Huawei’s homegrown operating system, HarmonyOS, first appeared in 2019 as an alternative to Android for Huawei devices. With smartphones as its initial target, HarmonyOS aims to offer a seamless experience across Huawei’s different products. Now, according to recent reports, Huawei is poised to bring HarmonyOS to PCs next year.
At a recent press conference, Huawei’s Richard Yu expressed gratitude for continued consumer support, despite challenges faced by the company. He reiterated Huawei’s commitment to keep improving its products for customers. When asked if HarmonyOS would come to PCs in 2024, Dr. Wang Chenglu, formerly president of Huawei’s Consumer Business AI unit, simply answered “yes.”
So it seems HarmonyOS on PCs could arrive as early as next year. But will this be the open source version of HarmonyOS that engineers have already adapted for PCs? Or a proprietary version that Huawei has been developing separately? The details remain unclear.
HarmonyOS aims to deliver a seamless, integrated experience across devices. With a distributed architecture, it enables collaboration between different products like smartphones, watches, PCs, and more. Bringing HarmonyOS to laptops and desktops would further expand its ecosystem.
For Huawei, HarmonyOS represents independence and control over its own operating system destiny, at a time when US sanctions have threatened its access to Android. With strong sales of recent Huawei flagships, and the foundations of HarmonyOS maturing, the company seems ready to ramp up the operating system’s deployment.
The emergence of HarmonyOS on PCs could provide some much needed competition to Windows and Chrome OS in the desktop operating system space. For consumers, it introduces another choice beyond the desktop OS duopoly. And for Huawei, it brings their devices and software ecosystem closer together.
With many questions still unanswered, Huawei’s plans for HarmonyOS on PCs in 2024 will be something to watch closely. Could this Chinese operating system find global success on desktops? Or will unfamiliarity and limited app support limit its appeal? One thing is clear – Huawei aims to persevere despite past obstacles. Its upcoming PC operating system will be the next milestone on this remarkable journey.
