A successful execution of the Huawei Harmony OS may be just the key that the company needs in order to free itself from Google-dependency.

In order to combat the threats of export bans and sanctions from the US, Chinese multinational technology company Huawei has been working on a campaign to free itself and its products from heavy dependence on Google’s proprietary parts–if not its entire mobile operating system. According to SlashGear, although these efforts of Huawei may merely look like a scheme to take over Android, reports have it that the brand’s ambitions for the Huawei Harmony OS could eventually have the company staking its claims on various territories across the mobile phone market; especially those of its fellow China-based competitors.

Initial doubts

This may not be great news for those who don’t have the best first impressions of the Huawei Harmony OS 2.0 Beta, which the company claims isn’t yet it’s official vision. Apparently, developers were provided with access to a version that looked very much like a slightly customized Android. Fortunately, that could lessen the irk of a learning curve for users who will be experiencing the transition, and for smartphone makers and developers as well. On the downside, such a similar style would probably dull out the impact of this supposedly fresh and unique promised experience.

Android has its own parts that are specifically produced for certain chipsets (such as MediaTek, Qualcomm, and etc.) that, at large, are what allows it to run on most of the phones on today’s market. With that taken into consideration, an added phone-related limitation for the Huawei Harmony OS could be the very fact that its development is meant to operate predominantly on the company’s HiSilicon Kirin processors.

Making ends meet

There is talk going around in regards to the Huawei Harmony OS being set to receive further developments that will make it capable of running on Mediatek and Qualcomm platforms. This consequently would result in the independent OS’ ability to work just as smoothly on other phones beyond Huawei’s name as it does on phones of its own. Moreover, there is an interesting rumor that a number of well-known Chinese smartphone makers are genuinely looking forward to using Huawei’s potential upcoming OS on their mobile phones as well. This rumor is indeed likely to hold water as some companies in China (namely Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi) have already tried their luck with versions of Android that do not require Google.

Overall, this success can only depend on how convincing Huawei Harmony OS-run phones end up being. Should Huawei’s new operating system simply come off as a blandly modified Android, it may lack the ability to impress smartphone makers or even appear worth the switch. However, if the company does well to create an innovative brand new OS “out of scratch”, Google may just lose quite a chunk of its Android shares in China, which would add to the disadvantage of Google Play Store already lacking official presence there to begin with.