Does Huawei believe that smartphones with HarmonyOS could be successful outside of China? Apparently not, because according to a statement there are currently no efforts to extend the mobile OS to European smartphones. The former smartphone giant seems partially resigned.
- Huawei’s smartphone plans for HarmonyOS outside of China are probably on hold
- Other product classes such as tablets and wearables should continue to benefit from HarmonyOS
We don’t have to be clairvoyant to know that 2022 will also be a difficult year for Huawei. The company is still on the US blacklist. This means that Huawei will continue to have to do without Google services. The great hope named HarmonyOS doesn’t seem to deliver what it promised.
Ultimately, the Huawei nova 9 and 8i came onto the European market – with Android, without HarmonyOS and of course without Google services. Resignation is spreading, which is now confirmed by a statement by Huawei.
This mid-range smartphone is also still delivered with Android outside of China / © Huawei
HarmonyOS on global smartphones? Not in sight!
The statement is a statement that Huawei made to HuaweiCentral. There, the Chinese company has rejected a global HarmonyOS smartphone launch. The full statement is as follows:
“No upgrade to HarmonyOS is currently planned for smartphones outside of China, but consumers can enjoy HarmonyOS 2 and its groundbreaking user experience on the recently launched Huawei tablets, HUAWEI Vision and smartwatches.”
For us, this means that we can get devices like the Huawei GT 3 smartwatch with HarmonyOS in this country too, but this cannot be transferred to the smartphone sector. Blacklisting also has other disadvantages for Huawei. The company is not allowed to install any new chips with 5G modems.
This means that smartphones not only have to do without Google Play and Google services, but are also falling behind more and more technically. As a result, Huawei is falling behind other smartphone manufacturers even in domestic China.
You shouldn’t be particularly surprised, because you recently voted HarmonyOS the most disappointing product of the year and many of you were also generally disappointed with Huawei. Even the flagship of the Chinese, the Huawei P50, developed into a slacker and so you can not even blame Huawei if you save yourself the trouble of investing in a global HarmonyOS launch for smartphones.
Even if the latest statement is not yet a final rejection of HarmonyOS on European smartphones. We can’t get rid of the feeling that Huawei is slowly giving up on smartphones and is therefore increasingly turning to other product categories. HarmonyOS can not only be found on tablets and smartwatches, but now even on smart drinking bottles or bicycle helmets.
That still sounds extremely depressing to me because, in my opinion, Huawei was brought into this position for no reason and through no fault of its own. But it doesn’t change the fact that at least with the smartphones HarmonyOS is not (yet) the big hit we had hoped for. How do you see it? Is Huawei still finding a way out of this mess and will HarmonyOS play a role in it?