BEIJING: Chinese tech giant Huawei on Tuesday launch its first smartphone equipped with a fully homegrown operating system, a key test in the firm’s fight to challenge the dominance of Western juggernauts.

Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android are currently used in the vast majority of mobile phones, but Huawei is looking to change that with its newest Mate 70 devices, which run on the company’s own HarmonyOS Next. The launch caps a major turnaround in the fortunes of Huawei, which saw its wings clipped by gruelling US sanctions in recent years but which has since bounced back with soaring sales.

“The search for a viable, scaleable mobile operating system largely free of Western company control has been a lengthy one in China,” Paul Triolo, a Partner for China and Technology Policy Lead at consulting firm Albright Stonebridge Group, said. But the new smartphone — also powered by an advanced domestically produced chip — shows Chinese tech firms can “persevere”, he said.

The Mate 70 is set to be unveiled at a company launch event on Tuesday afternoon at its Shenzhen headquarters. Over three million have been pre-ordered, according to Huawei’s online shopping platform, though that does not require them to be purchased.

The risks are high — unlike a previous iteration, based on Android’s open-source code, HarmonyOS Next requires a complete rewiring of all apps on the smartphones it powers. “HarmonyOS Next is the first home-grown operating system, a milestone for China to move away from reliance on Western technologies for software with performance improvement,” Gary Ng, a senior economist at Natixis, said.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2024