10th December, 2019
Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies says it is not in a hurry to deploy its Harmony operating system on its phones, but it will use it to equip other gadgets from next year.
A Huawei spokesman said on Monday there are no plans currently to roll out the OS to its phones, tablets and computers, Huawei’s most popular products.
Wang Chenglu, president of the Huawei consumer business group’s software division made the clarification at a store event held in the city of Shenzhen, where the firm has its headquarters.
The comment was reported in the government-backed Shenzhen Special Zone Daily newspaper.
Huawei unveiled its proprietary OS in August as a possible alternative to Google’s Android, as it copes with trade restrictions by the United States that threatens to cut its access to technology made by US firms.
A “smart screen”, or connected television product was its first product to use Harmony, called Hongmeng in Chinese, but it said at the time that it would stick to Android for smartphones and gradually roll out Harmony to other devices such as smartwatches, speakers and virtual reality gadgets.
Wang reiterated that stance at the store event and noted the company would still prefer to use Android on its phones.