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Huawei has unveiled a new flagship with completely proprietary software that aims to give users an alternative to Google’s Android or Apple’s iOS, in another attempt by the Chinese tech giant to defend itself against possible further sanctions by Washington.
The new Mate 70 smartphone, which starts at 5,499 yuan ($760), features the HarmonyOS Next operating system, which no longer supports Android-based apps. It is touted as a “pure-blooded” technology developed solely by Huawei engineers.
“This is our most powerful phone (in the Mate series),” Richard Yu, chairman of Huawei’s consumer division, said at Tuesday’s launch event. “We have always been copied, but never surpassed.”
From next year, all new Huawei phones and tablets will run on their own operating system, he added.
The Mate 70 is the successor to last year’s Mate 60 series, which shocked industry experts who couldn’t understand how the company could have the technology to make an advanced chip after major efforts by the United States to restrict China’s access to foreign semiconductor technology.
The Mate 70 represents a “critical step” in Huawei’s software evolution, Lucas Zhong, research analyst at Canalys, told CNN.
The shift away from the Android ecosystem “will be essential for Huawei to maintain momentum in the premium segment, strengthen consumer loyalty and attract potential platform switchers,” he said.
That shift was made possible by the August 2023 launch of the Mate 60 Pro, which quickly became a symbol of the US-China tech rivalry. It also revived interest in Huawei’s high-end smartphone offering.
According to Canalys, Huawei’s share of the Chinese market for phones costing more than $600 has grown from 11% in the third quarter of 2022 to 33% in the same period this year, marking a remarkable turnaround for the company. Over the same period, Apple’s share of the same high-end market fell from 72% to 52%.
Huawei, previously the world’s second-largest smartphone maker, has been fighting for survival since it was hit by US export restrictions in 2019. The company’s troubles later forced it to sell its budget mobile brand Honor, leaving it in poor condition.
The first version of HarmonyOS, which supported Android-based applications, was launched in August 2019, months after Huawei was placed on a US trade blacklist that banned US companies from selling unlicensed technology and software to the Chinese company.
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