Xiaomi Launch Home-grown Cross-device System with HyperOS

Smartphone and gadget giant Xiaomi Corp have become the latest Chinese industry player to unveil a unified operating system for their mobile devices, cars and Internet-connected home products, as US-sanctioned Huawei Technologies work towards liberating their own integrated OS completely from Google’s Android. 

 

Xiaomi described HyperOS, their recently introduced OS, as a combination of a highly customised Android system and the company’s proprietary Internet of Things (IoT) platform Vela, launched three years ago to support a range of smart devices from wristbands and smartwatches to speakers, home appliances and sensors. The Beijing-based firm touted HyperOS as a “human-centric” OS that is a culmination of efforts to bring their vast and expanding product portfolio under the roof of one single OS for centralised and easier management. 

 

HyperOS will come pre-installed on the latest Xiaomi 14 smartphone series, as well as devices launched in the mainland Chinese market, such as smartwatches and televisions, the company said.

 

Xiaomi are not the only Chinese company that have taken a shot at developing a home-grown OS. Huawei Technologies, one of the first domestic handset makers to make such an attempt, are now preparing a bolder move to launch HarmonyOS Next. 

 

Huawei have confirmed that HarmonyOS NEXT will commence official developer beta activities in early 2024, followed by closed and public beta tests before the full public release. 

 

The Next system is Huawei’s attempt to sever their ties with the Android ecosystem by removing support for Android apps on Huawei devices equipped with their new OS. HarmonyOS was launched in August 2019, several months after the US Department of Commerce added Huawei to their Entity List that barred the Shenzhen-based telecoms titan from buying technologies from American companies – including Google apps and services – without Washington’s approval.

 

While the Android Open Source Project is still free for anyone to use, Huawei have been pushing through with efforts to expand the use of HarmonyOS, which was first released on a smart television, to all their IoT and personal devices. But to soften the blow to users, Huawei – which were briefly the world’s top-selling smartphone brand before US trade sanctions decimated their international handset business – have so far allowed Android apps to run on HarmonyOS devices.

 

Android held a roughly 70 percent share of the global mobile OS market in September, according to data service StatCounter, while HarmonyOS had a negligible share.

 

Still, Huawei appear ready to move forward. 

 

“HarmonyOS had four rough years. Looking back now, the light boat has already passed ten thousand mountains”, Richard Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business, said at a launch event for HarmonyOS 4 in September, citing a famous line written by ancient Chinese poet Li Bai. 

 

Today, more than 700 million devices run on HarmonyOS, with more than 2.2 million third-party developers creating apps for the system, according to Yu. 

 

Meanwhile, other Chinese smartphone manufacturers continue to build their customised OS on the open-source Android. They include Oppo’s ColorOS and Vivo’s OriginOS.