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Huawei developed a new edition of its annual developer conference with several news about the future of its devices. And one of them focused on the release of HarmonyOS 2.0. Yes, the second version of Huawei's operating system.
An option that becomes a firm bet to replace Android as the operating system in its future mobiles. So it is possible that in 2021 we will see HarmonyOS 2.0 on Huawei phones. This would be key to its independence, but can it compete with Android?
What HarmonyOS will offer
Huawei has shared a series of data about HarmonyOS that allow us to get an idea of the concept behind this operating system.
One of the main ideas is that HarmonyOS can work on all Huawei devices, and not only concentrate on mobiles. So it could be implemented on your TVs, smart watches, computers, etc. A single operating system for the entire Huawei ecosystem.
Following this line, HarmonyOS 2.0 implements a dynamic that allows each application to adapt automatically to the screen of each device. So the interface of the apps, thanks to the adaptive UX framework, will not be a problem or something that they have to manually program for each device.
Another point that has been highlighted on different occasions is that HarmonyOS is Open Source, opening the possibility that any developer can take a look at the code. In fact, HarmonyOS 2.0 is already available in beta for developers. And of course, only for a small group of devices.
So HarmonyOS is considered an open and distributed operating system, and not as an alternative to Android.
In its first presentation of HarmonyOS, the Huawei team highlighted that this operating system would be superior to the rest in terms of security, since it implements architecture based on microkernels that are combined with a series of technologies. And other of the promises behind Harmony OS is that it will offer greater energy efficiency and will have almost 25% less latency in the response of applications.
And at today's event, the role that HarmonyOS will play in Huawe's vision of interconnecting all home devices to control them from the mobile device was also highlighted. A system that not only allows ordering from one device to another, but also cross data to meet the needs of users.
Huawei's project roadmap
In today's presentation, Richard Yu unveiled the HarmonyOS source code roadmap, mentioning 3 key dates for us to see the new operating system up and running:
- September 10 - Adds support for devices with 128 KB to 128 MB of RAM
- April 2021 - support for devices that have between 128 MB and 4 GB of RAM
- October 2021 - support for all devices with 4G RAM or more
If you follow this release schedule, already in the last quarter of 2021 we could see some tests of HarmonyOS working on mobile devices.
