A new trademark application from Huawei suggests that the company has been working on an operating system called ‘Harmony OS’ for smartphones and computers. The application was filed with the European Union Intellectual Property Office as well as the UK’s Intellectual Property Office on July 12, 2019, and is classified under: ‘mobile operating systems; computer operating systems; downloadable operating system programs’.
It’s not immediately clear at this stage whether Harmony will be another name for HongMeng OS or if it will be a completely different piece of software altogether, although, Dutch tech blog, Let’s Go Digital, which is believed to have first reported on the matter, seems to believe that it’s the former. Of course, HongMeng OS is also expected to be called ‘Ark OS’ in some markets, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out in the end.
Even as the US-China trade tensions eased somewhat over the past month, Huawei continues to work on its new operating system, HongMeng OS, although the company last week claimed that contrary to media reports, the new software is not meant to be an Android alternative. According to Huawei Executive, Liang Hua, Hongmeng OS is primarily developed for IoT devices to reduce latency. “In terms of smartphones, we are still using the Android operating system and ecosystem as a first choice”, he said.
It’s worth noting that Huawei’s latest assertions about HongMeng not being a direct alternative to Android contradicts its earlier stance, when the company’s Founder and CEO, Ren Zhengfei, boasted that the home-grown software will be faster and smoother than Android. Either way, rumors suggest that HongMeng will be released this fall, so we’ll hopefully get more clarity on the subject going forward.
