Key Takeaways
- Huawei launches Mate 70 collection with HarmonyOS Subsequent, aiming for 100,000 native apps in 2025.
- Mate 70 fashions characteristic Kirin 9100 chipset, priced decrease than iPhone 16 in China.
- Huawei’s transfer to HarmonyOS may deliver extra competitors to smartphone software program, difficult Android and iOS dominance.
Huawei HarmonyOS Subsequent, the corporate’s Google-free various to Android, entered public beta on quite a lot of Huawei telephones and tablets final month. Now, the primary units to hit retailer cabinets with that software program have launched. As reported by Reuters, Huawei took the wraps off the Mate 70 collection at an occasion in China at the moment, and stated that the brand new OS could be coming to a few of its older units over the following few months.
Huawei initially revealed HarmonyOS in 2019 amid escalating commerce tensions between the US and China. That iteration of HarmonyOS was constructed on AOSP and will run ported Android apps. The brand new HarmonyOS Subsequent, in the meantime, is constructed solely to run native HarmonyOS apps, and does not embody any code from AOSP. The Mate 70 collection will apparently let customers select between the legacy HarmonyOS and the brand new HarmonyOS Subsequent. The Subsequent model at present helps about 15,000 apps; Huawei says it is concentrating on 100,000 native HarmonyOS apps in 2025.
Supply: Huawei
The Mate 70.
In response to Reuters, “at the least some” Mate 70 fashions will ship with Huawei’s high-end in-house Kirin 9100 chipset. Reuters experiences that the Mate 70 collection will begin at 5,499 yuan (about $758), undercutting the iPhone 16’s Chinese language-market beginning worth of 5,999 yuan. The Mate 70 Professional will begin at 6,499 yuan; the Mate 70 Professional+ will begin at 8,499 yuan.
Smartphone software program may use extra competitors
Huawei’s transfer away from Android stems from commerce coverage that restricts American firms from doing enterprise with the Chinese language agency, nevertheless it may find yourself benefitting cellular tech on the entire. Below most circumstances, it is laborious for alternate options to the established gamers (Android and iOS) to achieve a foothold. However the distinctive scenario Huawei finds itself in may give HarmonyOS Subsequent an actual enhance: Reutrers experiences that Counterpoint expects Mate 70 telephone shipments to high 10 million.
Huawei hasn’t introduced worldwide plans for the Mate 70 collection, and it actually will not see a US retail launch. However assuming HarmonyOS Subsequent units make their strategy to markets outdoors China ultimately, Google might be pressured to compete instantly with Huawei’s OS — and extra competitors is rarely a foul factor.