Huawei Creates Laptops Using Indigenous Operating System ‘Harmony’
Huawei Creates Laptops Using Indigenous Operating System ‘Harmony’
Hopes to compete with Microsoft and Apple
Chinese telecom equipment company, Huawei Technologies, has launched two new laptop models, MateBook Fold and MateBook Pro, with homegrown HarmonyOS 5.
The aim is to compete with well-established Western Big Tech rivals, even as the US limits its access to crucial chips.
Despite being the world's leading producer of tech hardware, China's computer operating systems lag behind Microsoft and Apple, whose Windows and macOS have captured the global market for decades.
Huawei began developing the new operating system in 2015 and introduced it five years later on its Mate series smartphones. It began developing the laptop prototypes in 2021.
Yu Chengdong, the head of Huawei's consumer business group, stated, "The Harmony laptop gives the world a new choice. We kept on doing the hard things but the right things."
The base model of the MateBook Fold, which does not have a physical keyboard and offers an 18-inch OLED double screen when fully extended, will cost 23,999 yuan ($3,328).
The MateBook Pro model, comprising a conventional laptop keyboard, ranges from 7,999 yuan upwards.
Without disclosing the type of processing chip used to power the newly-launched laptops, Huawei justified that the relatively high prices were the result of the cost of the chipset’s new manufacturing technology.
The US restricted Huawei's access to US technology in 2019 over national security concerns. It compelled the company to build its own capacity to develop and produce chips and operating systems.
The company claimed the HarmonyOS for computers offered over 150 applications, including WPS Office from Kingsoft, an alternative to Microsoft's Office, and a photo-editing app, Meitu Xiu Xiu.
Huawei’s annual report read that by 2024-end, over 7.2 million individual developers initiated apps for HarmonyOS, which was installed on over a billion devices, including smartphones and TVs.
In 2024, the US had revoked licenses that allowed companies, including Intel and Qualcomm, to ship chips used for laptops and handsets to Huawei.
It angered the Republican lawmakers when an AI-enabled laptop, powered by an Intel processor, was introduced by Huawei.
