During the first day of the HDC 2026 event, Huawei said that HarmonyOS has become the 2nd-largest smartphone OS in China. While Android and iOS have been ruling the mobile operating system market for years, Huawei brought its own alternative to the competition, giving it a new twist.
Richard Yu – the Chairman of Huawei Consumer Business and Product Investment Review Committee was the first to take the stage at the HDC 2026 event – on day 1st.
He gave a speech and revealed that Huawei HarmonyOS 7.0 has become the 2nd-largest smartphone OS in China. The Android-free software system has entered a period of rapid development in just a year and two months.
Android and iOS had a duopoly in the Chinese smartphone OS market. Huawei also used to rely on AOSP for its operating system. Due to the US ban, it had to keep advanced features away from its OS version. But things changed after 2024.
HarmonyOS NEXT debuted as an Android-free and real operating system with more efficiency and smarter operations than Google’s OS. Hereafter, the company continued to develop HarmonyOS builds using in-house components rather than the US-based ones.
Many iPhone users switched to Huawei phones due to better photo-editing tools and camera performance. HarmonyOS’s fluid and smooth experience also impressed many customers, leading them to switch to Huawei devices.
A recent report by Counterpoint revealed that HarmonyOS has surpassed iOS in China, achieving the second position with 19% of the market share.
The HarmonyOS 6.0 software version has now completed more than 66 million installations to date, achieving a new milestone in the company’s software world.
HarmonyOS 6 also has over 400000 apps and services in the Huawei App Store. Now the company aims for the “100 million” installation mark by the end of 2026.
(Image Credits: Huawei)
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