HarmonyOS system is moving towards independence, and the domestic application ecology has entered the "year of breakthrough"
At an internal report meeting at the beginning of 2018, a technical leader from Huawei's Beijing Research Institute brought the topic that he had prepared for a week to the founder Ren Zhengfei, and it was this report that planted the seeds for the birth of the "Hongmeng" system. After six years of development, HarmonyOS has gradually grown from an operating system that supports Huawei to get rid of mobile phone path dependence to one of the strategic grasps of Huawei's software business, and through a series of recent intensive signings, it has demonstrated its determination to "go to Android".
"The HarmonyOS ecosystem belongs to every developer. We firmly believe that the starry sky will eventually converge into a bright galaxy, and HarmonyOS will join hands with thousands of developers to embark on a new ecological path. On January 18, Yu Chengdong, Executive Director of Huawei, CEO of Device BG, and Chairman of Intelligent Vehicle Solution BU, said at the launch ceremony of the HarmonyOS ecosystem that without the support of partners and developers, the HarmonyOS ecosystem would not have been able to succeed today.
On the same day, Huawei announced the latest progress on HarmonyOS, including the full application for the developer preview version of HarmonyOS NEXT and the commercial version that will be launched in the fourth quarter. According to the latest data released at the scene, the number of HarmonyOS ecological devices has increased to 800 million.
"HarmonyOS's independence means that Huawei has no way back and is determined to fight a tough battle, but the operational compatibility and development compatibility of applications are the key issues that HarmonyOS must face, and at this stage, HarmonyOS needs to ensure that its system can be seamlessly integrated with existing Android apps and devices, which is a gradual process. A developer told the first financial reporter.
HarmonyOS Moves Towards "Independence"
Since Huawei announced the full launch of HarmonyOS native applications in September 2023, enterprises and developers in various fields including social networking, audio-visual, gaming, information, finance, and food have joined the construction of the HarmonyOS ecosystem. Among them, nearly half of the Top200 mobile Internet applications have started the development of HarmonyOS native applications, including Alipay, Meituan, JD.com, Bilibili, Xiaohongshu, Weibo, AutoNavi, miHoYo, Qunar, etc.
Behind the intensive signing comes a major change in the HarmonyOS version. Since the second half of last year, Huawei has continuously released news to the outside world, and will gradually use the self-developed pure HarmonyOS kernel in the future.
On the 18th, the "Hongmeng Ecological Thousand Sails Sailing Ceremony" also attracted much attention from the outside world. That day. HarmonyOS NEXT is officially open to developers, which means that in addition to Android and iOS versions, future applications such as mobile apps that need to adapt to the HarmonyOS NEXT system will need to develop a separate HarmonyOS exclusive version.
"For a long time, the development of software root technologies for operating systems such as Linux kernel and programming languages has been led by overseas companies, and the era of the Internet of Everything has given you a breakthrough. Yu Chengdong said at the launch site of the plan that only when technology takes root can it form its own set of core technology base.
"Hongmeng was established in 2015 and has gone through ten years of tempering, from the beginning to only support smart screens, to support lightweight IoT devices in 2020, and to expand to mobile phones, tablets, watches, and bracelets in 2021. Yu Chengdong said that the current number of Hongmeng ecological equipment has reached 800 million, compared with 700 million five months ago.
Different from the Linux used by the Android system, the native HarmonyOS adopts Huawei's self-developed architecture, and developers can deploy and develop multiple terminals. A Huawei technician said that the traditional Linux is a hybrid lane, and the HarmonyOS kernel can assign lanes with different priorities to different characters, and Huawei currently provides developers with development kits such as scenario-based controls, meta-service APIs, and device-cloud integration.
According to the on-site announcement, with the release of the developer preview version of HarmonyOS NEXT, Huawei will launch the developer beta version (beta) in the second quarter and the commercial version in the fourth quarter.
"This is the first time that a domestic operating system has used all self-developed technologies at the kernel level, and Huawei also hopes to respond to the outside world's doubts about HarmonyOS Android in the past. A developer at the scene told reporters that the developer preview version launched by Huawei this time has removed the traditional Linux kernel and AOSP and other codes, and only supports the HarmonyOS kernel and HarmonyOS native applications, which has also brought changes to the industry.
According to a research report released by Shengang Securities, by the end of 2022, the number of APPs monitored in the domestic market reached 2.58 million. Assuming that Apple's iOS App Store and third-party app markets each account for about 50%, the number of potential apps that need to migrate from Android to the native HarmonyOS could reach millions. Assuming that the average labor cost of each application migration is about 40,000-50,000 yuan, the overall market space will reach 10 billion yuan.
"It may take a certain period of time to build an ecosystem. From the news side, 2024 may mainly focus on the migration of head applications, and the next 1-2 years may gradually expand to waist and tail applications. The agency said.
The "Breakout Battle" of Application Ecology
In an internal letter at the beginning of the year, Yu Chengdong regarded 2024 as a key year for the native HarmonyOS, in addition to accelerating the development of various HarmonyOS native applications, winning the technical base and the tripartite ecosystem will be the "most difficult" battle facing next. According to Huawei's specified goal, it hopes to build 5,000 "pure-blooded" HarmonyOS native applications with partners in 2024.
However, looking back at the development history of other operating systems, it is not easy to really walk through the "security line".
The main challenge Samsung faced when launching the BADA operating system was to build a complete ecosystem, including a developer community, an app store, and device compatibility. Although the technology has been affirmed by the circle, the installed number of mobile phones has been left behind by the Android system. In 2012, BADA merged with Intel's Tizen operating system to form the new Tizen, but it still failed to win the new operating system war.
In addition, Google and Apple are facing challenges in the interconnection of multiple devices. The reason is that the huge interest group restricts Google's investment in Fuchsia in terms of internal resources, and for Apple, rebuilding an IoTOS means that more energy needs to be invested, so Apple has chosen a lot of Kit tools, such as HomeKit, ARKit, etc., to advance on the asset boundary in the past.
A co-founder of a leading Internet company once said that the HarmonyOS ecosystem is not simply "concentrating on big things", but needs to mobilize participants in different links under the positive output of commercial interests.
"If the ecology is successful, then Hongmeng will become. In the face of challenges, Gong Ti, President of Huawei's Device BG Software Dept., is not shy about it. At the previous meeting, Gong Ti said that at this stage, Hongmeng has completed two major battles, and there is still one battle left to apply ecology.
Wu Feng, deputy general manager of Fuzhou Chuanyi Zhuoyue Vocational Skills Training School Co., Ltd., said in an interview with reporters that the challenge of enterprise development of Hongmeng App comes first from the input cost at the technical level, followed by whether the results can be achieved as soon as possible after the technical solution is switched, and then the launch of Hongmeng App needs to go through the test of the market, and finally the compatibility of hardware needs to be considered, and whether the system can adapt to hardware.
At the conference site, some leading application partners also shared the process of collaborative development with HarmonyOS. The relevant person in charge of Meituan said that they improved the ability of the middle platform of Hongmeng technology by carrying out multi-module collaborative design and development of large-scale applications, and through Hongmeng, the middle platform capabilities were connected, and the development of the first Hongmeng native application version was completed in six weeks, and the first "Hongmeng takeaway" was ordered. AutoNavi said that the development of the original version of HarmonyOS has enabled AutoNavi to challenge HarmonyOS heavy-duty applications.
"The opportunity for the rise of the ecology is fleeting, and everyone needs to work hard to reach the top quickly, and the Hongmeng ecosystem will open a new blue ocean of more than one trillion yuan industry, and all participants are both co-builders and beneficiaries. Zhou Hongyi, the founder of 360, said when talking about Hongmeng at the scene, the ecology does not belong to any company, and everyone needs to work together to seize the opportunity.
Zhong Xiaolei, a research analyst at Canalys, told reporters that the reason for promoting various software manufacturers to increase Hongmeng is not only the current scale of Hongmeng, but also the expectation of Hongmeng's future growth. Next year, Hongmeng City will have the opportunity to go to more than 15%.
"The challenge at this stage is how to make the HarmonyOS native app bring a unified and differentiated user experience compared to other operating systems, and how to improve and encourage the transition of the Android development system, so that more enterprises and developers can enter the HarmonyOS developer community. Zhong Xiaolei said.