A new trademark application from Huawei suggests that the company has been working on an operating system called ‘Harmony OS’ for smartphones and computers. According to LetsGoDigital, 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, LetsGoDigital which made the discovery, seems to believe that it’s just another name. It’s now all confusing because HongMeng OS is also expected to be called ‘Ark OS’ in some markets. Let’s just wait and see.
Even as the US-China trade tensions eased somewhat over the past month, Huawei continues to work on its new operating system, HongMeng OS. However, Huawei last week claimed that 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.
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, rumours suggest that HongMeng will be released later this year, so we will hopefully get more clarity on the subject going forward.
