Huawei HarmonyOS 2.0 Beta Release Dates Revealed To Battle Android And iOS
Huawei appears to be in a position now to bring heat to their biggest competitors in Google and Apple. Whether or not by necessity, Huawei's moving forward with their alternative to Android, HarmonyOS, with a version of the operating system coming to smartphones this December. That means that before the end of 2020, Huawei's releasing their biggest stand-alone effort in the smartphone market yet.
HarmonyOS 2.0 Beta version for developers was announced as ready to roll for several sorts of devices by September 10th, 2020 (today) by Huawei. Huawei announced that Smart TVs, watches, and head units will have access to the HarmonyOS 2.0 beta version for developers starting this week. This includes the SDK (software development kit), documentation, tools, and simulator for developers.
In December of 2020, HarmonyOS 2.0 will be available in a beta version for developers for Huawei smartphones. That also includes the software development kit (SDK), as well as documenation, tools, and a simulator of sorts. This should make ready the biggest push for an Android alternative for Huawei devices that the company's developed thus far.
Huawei also announced that they'll "maybe" have HarmonyOS on smartphones for sale starting in 2021. That's according to Huawei during their official Huawei Developer Conference 2020 (Together) Keynote, streamed live during the day in China on September 10, 2020.
Per the OpenHarmony roadmap posted during that conference, September 10, 2020 will see the release of initial support for devices with between 128KB and 128MB RAM. Starting in April of 2021, Huawei will add support for an expanded set of devices – those between 128MB and 4GB RAM. Once October 2021 rolls in, 4GB+ RAM will see support from Huawei for Harmony.
You can take a peek at OpenHarmony now over at OpenHarmony on OpenAtom. There's also a code repository for OpenHarmony at Gitee right this minute. This is just the latest in Huawei's efforts to continue their expansion in several smart device markets around the world – take a peek at the timeline below for more information on what's next!