It is reported that Huawei will fully switch to its own platform HarmonyOS in the second half of this year, abandoning the Android system, and it is expected that the next version of HarmonyOS will be released with the upcoming Mate 70 flagship series.
Since Huawei announced the launch of its self-developed system HarmonyOS, there has been a popular claim that HarmonyOS is a skinned Android system. At the autumn all-scenario press conference on September 25, 2023, Huawei officially announced the launch of the HarmonyOS NEXT project, which announced that the Linux kernel and Android AOSP code in the HarmonyOS kernel will be eliminated, and it will no longer be compatible with Android applications, which also means that Huawei HarmonyOS will completely get rid of the "Android skinning system".
Although the HarmonyOS system was originally developed for IoT devices, after the sanctions, Huawei converted it into the operating system of its mobile phones, tablets and other products with the fastest progress. After all, with the untimely death of Windows Phone as a negative case, Huawei HarmonyOS was not in a hurry to completely break away from Android at the beginning, but retained the attributes of compatible Android apps, which gave Huawei time to cultivate its own ecosystem, reserve enough development talents and application resources, and allow users to make a natural transition without causing user loss. It's a very large project, and the transition was made so carefully so that it doesn't repeat the mistakes of Windows Phone.
It is reported that HarmonyOS NEXT has been expanded to 4,000 applications, and according to sources, the total number of HarmonyOS NEXT applications will increase to 5,000 within the year, and Huawei's goal is to reach 50,000 in the short term, in order to better support the application ecosystem of the entire HarmonyOS system.
It is believed that in the near future, Huawei HarmonyOS will become the third mainstream smartphone operating system after Apple's iOS and Google's Android, competing with them on the same stage.