Can ＂HarmonyOS＂ compete with Android and Apple？
2019 Huawei Developers Conference was held and HarmonyOS OS was officially released. (Source: vision china)
"HarmonyOS" is the beginning of the world, and China is promising.
For a long time, Chinese suffered from not having its own chip and operating system. Now, from the mythical beasts of Huawei Kirin and Kunpeng to HarmonyOS, the old balance of global science and technology has been broken one after another, and Huawei has captured the peaks in the science and technology competition. So, what kind of new revolution will Huawei lead? Will the world start a fight to trap the "beast"?
The best time or the worst time?
"What era are we in today?"This is the first question raised by Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business, at the Huawei Global Developers Conference on August 9th.
What kind of era, what kind of technology is needed. Huawei’s answer is this:
First, the era of internet of everything and intelligent whole scene.
I believe everyone is familiar with the concept of "Internet of Everything". Huawei is leading everyone to enter the "intelligent era of the whole scene of the Internet of Everything". To achieve this goal, we need to create a brand-new ecology and experience, and we need strong operating system support.
The significance of "HarmonyOS" system is magnified in historical coordinates, which is more intuitive. In the era of PC, the Windows operating system invented by Microsoft occupies more than half of the country. In the era of mobile internet, Google and Apple established the Android ecosystem and iOS system respectively, which basically divided the smartphone market. At present, it has become a consensus that everything can be connected, but who can lead the coquettish?
All parties have made great efforts. HarmonyOS OS’s ambition is to be born for the Internet of Things era, not just mobile phones. Huawei’s architecture is called "1+8+N" & mdash; — 1 is a smart phone, 8 includes PC, tablet, car, sports health, wearing, AR, VR, smart big screen, intelligent audio, etc. N is a large number of IoT devices.
Second, the technology of operating system has entered the era of "microkernel".
At present, Google’s operating system is based on macro-kernel architecture, and Fuchsia, the next generation operating system with micro-kernel, is being developed. Apple uses different operating systems on different devices, mainly macro kernel, and also introduces some micro kernels. As far as the trend is concerned, "microkernel" is the development direction of global operating system. HarmonyOS system chose microkernel.
Simply put, the macro kernel is a "big manager", and the famous Linux and Uinux systems are macro kernels. This system puts all the supported services in the kernel, which is more efficient, but the problem that comes with it is more and more "bloated". For example, the Android system has 100 million lines of code, and the kernel has more than 20 million lines. We often use only 8% of the kernel.From 2G memory to 8G memory, the mobile phone needs more and more memory to ensure smooth operation, and the price is getting more and more expensive.
Microkernel is an "information transfer station", which places more service programs outside the kernel, and the kernel only places frequently used codes, thus greatly reducing the memory pressure. In fact, the memory requirements of many devices are very small. According to Huawei,Compared with Android and Apple, HarmonyOS microkernel is greatly improved in security and convenient in application development.
HarmonyOS’s "short board"
The HarmonyOS system makes people "unconscious". As a subversive, what is the attitude of the world towards HarmonyOS?
Not long ago, Huawei has encountered multiple technical blockades. The US government had planned to include Huawei in the so-called "entity list", and Google once claimed that Android system no longer supported the newly released Huawei mobile phone. For another example, some countries still have resistance to Huawei’s participation in 5G construction.
Operating system, from the technical level, can overcome difficulties and concentrate on breaking through in a certain period of time. The cultivation of the ecological level is not a one-off event. Can the upstream and downstream accept it? How high is the cost of conversion? It depends not only on whether HarmonyOS’s experience is "worthy of the name", but also on letting users vote.
Ecology is like air, water, soil and language that human beings need. From the perspective of Apple’s ecology, it is not only an excellent product company, but also has a rich App application ecology and practical peripheral accessories. In terms of corporate strategy, Apple is shifting its focus from hardware to software to strengthen its own "moat". After several years of development, Android system has the first share in the market, and most companies have formed a "path dependence" on Android system research and development.
Giants such as Microsoft, Samsung and Nokia have launched Windows Phone, Tizen and Symbian systems, and the result has not shaken the ecological pattern of Android and Apple. An important reason is that,There is not a lot of software and product support, even though their own hardware is very powerful.
Judging from the conditions Huawei has, as an equipment manufacturer, it has a good hardware ecology; As an enterprise benchmark, it has the support of the domestic big market. However, there is still a lot of work to be done to make potential competitors at home and abroad accept and carry the HarmonyOS system. Moreover, HarmonyOS has not been tested by more reality. In terms of application, HarmonyOS’s choice is to first carry it on a "peripheral device" such as Glory Smart Screen, rather than a smart phone.
So in a short time, it is difficult for HarmonyOS to replace Android. The advent of HarmonyOS is bound to challenge Android and Apple, which are both in the hands of American companies. At present, it remains to be seen how Google and Apple will take over. It is foreseeable that the competition will be fierce. Ren Zhengfei said: "We do a good job in ecological construction ‘ Long March ’ Preparation. "
What is Huawei’s response to the unfriendly external environment?
You can call it"Strategically high-profile, tactically low-key."Judging from Huawei’s publicity, Ren Zhengfei revealed that "HarmonyOS is 60% faster and smoother than Android." Yu Chengdong claims to be "ready to use" and "the development workload of migrating Android ecological applications to HarmonyOS OS is very small". This will inevitably make Google and Apple feel "unsuitable".
Huawei also emphasized a kind of self-confidence called "open source". We know that the success of Android is inseparable from open source. Open source allows more developers and users to join the Android ecosystem, helping it to continuously improve and mature.
In view of the strong ecological barrier of Android system, Huawei’s strategy is to "give priority to Google’s Android operating system. If the Android operating system can’t be used, HarmonyOS can be enabled at any time.. "Huawei flashed the challenger’s posture, also opened the door to cooperation, and walked very cautiously.
It should be said that Huawei is holding high and fighting high on the road of technology, but the road of ecology is "long and long".
From zero to one
The advent of HarmonyOS made national pride boil. It has to be said that the background of Sino-US trade friction and the concentrated suppression of Huawei by the United States have accelerated the process of "turning a spare tire into a regular one" in HarmonyOS. The reason why Huawei has survived the "storm" is that it has taken precautions and worked hard many years ago. In the development of HarmonyOS, 5,000 engineers struggled day and night and sharpened their swords for seven years.
To some extent, Huawei is quite "fighting alone". In the future high-tech track, it is foreseeable that the United States will continue to keep a high pressure on China’s technology enterprises. The rise of science and technology in China needs more ambitious and persistent companies like Huawei.
One question worthy of reflection is that,Although the number and scale of Internet technology giants and unicorn companies in China are among the best in the world, they are market-driven companies thanks to China’s huge domestic market and population base. When we have long been used to domestic manufacturers fighting for hardware, marketing and price, Huawei talked about "soft power" such as operating system and ecosystem for the first time at the press conference, which is quite the weather of Apple and Google.
The shortcomings of basic science in China are outstanding, and the original achievements are lacking. The situation that key core technologies such as operating systems and chips are controlled by people has not fundamentally changed.Practice has repeatedly told us that,Key core technologies can’t be bought, bought or discussed. "Difficulties are like springs. If you are strong, it will be weak, and if you are weak, it will be strong." China has made up its mind to independently develop its own core technology and make great efforts in the field of "sticking its neck" to meet more complicated global competition.
HarmonyOS, from zero to one, is Huawei’s "groundbreaking" move, and it is also a breakthrough in China’s science and technology.