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Cellphones Android Operating Systems

Huawei's Mate 70 Smartphones Will Run Its New Android-Free OS (theverge.com) 80

Posted by BeauHD from the would-you-look-at-that dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Huawei has announced its new Mate 70 series smartphone lineup, which will be the first offered with the company's new HarmonyOS Next operating system that doesn't rely on Google's Android services and won't run any Android apps, according to a report by Reuters. The four models of the Mate 70 also don't feature any US hardware following a half decade of US sanctions.

The Mate 70, Mate 70 Pro, Mate 70 Pro Plus, and Mate 70 RS will also be offered with Huawei's HarmonyOS 4.3, which first launched in August 2019 as an alternative to Google's Android OS and is still compatible with Android's extensive app library. Users who decide to opt for Huawei's new Android-free HarmonyOS Next will have less choice when it comes to the apps they can install. Huawei says it has "secured more than 15,000 applications for its HarmonyOS ecosystem, with plans to expand to 100,000 apps in the coming months," according to Reuters.

Starting next year, Huawei also says all the new phones and tablets it launches in 2025 will run HarmonyOS Next. [...] Huawei hasn't confirmed what processors are being used in the Mate 70 lineup, but the company has previously used chips made by China's SMIC for last year's Mate 60 series and other smartphones.
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Huawei's Mate 70 Smartphones Will Run Its New Android-Free OS More

Huawei's Mate 70 Smartphones Will Run Its New Android-Free OS

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  • Dead On Arrival (Score:3, Interesting)

    by NoMoreACs ( 6161580 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2024 @07:24PM (#64974765)

    There simply isn't room for a third mobile Platform.

    If Microsoft couldn't force one into existence by sheer force of Marketing, then it is highly unlikely anyone can.

    • Re:Dead On Arrival (Score:4, Insightful)

      by hdyoung ( 5182939 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2024 @07:33PM (#64974785)
      China can mandate it within their borders, which would create a billion-person market.

      It could spread to the global south as well, which is much friendlier to China than the west. Countries hostile to the US will trust it more than Android.

      It’ll go absolutely nowhere in western countries, but globally it could grab a big chunk of marketshare.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        The countries might trust China more than the US, their people don't.

        • Re:Dead On Arrival (Score:5, Informative)

          by williamyf ( 227051 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2024 @08:42PM (#64974893)

          The countries might trust China more than the US, their people don't.

          I live in the country in the global south. People here do not care one way or the other. If the handset price is right, and your Apps like banking, e-govt and other stuff work, people will gladly buy the phones.

          • Do they speak Chinese? The issue is that China is a consolidated single language market. Most Chinese apps do not attempt to capture a global market and are unavailable in other languages. This is the opposite for most western apps.

      • It could spread to the global south as well

        That is unlikely. In terms of capture of a market it is the app makers that largely rule the market. In China this has some very serious traction as every app is already single purpose for the Chinese market. Many western apps are blocked in China or simply unavailable outside of the Play Store distribution system.

        While western app developers cater to many languages and many markets, most Chinese developers cater to just the Chinese market. It will be hard to engage with the global south using a device wher

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        China doesn't need to mandate it, because China has never had Android. Google's services that Android relies on are blocked there, because unlike Apple and Microsoft, Google does not cooperate with the Chinese government.

        As such it's always been manufacturer specific operating systems, typically built on top of AOSP, and iOS.

        Huawei phones sold in China have always run their own OS, and this is just them replacing the AOSP parts of it with their own.

    • Re: Dead On Arrival (Score:2, Informative)

      by guacamole ( 24270 )

      Nah, this is still probably the open source Android core OS, with google app store, and other services removed and replaced with Huavei App store, and non-google services. The app store will feature the same android apps and will install the same apks that everyone is used to. To say "this is not android" is a exageration.

      • Nah, this is still probably the open source Android core OS, with google app store, and other services removed and replaced with Huavei App store, and non-google services. The app store will feature the same android apps and will install the same apks that everyone is used to. To say "this is not android" is a exageration.

        Apparently you missed the part in TFS that stated it would not Run Android Apps.

        Moron.

      • brain Dead On Arrival comment (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Wow. Too stupid to read the summary even.

        doesn't rely on Google's Android services and won't run any Android apps

        It was hidden in the very first sentence...

    • Maybe when you are backed by an authoritarian dictatorship with a billion people?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by 1s44c ( 552956 )

      You are missing the fact that Microsoft did an awful job.

      There may well be room for another decent mobile platform.

      • You are missing the fact that Microsoft did an awful job.

        There may well be room for another decent mobile platform.

        From what I have heard, their Hardware and OS was fairly decent. Their App Store was a joke; but they would have sorted that out in a decade or two! ;-)

    • Microsoft could have done this easily, if their mobile platforms would have not been utter shit.
      How many companies did they buy to make a new enshitificated new version of not working mobile windows and then let the project die? Nokkia ... and?

      Huwei does not need the world market. They only need China. And the SEA area and India: is a gift.

      If their OS can run Android apps ... they are golden anyway.

      And if it can't: Tik Tok, WeChat, Alibaba, Shopee, LINE, Temu, Lazada, TrueMoney, etc. ... are ported in no ti

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      The market for this is China. There very much is space for a 3rd mobile platform there and there may well be space in the rest of the world.

      • The market for this is China. There very much is space for a 3rd mobile platform there and there may well be space in the rest of the world.

        Not bloody likely.

    • There simply isn't room for a third mobile Platform.

      False. We effectively already have a third mobile platform. A large portion of the Chinese market is effectively insulated from what happens on the Google Play Store with a long list of apps targeted specifically to one market. Huawei has the largest market share of premium devices in China (while being slightly beaten by Vivo if you include the sub $250 market). If they change OSes the entire market there will listen.

      • There simply isn't room for a third mobile Platform.

        False. We effectively already have a third mobile platform. A large portion of the Chinese market is effectively insulated from what happens on the Google Play Store with a long list of apps targeted specifically to one market. Huawei has the largest market share of premium devices in China (while being slightly beaten by Vivo if you include the sub $250 market). If they change OSes the entire market there will listen.

        Still runs Android, right?

        If so, you haven't proven, or even rationally rebutted, anything.

    • There simply isn't room for a third mobile Platform.

      If Microsoft couldn't force one into existence by sheer force of Marketing, then it is highly unlikely anyone can.

      The USA is not the center of the world anymore. Your ideas stem from a concept that has been gone for about a decade.

      • There simply isn't room for a third mobile Platform.

        If Microsoft couldn't force one into existence by sheer force of Marketing, then it is highly unlikely anyone can.

        The USA is not the center of the world anymore. Your ideas stem from a concept that has been gone for about a decade.

        Not thinking about the USA, dipshit.

  • Do they risk making no apps for the Harmony OS Next and have Chinese counterparts blossom into competitors, or do they bend over backwards to accommodate the Chines government and get a foothold on the platform? The fact that FB's ban in China has not affected its overall economic goal may support the prospect of abandoning Harmony OS. This will be a very interesting development to watch.

    • Re:The quandary for MS and Google (Score:5, Interesting)

      by williamyf ( 227051 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2024 @08:54PM (#64974903)

      Do they risk making no apps for the Harmony OS Next and have Chinese counterparts blossom into competitors, or do they bend over backwards to accommodate the Chines government and get a foothold on the platform? The fact that FB's ban in China has not affected its overall economic goal may support the prospect of abandoning Harmony OS. This will be a very interesting development to watch.

      Google does not operate in china since forever.
      There, every phone maker had their App store, and the Apps in those App store were coded against AOSP. Huawei knew full well which Apps were important and which not (by vitue of owning the store).

      During the "HarmonyOS is a clone of AOSP" phase, they pleaded, begged, wheeled and dealed with the makers of the most important/relevant Apps on THEIR market (currently china) to release non-AOSP versions, coded to HarmonyOS native APIs, while the AOSP part took care of the rest.

      Now, in the "HarmonyOS is using the Huawei LiteOS kernel instead of AOSP" phase, the most important/relevant Apps are already there, and the less relevant developers will decide if they port or not.

      Also, Huawei is open to give this tOS o other Cellphone makers (it is FOSS, by the way), and since this is not Android anymore, a vendor could very well offer the same HW with Android and HarmonyOS, depending on market.

      While this will not fly in NAFTA or EUrope, it may as well work in other parts.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        There is also a big fat advantage that HarmonyOS has over both Android and iOS: It has a real-time kernel. That does wonders for responsiveness as any Blackberry user knows, and you need a lot less CPU performance for a better experience. On top of that, it is a microkernel, which does wonders for security and is not the performance-problem anymore it used to be.

        Engineering-wise, this may just be superior enough to just wipe the floor with the competition eventually. One critical factor is how difficult it

  • *Android clone

    -Hopefully this time they managed to remove all the Google logos and trademark notices. The first time they claimed to have released their "fully home grown" OS they forgot to do so...

    • I havent followed this much, but I assume that “Android free” means they took the Android source code, someone wrote a script to change all the variable and function names, and then their spy agencies added backdoors.

      I assume it’s not open source?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        There is an open source version (OpenHarmony) and the Huawei licensed version, similar to AOSP and Android respectively.

        The difference is basically the same as AOSP/Android too. Branding and access to Huawei services, which can all be replaced by open source or third party ones. There are numerous distros based on OpenHarmony.

        Huawei supports IoT and embedded systems running OH/HOS as well. Google started to do it with Android Things, but abandoned it.

    • They forked from AOSP *years* ago, presumably enough time to remove all logos and trademarks.

    • I see a lot of assumptions that this is a fork of AOSP, but Huawei is a huge multi-national corporation with lots of resources. Is there any actual evidence that this new OS is based on AOSP?

      I mean, if Samsung could make Tizen, I assume that Huawei could make their own OS as well.

      I know that Samsung wasn't able to make the switch to Tizen due to market pressures, but AFAIK, Huawei products are banned in the US market, so they don't have to cater to it.

      • I see a lot of assumptions that this is a fork of AOSP, but Huawei is a huge multi-national corporation with lots of resources. Is there any actual evidence that this new OS is based on AOSP?

        The statement from Huawei that HarmonyOS runs Android apps is a giveaway:

        Huawei's HarmonyOS 4.3 [...] is still compatible with Android's extensive app library.

  • All I want is a phone that gets security updates for the lifetime of the device. I'm so over Android phone manufacturers leaving me with a perfectly adequate piece of hardware that has to run an outdated OS and gets no further updates after their decided support period. Will this OS be better than Android for ongoing patches and updates?
    • What do you actually lose from not getting updates?

      • Greetings fellow Windows XP SP0 user!

      • What do you actually lose from not getting updates?

        If we are talking about security updates, well you lose security, as in your banking Apps, e-government Apps, or some other Apps that holds valuable personal info.

        If you mean OS Updates (as in Android 13 -> 14 or iOS 17 -> 18):

        Imagine you have a very important App in your smartphone. I'll use WhatsApp as an example, because it is very important in my region, but it could be anything, a banking App, or e-govt app for example, any App that is very important to you... anyway:

        Peetty much every year, Whats

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by LesFerg ( 452838 )

          Precisely this. Whether the current version of the OS gets backports of security patches, or the OS gets upgraded to the latest version, I don't really care. But the regularity and consistency of vulnerabilities being discovered is not something to ignore, and I certainly would not be running a PC on the internet without constant security patches.

          Androids biggest fail point is the fact that it can't receive security patches from a central release, so each and every device model requires time and a budge

          • > The longest support period I have found is 2 years

            Isn't Pixel seven years?

            Since we're on this site, I just upgraded my Essential PH-1 to current patchlevel Android 14 last night using LineageOS. It's my old phone for unimportant/insecure/closed-source apps but the 12 to 14 upgrade was seamless.

            And the manufacturer has been out of business for four years.

            If it didn't have a potato camera it would still be my daily driver.

        • Peetty much every year, WhatsApp discontiunues a version of Android and a version of iOS.

          Bullshit. This year WhatsApp announced a new minimum system requirement for Android. Android OS 5. VERSION FIVE OF ANDROID. The one that is one decade old is the new minimum supported version. The last time WhatsApp updated the minimum requirements was in 2020 when they dropped support for Android 2 and raised the minimum to 4.1

          One interesting thing about Android 5 (and the iOS version from the day) is that these versions were among the last that released any significant feature worth targeting by apps. The

    • Re:But will it get lifetime security updates? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2024 @08:26PM (#64974861)

      Slashdot hates Apple but it's the only answer. The iPhone 6S from 2015 still gets OS patches.

      • Virtually all Android phones have security updates for the core OS for 7 years, and all components covered by the Play Services (the actual ones that cause a lot of the security problems) for longer than that.

        This is a non-issue for any device and no one will pick Apple for this reason alone.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Some Android manufacturers offer longer support than Apple now. My Pixel has 8 years minimum, and I'm not locked into shitty iOS and Apple mandated workflows.

        The situation on iOS may improve in Europe as other app stores take off and Apple is forced to open APIs, but for now it's not an option.

      • The iPhone 6S from 2015 still gets OS patches.

        Hm. Did they stop adding the code that rapidly deteriorates older batteries?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by 1s44c ( 552956 )

      Pixel phones get updates for the useful light of the phone. It's usually the battery that dies first

      • Why would a battery dying be relevant? There's not a phone on the market where the battery can't be replaced.

        More relevant would be that the Pixel phones (like Samsung phones, and like many other manufacturers today) offer 7 years of OS security updates.

    • that has to run an outdated OS

      An outdated OS does not mean no security updates. The concept of security updates is completely detached from Android OS version with many security holes patched silently through Google Play Services and many core Android OS components getting patched with security releases.

      If you buy most Android phones right now you will get 7 years of security updates for your OS.

  • Google's and Apple's moat is too big

    • Google's and Apple's moat is too big

      Huawei does not care about you or me. Huawei cares about china, about markets where the Google Play Store does not operate, and about emerging markets like in Africa, SE asia, parts of the middle east and africa...

  • A brand new platform being widely deployed without real-world testing? Just think of all the new zero-days! Yay! I mean, oh no! 0;-)

    • Is not brand new, HarmonyOS was forked from AOSP a few years ago and incrementally developed over the time.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Huawei actually does pretty good engineering and has a lot of experience in this space. So no, not "brand new" at all.

  • How much time until US government will ban all US based software companies from producing software for this OS?

  • Most of these are "quick apps" which is a fancy way to say they're a webapp which has been repackaged for their OS. I wouldn't be surprised if Huawei fired up a script that scraped them off websites converted them to their own format and dumped them on the store. I wonder if the sites / authors even consented to this. The number of actual native apps is going to be a very small fraction of this headline figure.

    Anyhow, I'm sure this OS will be more successful in China where it can be forced on people, and pe

  • logically it should also be banned as a chinese governement controlled device.

    Those will not enter my network :)

  • Annoying, it has more RAM than each of my laptops.

  • Hawaii believes that we are still playing games with the phones. Is the HarmonyOS going to be supported by your bank anytime soon? NO. Is it going to be supported by major and important everyday applications like facebook, viber, whatapp, slack, teams etc? NO. When those application are willing to support the new OS? No, Unless Hawaii pays for the development or immediately accumulates let's say 15% of userbase. It's going to be fun though. Another Nokia/Microsoft to grab popcorn and watch freefalling.

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