Huawei Tipped to Release HarmonyOS Beta for Mobile Phones on 18th December

Nov. 9, 2020

With theUS trade banin place, Huawei has been working hard to develop an in-house operating system from scratch. It’s calledHarmonyOSand was first unveiled last year in China. It currently powers Huawei’s smart TV and the Harmony 2.0 update, which was unveiled in September this year, will be available on smartphones as well. Now, it looks like we know when HarmonyOS will first be available to test on phones.

Asrevealedin a Weibo post, Dr. Wang Chenglu, the president of Huawei’s consumer business software department, has revealed that the developer beta of HarmonyOS for mobile phones is expected to be made available on 18th December. This is a tentative date, in line with the next Huawei Developer Conference that will be held next month.

Dr. Chenglu further confirmed that the development process is going smoothly. The company is working around the clock to build an ecosystem around HarmonyOS and well, it’s great to see that things are on track. It has also been revealed that more than 90% of Huawei’s smartphone portfolio will get the new software update.

Though the Trump administration was the one who put trade restrictions in place for Huawei, we do not expect the new President-elect Joe Biden to make them go away instantly. We could see some relaxations and license grants being offered in the next few months. Though it is highly possible that Huawei will continue to place focus on HarmonyOS development to get rid of its reliance onAndroidfor smartphones – at least in its home country, China.