The Huawei Mate 60 Pro powered by the Kirin 9000s 5G chipset
Before the release of the Mate 60 line, which is powered by the controversial Kirin 9000s 5G chipset, Huawei received licenses allowing it to use 4G versions of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon SoCs to power the P50, Mate 50, and P60 flagship series in 2022 and 2023. It still isn’t totally clear how China’s largest foundry, SMIC was able to manufacture the 7nm Kirin 9000s without the use of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines which are banned in China.
The next version of HarmonyOS, aptly named HarmonyOS Next, will not support any Android apps. A developer preview version of HarmonyOS Next is expected to be released in the current quarter and Huawei is already in talks with major companies in China to develop native apps for the next iteration of HarmonyOS. We could see a new version of Alibaba’s mobile payment app Alipay for the platform along with its workplace collaboration app DingTalk.
Other major Chinese firms including e-commerce company JD.com, video gaming leader NetEase, and food delivery firm Meituan, started recruiting developers in November to write native apps for HarmonyOS. One of the first multinational corporations to develop an app for HarmonyOS Next is McDonald’s China with over 5,500 units in the country, more than 200,000 employees, and over 1 billion customers served annually.
The next flagship series due from Huawei is the photography-based P70 line expected during the first quarter of this year.