Huawei will not release a phone with HarmonyOS this year

Huawei will not release a phone with HarmonyOS this year, but the operating system will be on a smartwatch that will be released later this year. That’s what a CEO of the company said in an interview. Huawei keeps HarmonyOS on hand if it is not allowed to use Android.

That means that the upcoming Mate 30 series will run on Android, according to CNet following statements by Huawei CEO Vincent Yang. It was previously rumored that Huawei would like to release a phone with HarmonyOS this fall, but that is not going to happen, says Yang.

However, a smartwatch with the new operating system must be released. Last year’s Watch GT runs on LiteOS, also an operating system from Huawei. The Chinese manufacturer announced HarmonyOS a few weeks ago. Unlike Android, it is not based on the Linux kernel, but on a microkernel. Huawei uses a deterministic latency engine and claims that its own operating system therefore works more smoothly than, for example, Android, with fewer delays. HarmonyOS must be open source.

Huawei already announced the Honor Vision TVs, which also run on HarmonyOS. They were released this month in their home country of China. Samsung also has an operating system that runs on its TVs and smartwatches, among other things, called Tizen. Huawei presents HarmonyOS as an alternative to Android on phones, because Google had to cut ties with the company on the orders of the US government. Huawei is now allowed to trade with Google at least until the end of November. What happens next is unknown.