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Huawei’s Android-free ‘HarmonyOS NEXT’ will go live next week

Huawei is in the middle of ditching support for Android in favor of its own operating system. The new Huawei OS – HarmonyOS NEXT – is set to debut next week.

HarmonyOS has been at the core of Huawei’s devices for some time. The OS began as simply another Android skin, posing as something different than the rest. The change came with the idea that Huawei would eventually ditch Android altogether, opting to bring its devices into a dedicated OS with support for just as many apps.

Since then, Huawei has been working towards the goal of becoming completely self-reliant. Recently, the company announced that HarmonyOS NEXT brings support for 10,000 apps, covering “99.9% of consumers’ usage time needs.”

New information indicates that Huawei is finally ready to debut HarmonyOS NEXT and begin bringing it to phones currently on the market (via South China Morning Post). Again, this comes as an effort to completely ditch Android. The new system will not support Android apps, hence the company’s attempts to support apps that users will need.

It’s indicated that HarmonyOS made up 17% of China’s smartphone market in Q1 of 2024. That’s a significant amount of potential devices breaking off from Android in a market dominated by either it or iOS.

HarmonyOS NEXT is set to begin rolling out to Huawei devices next week. The OS will first come to the Mate 60, Mate X5, and MatePad Pro on October 15. There is no indication that the new Mate XT tri-fold smartphone from the company will receive an update.

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