In May 2019, the U.S. placed Huawei on the Entity List preventing the manufacturer from accessing its U.S. supply chain including Google. While many Google apps weren’t allowed to be used in China, being placed on the Entity List meant that Huawei could no longer use the Google Mobile Services (GMS) version of Android. At first, Huawei used a Google-free open-source version of Android (which flopped) until it developed HarmonyOS.
Even a year before being placed on the Entity List, Huawei was concerned about losing the ability to install the GMS version of Android on its new phones and started to develop an in-house operating system. And when Harmony was first introduced in August 2019, Huawei consumer chief Richard Yu said that it could be used on phones, computers, televisions, tablets, automobiles, and more.
HarmonyOS 4.0 could be first unveiled at HDC 2023 on August 4th
Here we are nearly four years later and HarmonyOS 3.1 is installed on the first of this year’s two Huawei flagship lines, the P60 series. And according to Huawei Central, HarmonyOS 4.0 is coming. Besides delivering new AI capabilities, the new iteration of the software is supposed to improve the cross-device experience between smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, smart televisions, and more. Smart cars will see a major improvement in functionality with HarmonyOS 4.0.
According to the new report, HarmonyOS 4.0 is expected to be released starting on August 4th during this year’s Huawei Developers Conference. That means that Huawei’s next flagship line, the Mate 60 series, should have Harmony 4.0 pre-installed; the Mate 60 models could be released during the third or fourth quarter of this year.
Launched in 2011 in China, Huawei’s App Galaxy is now found on all of the company’s new handsets along with the manufacturer’s own Huawei Mobile Services. Interestingly, to prevent its sub-unit Honor from having to deal with the same bans that Huawei was, the latter sold Honor to a conglomerate for approximately $15 billion. Since it is no longer associated with Huawei, Honor is allowed to use the Google Mobile Services version of Android along with the Play Store and has since the Honor 50 series was released in May 2021.
