Huawei needs to overcome obstacles to leave the Android ecosystem, and pure-blood Hongmeng is coming soon

At the end of September, Huawei held this year’s autumn full-scenario new product launch conference. Near the end, Huawei Terminal BG CEO Yu Chengdong suddenly announced that Hongmeng HarmonyOS NEXT would be released soon, and Hongmeng native applications would be fully launched.

Unlike the previous HarmonyOS, which was based on AOSP (Android Open Source Project) code, HarmonyOS NEXT has implemented full-scale self-research on the bottom layer of the system, so it is also called "pure-blooded HarmonyOS". ”. But at that time, HarmonyOS NEXT made no sense to ordinary users, because countless apps (developed based on Android) that we use every day cannot run on HarmonyOS NEXT.

It wasn’t until 2 months later that the first batch of major Internet companies finally announced that they would join the development of Hongmeng native applications.

On November 13, Huawei and Meituan held the first Hongmeng native application development launch ceremony in Beijing. Huawei said, "It will fully support Meituan in launching development." Hongmeng native application work." A few days later, Huawei successively held a launch ceremony for the development of Hongmeng native applications with two major manufacturers, Qunar and Sina.

##Picture/Huawei

In recent times, there have been rumors that Huawei will officially launch Harmony NEXT to the market in 2024. At that time, Huawei mobile phones equipped with this system will not be able to install and run Android applications.

The Securities Times quoted people familiar with the matter as saying, "Huawei does have internal plans to launch a version of Hongmeng that is not compatible with Android next year, but no relevant internal notice has been issued yet. , so it is not yet clear when it will be launched."

Huawei did not respond to this, but stated that: Currently, there are no plans to use HarmonyOS in overseas mobile phones. Overseas consumers You can continue to use Android apps with confidence on Huawei phones equipped with the EMUI version.

In turn, this seems to hint at the next step in the domestic market, which is the "cutting" from the Android ecosystem and the overall acceleration of the Hongmeng ecosystem.

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Isn’t it good to be "compatible" with Android? , why does Huawei want to start "cutting"?

In the past few years, the debate surrounding HarmonyOS "self-development or shelling" has not stopped. In fact, it is not surprising, because the strategy adopted by HarmonyOS determines , it is difficult for you to simply define whether it is self-developed or shelled.

If you say that HarmonyOS is self-developed, but as of HarmonyOS 4.0, you can still see and use the ADB (Android Debug Bridge) background program in the system settings.

ADB background program relies heavily on the functions of the Android system. In the process of developing Android applications, it will perform some necessary operations through ADB remote calls, such as starting Activity or installing APK, etc. . Implementing ADB cannot be achieved by transplanting ADB code or following the ADB communication protocol, which means that the device must be equipped with a fairly complete Android system.

On the other hand, if you say that HarmonyOS is just a shell change, you also ignore Huawei's self-research work at the bottom of the system and the development level, including the ArkUI development framework and ArkTs Language and so on.

##ArkUI, Picture/Huawei

In short, currently HarmonyOS We are still in the "transition period" of switching the bottom layer of the system, but this "transition period" is necessary and valuable.

#In the final analysis, in the process of replacing the bottom layer of the system, ecology is the core issue. The core needs of ordinary users for a smartphone are concentrated on third-party applications. If HarmonyOS cannot provide a relatively mature application ecosystem, it will be difficult to meet users' daily use. Therefore, the Android system is used as the bottom layer and is based on OpenHarmony. Continuous improvement has become an inevitable choice.

But HarmonyOS cannot stay in the "transition period", otherwise third-party application developers will only develop based on Android. After all, one development can support Huawei and other Androids Manufacturers, why not? However, for Huawei, this also means that the entire HarmonyOS can never get rid of its dependence on the Android ecosystem, and the significance of self-developed systems is gone.

But the question is, is HarmonyOS ready to leave Android behind?

7 billion Hongmeng ecological equipment and the renewed growth of Huawei mobile phones, no manufacturer can ignore

There is no doubt that, The huge number of devices and users has always been one of Huawei's greatest strengths.

Since the announcement of system upgrade plans for a large number of models during the HarmonyOS 2.0 period, Huawei has migrated a large number of EMUI users to HarmonyOS. This is also the fastest coverage of HarmonyOS between 2020 and 2022. core reasons.

In early August this year, Huawei held this year’s developer conference. Yu Chengdong announced at the meeting that the number of Hongmeng ecological devices has exceeded 700 million units. It should be mentioned that Huawei did not disclose the proportion of its own HarmonyOS devices and HarmonyOS Connect devices, but no matter what, the number of 700 million devices and the huge user base behind it have determined that third-party application developers cannot ignore HarmonyOS .

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Of course, the mobile phone is still the most important platform.

Since this year, Huawei’s mobile phone product line has basically returned to normal rhythm. In June, the China Securities Journal quoted industry chain sources as reporting that Huawei had already planned 2023 mobile phones. The shipment target is raised to 40 million units. The continued sales of the Mate 60 series have triggered changes in the entire supply chain. Nikkei quoted suppliers as saying that Huawei's shipment target in 2024 will hit 60 million units.

At the HarmonyOS Connect Partner Summit, Shao Yang, Chief Strategy Officer of Huawei Terminal BG and President of the Whole House Smart Product Line, pointed out that mobile phones are the main engine of the Harmony ecosystem.

##Shao Yang, photo/this site

November 8 , just a week before the launch ceremony of Hongmeng native application development, media reports pointed out that Meituan released a number of Hongmeng development-related positions such as Hongmeng senior engineer and Hongmeng infrastructure engineer. According to the Maimai platform, the monthly salary offered by Meituan Hongmeng infrastructure engineer position is between 40,000 yuan and 60,000 yuan.

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Coincidentally, Toutiao has also recently When recruiting Android development engineers, it was mentioned that the position required "responsible for researching new technology directions such as Toutiao Android and Hongmeng systems, overcoming technical difficulties, and providing technical capability reserves for future business development." DingTalk also posted Hongmeng development engineer positions on Maimai, with monthly salaries ranging from 15,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan.

At the same time, the fifth Hongmeng Academy Innovation Training Camp was held in Beijing from November 14th to 16th. According to Huawei's official statement, this training camp attracted more than 200 students from more than 60 companies, including Meituan, Baidu, Qunar, and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

On the one hand, these show that Huawei has indeed begun to develop the Hongmeng application development ecosystem, but on the other hand, it also shows the difficulties faced by the Hongmeng application development ecosystem, such as lack of willingness to develop. There are many problems such as lack of developers, unfamiliarity with the development environment, etc. Otherwise, there would be no need for Huawei to "fully support Meituan to start development" and major manufacturers to centrally publish relevant recruitment information and training camps.

Considering that HarmonyOS NEXT will not be open to all developers until the first quarter of 2024, it is no wonder that as soon as the rumors of "cutting off" the Android ecosystem next year came out, there The voice believes that this time point is "too radical."

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Three parts of the world, still the middle way Collapse?

#In 2011, Microsoft reached an in-depth cooperation with Nokia, which was still the leader in the mobile phone market at the time, and announced that Nokia mobile phones and subsequent models will use the Microsoft Windows Phone system.

At first, Windows Phone did usher in a short spring, but Microsoft’s series of wrong decisions and conflicts of interest with Nokia and other issues have persuaded most of them to quit. The majority of application developers have caused Windows Phone to once again miss the "good opportunity" to compete with iOS and Android.

# It is not difficult to develop a self-developed system. What is difficult is to build a complete and positive cycle application ecosystem. Huawei also understands this, otherwise it would not choose to build on Android and announce HarmonyOS NEXT that "cannot run Android applications" four years after the launch of HarmonyOS 1.0.

But in the end, Huawei still needs to prove whether HarmonyOS can truly achieve three-thirds of the world or collapse in the middle.

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