New Player in Mobile World: Harmony OS
It was in 2002 Microsoft released mobile operating system Windows Mobile. In 2003, Android was started, but in 2005 after Google’s purchase, it was restarted. In 2006, iOS project was started. In 2007 iOS was released and in 2008 Android was released. So, in between 2000–2009, it was a period of starting mobile operating systems and releasing immediately after they become ready.
As you see, chronologically Microsoft was the first, Google was the second, and Apple was the third player in mobile ecosystem. However, only the second and the third players, respectively Google and Apple rose up in popularity. Although Microsoft tried hard to increase popularity, this did not happen. It offered some prizes to developers to attract them into its own ecosystem. It purchased Nokia’s mobile division. Billions of dollars was spent, lots of advertisements were published, several strategic moves were made, but the first player started to struggle day by day. The more Android and iOS became popular, the less popular Windows Phone became. 2015 was a milestone in mobile world. It was understood that there were only two players and there was not enough space for Windows Phone. In the following years, Microsoft officially announced that it would not continue the Windows Phone project. The first player shut its doors, now there were only Google and Apple. For the last several years those two players have been dominating the market. There have not been any other player since then.
If we talk with numbers, currently Google dominates mobile market with 88% and the rest 12% is Apple’s. Some think this situation will continue like this for many more years. Others think mobile operating systems and their ecosystems will perish in time. There are not many who give chance for a new player in mobile world.
Here you are the new player: Harmony Operating System (OS). It has been developing by Huawei engineers. It is Linux based operating system. Likewise Android and iOS, Harmony OS too has capabilities to run on all smart devices such as phones, TVs, watches, household appliances, etc.
Huawei already created its own mobile ecosystem. Alternative to Google Mobile Services (GMS), Huawei developed its own which is called Huawei Mobile Services (HMS). HMS is already as rich as GMS and it is expected that in a short while HMS will release even more options and features to developers than GMS does. As all know, Huawei manufactures its own phones, computers, TVs, watches. In combination of Huawei phones, Harmony OS and HMS we can very clearly understand that this player is very strong.
Google develops Android, phone manufacturers customize it and integrate into their own phones. This situations has always been prone to some security bugs. For example, when Samsung newly release edge screen smartphone, Google found 11 security bugs in that phone. Even though it was Android operating system, due to being customized one, it had 11 important security issues. Additionally, customers always had to wait for update for very long times. Even if it is a flagship model. Most of phone have not got any update, and some have got update only after a long time. There have always been conflicts.
Huawei overcomes such issues, as it is manufacturing its own phones, developing its own operating system, and publishing its own services. So, the whole system is led by one center, similar to Apple, without giving opportunity to any kind of conflicts. For this reason, Huawei’s rival is Apple rather than Google. Huawei is already a bigger player than Apple, respectively holding 18% and 12% of the pie chart.
In the past, in advertisements, we could see that the advertised has its application referenced to only Google and Apple markets. But now, we can see also the third reference which is Huawei App Gallery. It means, Huawei’s ecosystem has already been widely accepted by the world. Thus, Harmony OS has a very big potential.
In conclusion, even though some do not give chance to any new player to accompany Android and iOS, there are very strong signs that Harmony OS will succeed very well. It is more advantageous than Android-based custom operating systems, due to reasons mentioned above. It is even more advantageous than iOS, because Huawei already has a bigger share in mobile devices. Smart device fans are excitingly waiting for the young and strong player.
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