In May 2019 Google broke relations with Huawei and that included stopping installing Android on the Chinese brand’s mobile phones. The consequence was Donald Trump’s veto of this company, which he included on a blacklist because, supposedly, he used its users’ data to send it to the Chinese Government.
With no other operating system on the market since iOS is exclusive to Apple, Huawei decided to launch its own environment to run its mobile phones under the name HarmonyOS. This way they avoided the Trump sanction that Biden has extended and has reached Europe and they could continue marketing their mobile phones around the world.
HarmonyOS vs iOS
Five years later, HarmonyOS surpassed the American Apple’s system, iOS, in market share in China for the first time in the first quarter of the year, according to data from the consulting firm. Counterpoint Research.
The report highlights a notable increase in the market share of HarmonyOS in smartphones sold in the Asian giant, which went from 8% in the first quarter of 2023 to 17% in the same period of 2024.
At the same time, the participation of iOS fell from 20% to 16% in the same time, both falling behind the dominant operating system, Android, which took 68% of the market.
HarmonyOS went from 8% in the first quarter of 2023 to 17% in the same period of 2024
This decline marks the first time since the first quarter of 2019 that iOS has experienced a reduction in its market share during the first quarter in the Asian country, something that the consultancy attributes to the launch of new phones compatible with 5G networks and equipped with HarmonyOS launched to the market for Huaweiwhich compete directly with the Californian brand’s phones.
Upward trend
The report of Counterpoint suggests that HarmonyOS’s upward trend “will likely continue.”
In the last quarter of 2023, Huawei became the leading manufacturer of tablet sales in China, also surpassing for the first time Manzana.
Huawei became the leading manufacturer of tablet sales in China
Precisely at the end of 2023, the rotating president of Huawei, Ken Hu, assured that the company had managed to “overcome the storm” after a few years in which Huawei had been affected by the sanctions of Washingtonannounced in May 2019 and based on the company’s alleged ties with the Chinese armed forces and which resulted in a ban on Google from selling products to the Chinese brand.
