Huawei Unveils Harmony, Its Answer to Android, in Survival Bid
Huawei, the Chinese technology giant, on Friday unveiled its own mobile operating system, Harmony, in an effort to ensure that its fast-growing smartphone business can survive the United States government's clampdown on the firm.
Huawei has been at the mercy of the Trump administration for the past three months, ever since the Commerce Department began requiring that American companies apply for special permission to sell parts and technology to the Chinese firm, which Washington officials accuse of being a potential conduit for cyberspying by Beijing. The move effectively choked off Huawei's access to Google's Android software and American-made microchips and other hardware components, and put a big question mark over Huawei's future.
Although President Trump said in June that he would loosen some of the restrictions to allow American companies to continue working with Huawei, economic ties between the United States and China have grown more tense since then, and the prospect of immediate relief for Huawei seems more distant.
Unveiling Harmony at a Huawei developer conference in the southern city of Dongguan on Friday, Richard Yu, the head of the company's consumer business, said that the new operating system was designed to work not only on mobile phones, but on smart watches and other connected home devices as well. Indeed, the first Huawei products to run on Harmony will not be smartphones, but "smart screens" that the company plans to release later this year. Mr. Yu said that Harmony would gradually be incorporated into the company's other smart devices over the next three years. But there is no immediate plan, he said, to release Harmony-based phones.
Also at Bloomberg, XDA Developers, The Verge, TechCrunch, CNBC, CNN.
See also: Huawei's cross-platform HarmonyOS will ship in China in 2019, globally in 2020
Previously:
Google Pulls Huawei's Android License
The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google's Iron Grip On Android
Google Doesn't Want Huawei Ban Because It Would Result in an Android Competitor
Trump Administration Will Loosen Restrictions Against Huawei
Huawei's Android Alternative Lives on... for IoT
Related Stories
The Verge has a story about the latest in the US government's war against Huawei:
Following the US crackdown on Chinese technology companies, Google has cut off Huawei’s Android license, dealing a huge blow to the besieged phonemaker. Reuters first reported the news, and The Verge subsequently confirmed Google’s suspension of business with Huawei with a source familiar with the matter.
Reached for comment, a Google spokesperson said only “We are complying with the order and reviewing the implications.” The order, in this case, appears to be the US Commerce Department’s recent decision to place Huawei on the “Entity List,” which as Reuters reports is a list of companies that are unable to buy technology from US companies without government approval.
Speaking to Reuters, a Google spokesperson confirmed that “Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices.” So while existing Huawei phones around the world won’t be immediately impacted by the decision, the future of updates for those phones as well as any new phones Huawei would produce remains in question.
Huawei is now restricted to using the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), cutting the company off from critical Google apps and services that consumers outside of China expect on Android devices. That also means Huawei will only be able to push security updates for Android once they’re made available in AOSP, assuming the company uses its own update system. It’s not clear yet how this will affect the full range of Android integrations that Huawei depends on, but we will update this story when we receive additional clarification about the impacts of Google’s decision.
Most Android manufacturers — including Huawei — are what’s known as Google hardware partners. This relationship lets them build their phones around a collection of Google products, from apps like Google Maps and Assistant, to under-the-hood tools like location services or push notifications. While Google gives off the impression that Android is open and available to everyone, these services represent a quiet control that the company doesn’t often enforce over its hardware partners — though, as it has now proven, it certainly can.
With the recent order, the U.S. government forced Google’s hand. The U.S. Department of Commerce put Huawei on the “Entity List,” which blocks it from buying technology from U.S. companies without government approval. Huawei and Google now have three months to send updates to existing users. For new phones, Huawei may be able to use the open-source version of Android, but it can’t be a Google partner.
The distinction between using Android and being a Google partner seems messy from the outside, but “Android” technically refers to the core operating system that covers basic things like making phone calls or using the camera. The freely available version of Android is called the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and a company doesn’t have to be a partner to use it.
Report: Google argues the Huawei ban would hurt its Android monopoly
The Trump administration would probably describe its Huawei export ban as a move that improves national security by keeping China's pet telecom company out of the US market. According to a report from The Financial Times, Google's recent discussions with the US government actually argue that the Huawei ban is bad for national security. Google is reportedly asking for an exemption from the export ban.
The argument, reportedly, is that Huawei is currently dependent on Google for its Android smartphone software, and that dependence is a good thing for the US. The Financial Times quotes "one person with knowledge of the conversations" as saying, "Google has been arguing that by stopping it from dealing with Huawei, the US risks creating two kinds of Android operating system: the genuine version and a hybrid one. The hybrid one is likely to have more bugs in it than the Google one, and so could put Huawei phones more at risk of being hacked, not least by China."
[...] Google's control over the Android ecosystem—even when devices don't use the Google apps—means there is still some level of security and updateability going into these devices. Google's first argument in that Financial Times report is that more secure devices are better for national security.
The second argument in the above quote is that a ban would "create two kinds of Android" and hurt Google's monopoly over Android. If you're a smartphone manufacturer looking for a smartphone OS, Android is the only game in town. The latest worldwide OS market share numbers from the IDC show an 86.6/13.3 percent share between Android and iOS, respectively, with "Other" clocking in at 0.0 percent market share. Taken as a whole, the US has a smartphone OS monopoly.
More secure devices (used by foreign targets for NSA hacking) are better for national security? Nice try, Google.
Previously: Huawei Working on its Own OS to Prepare for "Worst-Case Scenario" of Being Deprived of Android
Huawei Hysteria is a False Alarm, Culture Secretary Tells MPs
Google Pulls Huawei's Android License
The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google's Iron Grip On Android
Huawei Calls on U.S. to Adjust its Approach to Tackle Cybersecurity Effectively
Trump reversed course on Huawei. What happens now?
Six weeks after Huawei was blacklisted by the US government, President Donald Trump had what the Chinese telecom firm described as a "U-turn." Trump said Saturday that "US companies can sell their equipment to Huawei," allowing the transactions won't present a "great, national emergency problem."
Trump's comments at the G20 in Japan came after a widely anticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jingping. The two sides met to discuss the impasse in the trade dispute, and Huawei, one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world, has become a flash point in the battle.
In May, the US Commerce Department banned sales of American-made goods to Huawei without first obtaining a license. US officials have accused the company of working to undermine US national security and foreign policy interests. Trump said Huawei was still part of the ongoing trade discussions between Washington and Beijing, but for now, he would move to resume allowing US companies to sell parts to the Chinese firm.
Also at Android Authority and Business Insider:
President Trump has said US firms can continue selling to Huawei, apparently contradicting a Commerce Department trade blacklist on the Chinese tech firm.
See also: A China-U.S. Trade Truce Could Enshrine a Global Economic Shift
Previously: New Law Bans U.S. Government from Buying Equipment from Chinese Telecom Giants ZTE and Huawei
Huawei Working on its Own OS to Prepare for "Worst-Case Scenario" of Being Deprived of Android
Google Pulls Huawei's Android License
The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google's Iron Grip On Android
Huawei Calls on U.S. to Adjust its Approach to Tackle Cybersecurity Effectively
Google Doesn't Want Huawei Ban Because It Would Result in an Android Competitor
Huawei Soldiers on, Announces Nova 5 and Kirin 810
Related: U.S. Reaches Deal to Keep China's ZTE in Business: Congressional Aide
US Hits China's ZTE with $1 Billion Penalty
Huawei's HongMeng OS was supposed to be the company's answer to counter the Android license ban if it ended up meddling in the company consumer business. There were near-endless waves of rumors talking about software optimization and how it was faster than Google's mobile platform, but it looks like Huawei's Senior Vice President has finally cleared the air on the company's efforts towards HongMeng OS. Apparently, it is not going to be presented as an Android alternative for smartphones, but it will still have a variety of benefits.
Huawei board member and Senior Vice President Catherine Chen at a meeting in Brussels stated that HongMeng OS isn't designed for smartphones. That is rather strange to hear, especially when the Huawei co-founder repeatedly stated that the company's custom operating system is likely faster than Android or iOS, but lacks a competitive app ecosystem. Catherine also says that smartphone operating systems feature millions of lines of code, while HongMeng OS doesn't.
Even though she claims that HongMeng OS features an extremely low latency compared to a smartphone OS, it will be used in IoT-related applications, with the platform apparently being in development way before the Android license ban came into effect.
Previously: Google Pulls Huawei's Android License
The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google's Iron Grip On Android
Google Doesn't Want Huawei Ban Because It Would Result in an Android Competitor
Trump Administration Will Loosen Restrictions Against Huawei
What Huawei To Go: Hundreds Of Chinese Tech Giant's US Workers To Get Pink Slip
HarmonyOS 2.0 Beta Released, HarmonyOS Devices Coming in 2021
Due to geopolitical tensions, Huawei cannot rely on Google Android operating system over the long term, and in May 2019 we reported HongMeng OS may become Huawei's OS alternative to Android. HongMeng (鸿蒙) OS will finally be called HarmonyOS outside of China, and we recently reported Huawei was trying to attract more developers with monetary incentives to brings more apps to HMS (Huawei Mobile Services).
We now have a more clear timeline with the company's recent release of HarmonyOS 2.0 beta that's currently available for smart home applications, smartwatches, and head-on-displays, and will become available for smartphones in December 2020.
Previously: Huawei Announces HarmonyOS, a Smartphone OS and Android Alternative
Huawei confirms a June 2, 2021 launch for HarmonyOS
Huawei has set a date for the launch of its first-party operating system, HarmonyOS, in its native China. The software may have originally been intended to replace Android on its smartphones, but may also ship with other new products such as the MatePad Pro 2 and Watch 3, which are also now expected to debut on the same day.
Huawei's HiSilicon Develops First RISC-V Design to Overcome Arm Restrictions
In a bid to overcome US restrictions on its Arm designs, Huawei's HiSilicon has turned to the open-source RISC-V architecture and has even released its first RISC-V board for Harmony OS developers. Due to being blacklisted by the U.S. government, Huawei and its chip division HiSilicon do not have access to development and production technologies designed in America. The restrictions include many Arm processor architectures, including those used in various microcontrollers that Huawei uses widely.
[...] The Hi3861 is aimed mostly at the IoT market, whereas HiSilicon's development efforts were historically aimed at high-margin smartphones, tablets, PCs, and embedded systems. But Huawei needs computing platforms to use for its other devices, so the HiSilicon Hi3861 is just what the doctor ordered at this time.
Huawei Expected to Develop a 3nm Kirin SoC but Release May Happen in 2022, Suggests Latest Trademark
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 09 2019, @05:51PM (1 child)
So, Huawei's first products using Harmony will be IoT devices? Devices that traditionally have had insufficient (if any) security built in? This from a company who has been banned in the US because they feed user data to the Chinese government (among other privacy violations).
What could possibly go wrong?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday August 09 2019, @07:05PM
There is a "demand" for these devices, and they were already planning on using HongMeng/Harmony as a lightweight OS for IoT devices even if they didn't go all the way and use it on smartphones.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Friday August 09 2019, @07:36PM (2 children)
Translated from Black Speech of Marketing and Diplomacy to English it says "We don't have to keep using Android, so don't push the issue."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 10 2019, @01:08AM (1 child)
It may be time to get a Huawei phone and avoid the USA's TLA-invaded Android "system". Oh wait...
:( can someone OTHER than China make an alternative phone OS? Please?!
(Score: 1) by xenu on Saturday August 10 2019, @05:20AM
tbh I'm not a big fan of it, but Sailfish OS is a thing.
(Score: 1) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Friday August 09 2019, @08:08PM (6 children)
It is odd when two vast systems of control agree on one thing, your cell phone(and just about everything else) must spy on you and contribute to someone else's top down control of you in a panopticon. All technological and ethical hurdles have been lept at record pace to accomplish this. 20 layers of tech and 50 layers of bureaucracy and 1 layer will always sneak in there to turn the device into part of the panopticon. Which will be denied, later admitted, memory hole, rinse repeat...
That both chinese and american systems converge on this behavior pattern despite their many other apparent differences is of historical and evolutionary significance.
So we know what types of structures build technology that has no ethical value, the question I will keep asking is what type of human organization will deliver tech that has ethical value? And don't say mozilla or canonical unless you want to be roundly mocked for naivete.
Your organization is either committed to creating personal devices for persons to use for the persons use, or you are building a prison. Get it through your head. And will anyone join me in rejection of the word 'smart' for devices? I think we should preserve use of that word for things that are actually smart.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Friday August 09 2019, @09:57PM (5 children)
So, does that mean tech that simply does what it's supposed to without spying, pushing ads, nagging, copy protection, no "cloud" dependencies...
Or does it mean tech that does something, say, aggressively positive, like outing companies that do things such as the above?
Or must it do both?
Or something else?
--
Frankly, autocorrect, I'm getting a bit tired of your shirt.
(Score: 1) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Thursday August 15 2019, @04:26PM (4 children)
I'm primarily talking about software that does what the user wants it to and nothing else. That gives the user and the user alone control of whatever it is they paid for and own.
But in the big picture, secondarily, tertiarily, the crisis or end of trust affects every human organization(except the extremely rich and nationalistic or fanatical religious interest responsible for the massive damage to society caused by things like facegag/cambridgeaanalytica.
We have seen, haven't we, how CNN, NYT, WSG, Washpo, NBC, etc etc let the miami herald hang out to dry for about a decade on a story that is so obviously critical to understanding of the political situation in the united states, that no one in their right mind should trust these institutions to investigate their way out of a paper bag.
So yes, a republic, democracy or whatever, cannot long exist if investigative journalism is not capable of discovering treachery and the true intentions of the actors who have access to mass media propaganda.
Small groups of people like Whowhatwhy.org and muckrock are examples of types of organizations that we need more of. Whowhatwhy is one of the only set of actual journalists who will go on record and defend the obvious assertion that JFK was assasinated by LBJ and a variety of interests, which is likely why Israel has nuclear weapons today and can't be challenged when they assasinate civilians in broad daylight with shots to the head.
Like really think, what establishes trust? What is trust actually made of? Totalitarian forces are at work destroying all trust outside of their network, that much is clear.
Trust amongst our closest friends and childhood friends and families and long term coworkers who we know *for sure* don't haave muckymuck backgrounds, is our greatest asset against what the forces of the free world and western civiliation are facing.
I do not believe as of this time that anyone from the nations of israel, russia or china, at least, can be trusted AT ALL to develop software that does not betray the user. Nor do I believe that anyone with a background in u.s. law enforcement or military can be trusted to do this.
This is a full spectrum society wide war being waged on civilian culture and governance by totalitarian forces, and now that this is obvious, the people who don't want to live in a nightmare world, like myself, need to step up.
I am trying to do my part.
The military is there to protect civilians, not infiltrate them and ruin them, which it seems many highly paid police and military officers seem to have either forgotten or are not wise enough to comprehend.
Without wisdom and ethics, or course, intelligence can often be dangerous to its owner.
Thank you for the good question, it means a lot to me that at least one person confirmed gets what i'm saying, so thanks for that.
And yeah #findyourchildhoodfriends, it's a good thing to do anyway even if it weren't critical to the survival of the species and secure operation of computer hardware and software.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Thursday August 15 2019, @05:09PM (3 children)
That's what my software does. Other than the pay for part - I give it away.
Couldn't agree more.
Yes, but that's not saying much — for the most part, that's not where we get our software, operating systems, and integrated hardware+software systems from. So they do very little to alleviate the trust issue WRT our tools.
IMO, the war is over, and the public lost. Sad to say. There's no avenue remaining to solve the problem; big money and powerful interests (although I am probably simply repeating myself there) have a stranglehold on these issues, both by de facto control of the means of production, and via tailored agitprop that keeps the majority in ineffective, largely unaware, turmoil.
--
Stupidity is actually a superpower. We learn this when
we repeatedly fail to defeat it with intelligence.
(Score: 1) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Thursday August 15 2019, @05:58PM (2 children)
I respect your opinion but I don't think fatalism is helpful, nor is there any way out of this for someone like me who has been working in the light for a long time, under threat.
Please check the post I just made to the 'site got taken down' thread, it might change your mind.
I believe now is the time to start a global anticorruption movement because now everyone knows, and at this specific moment, all the propaganda in the world cannot distract from the real secret of victoria, that victoria got to be a supermodel because she let herself be abused and/or worse by elderly rich men before she turned 15.
The nightmare world where we lose is not worth living in and as for me and mine, we have not yet begun to fight.
The question is if the entire united states military and police are going to bend over and take it, and let these predators assasinate freely in civilian society.
I ask you, if anything, at least help me not get killed for acting according to my conscience.
But if you can't take a stand against what is going on right now, what would you ever take a stand against?
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Friday August 16 2019, @12:31AM (1 child)
Oh no.
I spent my entire life until I was 60 "taking stands", and our society just kept getting worse. Much worse. This isn't fatalism; it's the voice of long, hard experience.
The politics are dirtier, the constitution is a laughing stock among the judiciary and the legislators, we actually have an intentional permanent lower class that is forced there and held there, privacy has become a myth, debt is everywhere, immigrants have been magicked from the actual boost to our economic engine that they truly represent into the very worst sort of false but effective boogyman, the sexes are at each other's throats, the environment is teetering on the verge of a sudden collapse (pick your poison: insect die-off blowing out the food chain, CO2 borking the ocean acidity which will in turn blow the food chain, warming crushing whole bunches of crops which will... yeah... that freaking reality-show has-been Trump doing something really stupid... you get the idea.) We are so fucked. I just can't figure out what's going to get us first.
I'm done. Retired now, and going to pass on soon anyway, very little time left, which I intend to spend enjoying, not marching, etc. Because I truly believe this is about all there is left. For everyone, not just me.
Ball's in your court. Have fun. I'll watch. I have survivalist levels of popcorn stashed.
--
A day without pizza is like...
Just kidding. I have no idea.
(Score: 1) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Friday August 16 2019, @03:35PM
you severely underestimate your capacity, it is sad when men think they are mice, but im not here to boss anyone around.
(Score: 3, Touché) by darkfeline on Friday August 09 2019, @10:33PM (3 children)
HarmonyOS, really? Harmony in China is Tiananmen Square and Hong Kong. Nothing to see here comrade, just national harmony being instilled upon the populace.
Smart screens? Where have I heard of those before? Smart screen, smartphone, telephone, tele screen.
This OS installed on IoT monitoring devices will be spreading a lot of harmony throughout China, you can count on that (as long as you count 2 + 2 = 5).
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 10 2019, @10:17AM
It makes sense, doesn't it?
Harmony is having your phone run you over if you don't step aside, citizen.
Harmony as having your phone reporting you to the authorities for being near a protest.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday August 10 2019, @12:42PM
Hey! Hong Kong hasn't felt the full harmony yet!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 12 2019, @03:01PM
the beatings will continue until morale improves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 10 2019, @12:06AM (1 child)
oh please please dear god make all hongmeng speed tests beat google miserably!
the sole purpose for android would be revealed and it's not about making a good OS (lol java chip).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 10 2019, @12:17AM
android already lost if harmony OS comes with a ethernet driver/interface... a network access port NOT treated like a 2nd class citizen.