Dialogue with Huawei Yang Haisong: HarmonyOS system is not a copy of Android, and it takes five years to walk in one year.

Pick up the phone, gently touch the NFC tag on the cooking stove, and the screen of the phone will jump out of the operation interface. The system automatically adapts to a variety of recipes. After selecting and processing the ingredients according to the production steps, the rest of the cooking process is completely handed over to the cooking stove.

"One of the great benefits of using’ HarmonyOS’ home APPliances is that the mobile phone can be controlled across devices without downloading any app." A few days ago, Yang Haisong, vice president of Huawei’s consumer business AI and full scene business department, said that the innovative combination of HarmonyOS system and home appliances provided users with a new way of interaction.

Previously, Huawei has repeatedly stressed that there will be 300 million smart devices equipped with HarmonyOS operating system this year. In addition to 200 million Huawei mobile phones and smart screens and other independent devices, whether the third-party intelligent hardware manufacturers can quickly embrace the HarmonyOS system has become the key to the smooth realization of this goal.

Yang Haisong said that behind the 100 million sets of external cooperative equipment is the life and death line of HarmonyOS system calculated by Huawei-more than 16% market share. HarmonyOS is not a copy of Android or iOS. In terms of ecological construction, the biggest challenge of HarmonyOS system is time, which means it takes one year to complete the five-year journey of other systems. In the critical period of the transition to the next generation of mobile Internet, China needs to build its own root capacity quickly, and only in this way can it protect and expand itself.

Yang Haisong (Photo courtesy of the enterprise)

HarmonyOS system is a cross-track product, and the key to survival is the life and death line of 16% market share.

Reporter: Android and iOS are so mature, will HarmonyOS fall into the dilemma of "repeatedly making wheels"?

Yang Haisong: Actually, we have always believed that it is impossible to make wheels repeatedly. HarmonyOS is not Android, nor is it a copy of iOS. Of course, if we make an operating system that can only run on mobile phones and single terminals, we can do it, but why should others use it? HarmonyOS is oriented to the Internet of Everything. At the beginning of our design, it was oriented to IoT, ranging from 128k RAN to more than 8G mobile phones. A software architecture was internally decoupled, and the system was divided into thousands of modules. Only in this way can a software architecture adapt to a variety of different hardware. Only by doing this can we be different from Android. If I can do what Android can do and I can’t do what Android can’t do, then we don’t think it will succeed. If this runway is a single runway, you will never pass others, so if you want to pass, you have to cross the track.

Reporter: In the era of mobile Internet, many once-popular operating systems have failed. Why does HarmonyOS think he can succeed?

Yang Haisong: We believe that the most important reason for their failure is that they can’t meet the basic survival bottom line of the operating system, which is 16% market share. Only Apple and Google can stay above the life-and-death line of 16%, others have not reached 16%, or they have just dropped rapidly with a nod. Therefore, for an ecology, especially the usage and market share of the underlying platform software such as operating system are the core factors for its survival and success. We are more confident about this, because I also have terminals, which can at least ensure the quantity of my terminals. At the same time, why should we vigorously develop ecology? In fact, this is also the consideration. Why should we set a quantitative target of 300 million this year? It’s not nonsense, because the possible market space we see, 100 million (external equipment) is the data of 16% of the life and death line. We think HarmonyOS should be able to survive if it reaches 100 million, but it took five years or even seven years for other operating systems to reach this number, and our goal is very challenging. It takes one year to complete the road that others have taken five years.

Making the operating system is only the first step in the long March, convincing partners to rely on commercial value.

Reporter: It will take HarmonyOS a year to complete the journey of others for five years. What are the urgent tasks now?

Yang Haisong: First, the cultivation of talents; The second is the construction of the environment. In the training of talents, we mainly face two kinds of talents, one is students, and we have begun to cooperate with schools to educate people; One is for mass developers, and we will also release the technical certification and training related to HarmonyOS developers together with institutions. Doing operating system, ecology is a very complicated and huge project. If the workload of developing HarmonyOS is 1%, 99% of it has not been done, and 99% is ecology. Making the operating system is only the first step of the long March. Without a wide range of partners in applications and equipment to use the operating system and make constant innovations in applications, services, equipment and hardware based on the operating system, this operating system and ecology are lifeless, and this ecology does not constitute an ecology.

At the same time, we must provide perfect software engineering and tool capabilities, including these programming languages and compilers under the "inverted triangle", including our development tools and development frameworks, which are the most basic and need to be provided to our developers, so that everyone can access the ecology quickly and efficiently at low cost.

Reporter: What does Huawei rely on to convince third-party partners to expand the ecological field?

Yang Haisong: The essence is the competitiveness and commercial value of the operating system. Can it bring tangible commercial value to partners? Only when it has commercial value will others be willing to use it. It’s not a gimmick, it’s not a brand craze, but a cake that really helps everyone make a big business value, so you can live. What is the product? I make money first, I make the product well, I make money when I sell it, and it’s OK. However, doing ecology is that others make money first, so we must create a win-win situation with you at this point. This change is great, and we are constantly adjusting ourselves and changing channels, which is also a huge challenge.

Reporter: HarmonyOS system has appeared on many IoT products, and rumors are about to land on Huawei mobile phones. What is the specific plan for ecological development in HarmonyOS this year?

Yang Haisong: In terms of ecology, last year’s plan only selected one field, that is, smart home. At the same time, it also limited the application form, that is, the innovation of our watch application, which exceeded our expectations. This year’s plan, first of all, the amount of equipment carried by 300 million is clear, and at the same time, there is a goal of "one horizontal and one vertical". Horizontally, we hope to expand from home to areas that consumers just need in high frequency, such as travel, sports health, audio-visual entertainment, education, office and so on. Vertically, we hope to cooperate with the partners of the whole industry chain, from the bottom chips to modules to software and hardware integration solutions to application service providers, and hope to make the cooperation of the industry chain mature vertically. This is the plan for this year.

Behind the prosperity of mobile internet is the lack of root ability, and now is the golden time to catch up.

Reporter: HarmonyOS is the latest and possibly the largest attempt of China’s independent operating system. Why does China have to master its own operating system?

Yang Haisong: In the era of mobile Internet, China can be said to be at the forefront, and many great companies have been born. However, behind the prosperity, we can also see that China is actually at the end of the mobile Internet value chain, and massive sales only bring limited profits.

Today, when the physical world is changing to the digital world, the national border is no longer that border. Data, including our digital software infrastructure, becomes our real root capability. Once these data assets are used maliciously, the privacy of our consumers, the security of our country and industry will be exposed to danger. Therefore, in the critical period of the transition to the next generation of mobile Internet, China needs to quickly build its own root capacity, and only in this way can it protect and expand itself. No industry can flourish without roots.

Reporter: What courses should China enterprises take to build "root competence"?

Yang Haisong: From the perspective of the whole industrial chain, European and American countries are a very robust "column" from chips to programming languages to database compilers, operating systems and upper-level applications, and each field is very balanced. On the other hand, we are an inverted triangle. Even in some areas, we are still a black hole. Up to now, China people don’t have their own programming language, and we all build our houses on other people’s foundations. As for the database, there has just been a Gauss of Huawei, and the compiler has only made an ark. As for the operating system, there are now some operating systems of China.

Reporter: How long do you think the window period left for cmnet to cultivate "root ability" is?

Yang Haisong: We can wait for the ecology to ferment and mature slowly, but in fact, I think there is not much time left for cmnet industry, because both Google and Apple are aiming at the Internet of Everything and AIoT, and they are all doing it, so there is not much time left for us and China. When the transformation of our generation of mobile Internet fails to catch up, we will miss the historical opportunity of ten years, so we also feel that this time is the prime time for cmnet industries, just in these one or two years. If we don’t improve in the past year or two, then we think the next root ability is still in the hands of others.

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Source: Beijing News