HarmonyOS
Geography: Asia Pacific · East Asia · China
HarmonyOS NEXT removed the Android compatibility layer entirely, forcing developers to build native apps. The first phone to ship with purely native HarmonyOS was the Pura X in March 2025. Over 20,000 native apps are available, including Chinese versions of major global services.
The strategic significance is OS independence. For the first time since the smartphone era began, a non-Western mobile operating system has reached critical mass. HarmonyOS runs across phones, tablets, laptops, cars, TVs, and IoT devices — 10 billion connected devices by Huawei's count.
The constraint is ecosystem depth. iOS has 2 million apps; Android has 3.5 million. HarmonyOS's 20,000 is sufficient for the Chinese market but not for global competition. Huawei's bet is that cross-device integration (phone-car-home seamlessness) will be more important than raw app count.
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