HarmonyOS – Huawei Launches New Operating System at HDC 2019

We were expecting a new operating system from Huawei for a while now. It was high time that they should launch after the US-trade ban. There were many names surfaced for the OS like Hongmeng OS or Ark OS, and many of us thought it will be a replacement for Android OS. The suspense has broken as Huawei announced HarmonyOS at Huawei Developer Conference today.

HarmonyOS

HarmonyOS is designed to work in most of the smart devices we use. Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, said, “We are entering a day and age where people expect a holistic intelligent experience across all devices and scenarios. To support this, we felt it was important to have an operating system with improved cross-platform capabilities.”

Traditionally whenever we see a new operating system it comes with new hardware, like Wear OS for smartwatches, but as mentioned, Huawei has a vision of making an operating system which will be lightweight and used in all the devices we use in our day to day life to make a seamless experience and integrated ecosystem.

As the OS is very flexible, an app made for this OS can be deployed in many hardware, saving time and budget for the developers. First, the OS will be used in smart devices like smartwatches, smart screens, in-vehicle systems, and smart speakers.

HarmonyOS – Features:

• Apple has a tight ecosystem in between their devices but the devices use different operating systems. For example, the iPhone uses iOS but the iPad uses iPadOS and their computers use MacOS. But HarmonyOS is meant to be used in all the hardware so this will create a more seamless ecosystem experience for the user. By adopting distributed architecture and distributed virtual bus technology, HarmonyOS offers a shared communications platform, distributed data management, distributed task scheduling, and virtual peripherals.
• HarmonyOS will address underperformance challenges with a Deterministic Latency Engine and high-performance Inter-Process Communication (IPC). This will help to set task execution priorities and time limits for scheduling in advance, reducing the response latency up to 25.7%.
• HarmonyOS uses a brand-new microkernel design that brings enhanced security and low latency to the table. This microkernel was designed to simplify kernel functions, implement as many system services as possible in user mode outside the kernel, and add mutual security protection. Microkernel of the HarmonyOS has much less code (roughly 1000th the amount of the Linux kernel), so the probability of an attack is greatly reduced.
• HarmonyOS can automatically adapt to different screen layout controls and interactions, and support both drag-and-drop control and preview-oriented visual programming. So apps made for the OS can be easily used in any hardware thrown at it.

HarmonyOS – Developer Plan

Huawei also announced the evolution roadmap for HarmonyOS and its kernel. HarmonyOS 1.0 will be first adopted in its smart screen products, which will be launched later this year. After that HarmonyOS will be optimized and gradually adopted across a broader range of smart devices, including wearables, HUAWEI Vision, and head units for your car. No words have been spoken if or when we will be able to see the OS running into more complex systems like in our smartphones or Personal Computers.

Huawei is already pushing the limits of artificial intelligence and 5G network system and we believe the OS is not an exception. Now it is time to see how users welcome HarmonyOS.