37 percent of theirannual sales.

To cope with Washington's restrictions on theuse of Google Mobile Services, Huawei has also been working hard to build theecosystem for Huawei Mobile Services, better known as HMS, which is thefoundation of its ability to sell smart devices in overseas markets.

Huawei said the mobile applicationsintegrated with HMS so far have exceeded 96,000. The number of developers ofHMS now stands at over 1.8 million.

Charlie Dai, principal analyst at marketresearch company Forrester, said: "The US government's bans leave Huaweino choice but to accelerate research and development to build an open techecosystem of its own, from hardware to software for smartphones. It's a toughjourney but Huawei must go through it to survive and thrive."

He said Huawei has made substantialtechnological progress in areas like audio, video and augmented reality forHMS, which effectively drives the growth of its developer ecosystem.

But currently, the growth is chiefly drivenby domestic app developers, and more efforts are needed to attract overseasdevelopers to embrace HarmonyOS and HMS, said Xiang Ligang, director-general ofthe Information Consumption Alliance, a telecom industry association.

Huawei has no choice but to continuouslystrengthen its products and grow its ecosystem. That will also be the pathwayfor most Chinese companies to compete in the global arena, as Washingtonintensifies its crackdown on Chinese technology enterprises.

HuaweiQ2 Smartphone Sales Rise Amid Pandemic

Huawei experienced a 27.4 percent growth insales, quarter-over-quarter, in Q2 this year, moving it into a virtual tie withSamsung for the No 1 position, according to research and advisory companyGartner on Aug 25.

The COVID-19 pandemic continued to impactthe global mobile phone industry, as worldwide sales of smartphones to endusers dropped 20.4 percent to 295 million units in Q2 2020, Gartner Inc said.

Almost all major markets, except China,continued to face restrictions in travel and retail, which led to a decline insmartphone sales worldwide, according to Gartner.

"The improved situation in China sawdemand recovering quarter-over-quarter," said Anshul Gupta, seniorresearch director at Gartner, adding that Huawei's performance in China helpedit avoid a worse quarterly performance.

"Huawei extended its lead in China whereit captured 42.6 percent of China's smartphone market in the second quarter of2020," Gupta said, who attributed Huawei's performance to its aggressiveproduct introduction and sales promotion, as well as strong support ofcommunication service providers for its 5G smartphones.

HarmonyOSBrings IoT Power to Coal Mines

Huawei Technologies Co's self-developedoperating system HarmonyOS is now being used in the mining sector, thetechnology giant announced in Beijing on September 12.

Huawei has partnered China EnergyInvestment Corp to explore how to use its OS, which can power the internet ofthings or IoT, to boost efficiency in coal mines and create a benchmark for theapplication of HarmonyOS in mining. With this, Huawei has for the first timeextended HarmonyOS from consumer-oriented scenarios to industrial settings forcommercial use.

Customized as HarmonyOS for Mining, theoperating system's variant brings the power of the IoT to mining and breaks theconnection gap between agreements and equipment. It also provides services forthe digital and intelligent transformation of the coal industry.

According to Huawei, Harmony-OS for Miningwill now bring the advantage of the system's famed connected features tomining.

In March, Huawei established a dedicatedgroup whose Chinese nomenclature translates to Huawei Coal Mine Corps. Thegroup's vision is to bring digital technology to every mine and build smartmines with all things connected. Its mission is to work with partners to createa world-class smart mine solution to achieve mine safety, require deployment offewer people in mines, and green efficiency.

According to Huawei, Harmony-OS for Miningis already being used to offer miners' safety assistance, support robotinspection, and other areas in several mines of China Energy Investment Corp.

HarmonyOS for Mining signifies Huawei'sefforts to leverage its prowess in areas like 5G, artificial intelligence andcloud computing to help traditional sectors accelerate their digital transformation.

Experts said Huawei's efforts to apply avariant of HarmonyOS in industrial internet showcase the company's ambition inthe IoT era. The industrial internet refers to the convergence of industrialsystems with the power of advanced computing, analytics, sensing and new levelsof connectivity.

Wang Zhiqin, deputy head of the ChinaAcademy of Information and Communications Technology, a government think tank,said in an earlier interview that industrial internet is a typical applicationof 5G and it will enable the superfast wireless technology to upgrade a widerange of traditional sectors.

Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's consumerbusiness group, said on September 11 that more than 100 million users haveupgraded their smartphones' operating system to HarmonyOS 2.

HarmonyOS was first unveiled in August2019, and it has been used in smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, as well asthird-party companies' home appliances like ovens and smoke exhaustventilators.

Xiang Ligang, director-general of the InformationConsumption Alliance, a telecom industry association, said HarmonyOS'application in mining bears testimony to Huawei's technological strengths andthe operating system's future potential.