HarmonyOS Next

Huawei presents Mate 70 – with its own operating system

The Huawei Mate 70 is water-resistant in accordance with the IP69 specification.

(Bild: Huawei)

Chinese technology giant Huawei has unveiled its first smartphone with its own operating system. The "long-awaited Mate 70, the most powerful ever" is now available with HarmonyOS Next, said Huawei manager Richard Yu at a presentation at the company's headquarters in Shenzhen. The sanctioned company wants to counter the heavyweights Google and Apple.

The Mate 70 should go on sale on Tuesday evening local time and has a starting price of 758 dollars (just over 720 euros). According to Huawei, more than three million orders have already been placed in advance - even if this does not guarantee that all of them will ultimately be sold.

Huawei was once one of the leading smartphone manufacturers and market leader in China. The company was then hit with sanctions that cut it off from the global supply chain for technology products and US-made components for its devices. Washington warned of possible espionage in particular, which the company rejected. As a result, Huawei was no longer able to equip new smartphones with Google's Android operating system as before.

16 percent market share in China
According to the latest figures, the company delivered a good 10.8 million smartphones in the third quarter, covering 16 percent of the Chinese market. Huawei now wants to return to the top with its own operating system. Economist Gary Ng from the investment company Natixis spoke of a "milestone for China" to free itself from its dependence on Western companies.

Most smartphones worldwide run on Android or Apple's iOS system. Huawei wants to change this and become independent of its major US competitors, especially in view of future US President Donald Trump and his protectionist trade policy directed against China.

However, the undertaking is not without risk: according to the company, HarmonyOS Next requires a complete reconnection of all apps on the smartphones that are operated with it. In addition, there will initially be a series of updates in the future to make the system more mature. Whether the Chinese system can establish itself internationally is questionable.