ISSUE 381|COMPUTERSHOPPER|NOVEMBER 2019
THATHAPPENEDFAST...
Yep, Huawei wasn’t kidding when it said it
would make its own operating system
after Donald Trump and pals got the US
embroiled in atrade war with China. Trump
introduced atrade ban that prevents US
companies doing business with Huawei,
owing to fears that the company’s network
infrastructure technology might pose arisk
to America’s national security.
While that trade ban has been relaxed
alittle,iteffectively means Google will be
forced to stop supplying Android and its
services to future Huawei devices once
agrace period is over.Huawei would
still have access to the very basic
open-source version of Android, but
massively popular services such as
YouTube and Gmail wouldn’t come baked intoHuawei phones, and
access to the Android PlayStore would be scuppered.
Seemingly in response to the ban, Huawei has revealed HarmonyOS,
its own operating system, which could end up powering its future
smartphones if it is indeed no longer allowed access to full-fat Android.
While the US ban might have seemed to be the catalyst forHuawei
to reveal HarmonyOS, in reality it was probably due to make its debut
regardless, as it looks as though the Chinese firm has been working on
the OS forsome time.The Android angst and trade ban probably
brought forward Huawei’s release schedule forHarmonyOS.
DOESTHISMEANTHEENDOFANDROIDONHUAWEIPHONES?
Not quite, or perhaps not at all. Huawei’s presentation of HarmonyOS
avoided actually mentioning smartphones. But the company’s
consumer business group CEO,Richard Yu,did mention that there
maycome atime when Huawei phones might no longer be able to
use Android, and suggested that HarmonyOS
could fill the gap.
“Wecan implement Harmony any time,”
said Yu,noting that HarmonyOS could be
rolled out in “one or two days”.
Forthe time being, Huawei will keep using
Android and it looks like the next phone the
firm launches in 2019 will come with Google’s
mobile operating system.
But the clever thing about HarmonyOS is
it’s built upon amicrokernel –basically a
minimal amount of software that provides the mechanisms needed
to implement an operating system. This has the advantage of
enabling HarmonyOS to be amulti-device operating system,
designed to be deployed on everything from smart TVsand gadgets
to Internet of Things devices.
In this sense,HarmonyOS is less of an alternative to Android and
more of arival to Google’s experimental Fuchsia OS, which is also
designed to run across multiple devices in afashion that Android is
not able to do.
HOWWILLHARMONYOSBEATTHECOMPETITION?
The firm had aslide in its showcase that flung agood deal of flak
at both Android and Apple’s iOS, accusing both of having OS
fragmentation; Google has Android, Chrome OS, Wear OS and Android
Things, while Apple has iOS, watchOS, iPadOS, tvOS and macOS.
Huawei also panned Google’s Linux
kernel-based operating systems forhaving
redundant architecture,and providing
unstable experiences and an ecosystem
that’s hard to adapt to multiple devices.
Fuschia got slammed for“unsatisfactory
performance”and anon-distributed design,
while Apple and its hybrid kernel was
criticised forhaving awalled-garden
ecosystem and cross-device continuity
that only works on stock apps.
HarmonyOS’s answer to these problems,
at least in Huawei’s mind, is to have an OS
that offers alightweight system that can do
the job of Android in amere 100 lines of
code,aswell as offering better performance
than other microkernel systems thanks to
its ‘deterministic latency engine’, which
helps the OS work out which tasks to prioritise forthe most effective
performance.There’s also no root access to HarmonyOS, which
means it should be safer than other such operating systems.
The vision forHarmonyOS is likely to be fully realised in its 2.
version, due at some point in 2020, which will only use the microkernel;
the current HarmonyOS version uses the microkernel alongside the
Linux kernel and the kernel from Huawei’s LiteOS.WHERE’SHARMONYOSAT THEMOMENT?
So far, HarmonyOS has only cropped up in public on the Honor Vision,
asmart TV created by the Chinese company’s sub-brand. But the OS is
open source,sostands agood chance of being adopted by makers of
other smart gadgets.
However,HarmonyOS isn’t widespread yet, probably because it lacks
the apps to go pedal to metal. DespiteHarmonyOS’s touted flexibility,
Android apps won’t work on it unless they’ve been rejigged to be ported
over to the OS using Huawei’s ARK compiler.
Yu noted that porting apps over would take
only afew changes to their code to get up and
running, as HarmonyOS allows forthe software
to be disengaged from the underlying hardware,
making lifeeasier fordevelopers.
Huawei will still need to court developers,
however,and it might find it trickytoget US
software makers onboard given the relationship
between the US and China. However,China has
avery healthy app developer industry,so
HarmonyOS could be well served in Huawei’s own backyard.ONETOWATCH,THEN?
It certainly is, although don’t expect to see aHarmonyOS smartphone
land in your hands any time soon, as we suspect Huawei will push out
tech running its OS in China first before taking on the rest of the world.
Once more of an ecosystem is in place,wecould expect HarmonyOS to
then start going hell forleather.
But the microkernel approach is very interesting and could even
spell the future forsmart gadgets, as amulti-device approach seems a
much more elegant waytospread an operating system further.
There’s still adegree of ‘wait and see’with HarmonyOS, but if
nothing else it shows that Huawei is willing to take things intoits
own hands if the plug is yanked on its Android use,which is good
news forfans of its rather slick phones.HarmonyOSWe take acloserlookatHuawei’snew operatingsystemHarmonyOSisamulti-deviceoperating system, designedto be deployedoneverythingfrom smart TVstoIoT devices