Huawei detailed many aspects of its HarmonyOS operating system today, which will succeed its Android-based EMUI skin. While HarmonyOS is still based on Android to some extent, it"s a bit of a departure for the company, and it will be available on a whole ecosystem of devices including wearables and smart home appliances.
For many of those form factors, you"ll need to buy new products that have HarmonyOS out of the box, but if you already have a Huawei phone, tablet, or smart screen, you may actually get an upgrade to the new HarmonyOS. The company has shared a comprehensive list of all the devices that will be upgraded to HarmonyOS, starting today and through the first half of 2022. The list actually includes some phones and tablets that are several years old, which is nice to see.
As you"d probably expect the more recent and more expensive devices will go first. The first wave starts today, and it includes the Mate 40, Mate 30, and P40 families of phones, plus the MatePad Pro tablet. These include all or most of the members of each of those lines.
In the third quarter of the year, the Mate 20 series, the foldable Mate Xs, and the Huawei nova 8, nova 7, and nova 6 series of phones will all get the upgrade to HarmonyOS, too. On top of that, the Huawei MatePad 10.4 and 10.8 will both get the update in this timeframe as well.
Moving on to the fourth quarter, Huawei V-series and S-series smart screens and TVs will be upgraded, along with the P30 series, the original Mate X foldable phone, the Mate 20 X lineup, and the M6 tablet.
Finally, in the first half of 2022, many older phones and tablets will get the upgrade. These go all the way back to the 2016 Huawei Mate 9 series, the Huawei P10 family, and the nova 2s, with many more devices in between.
In total, Huawei says it will upgrade over 100 models to HarmonyOS, which is undoubtedly a significant undertaking, but it should be good news for anyone who"s stuck with a Huawei phone for a while. Having all these devices join the HarmonyOS ecosystem could help Huawei attract more developers and apps onto the platform, making it more viable in countries that are more used to using the Google Play Store.