Hongmeng "Enlightenment": The Beta Version Of Mobile Phone Developer Is Launched In Huawei To Launch The Blueprint Of Internet Of Things

At the beginning of Harmony OS's grand plan, Huawei is building a new high-rise building. It starts from the foundation and gradually builds up. Recently, it has reached a new node.

On December 16, Huawei released a beta version of Hongmeng OS 2.0 for smartphone developers. From watches, televisions to mobile phones, the reach of Hongmeng OS is expanding rapidly. This also means that now the framework of Hongmeng Building has been built, waiting for the participation and settlement of developers and applications.

It should be noted that this beta version is only for developers. The official use of Hongmeng OS2.0 in Huawei's mobile phones will wait until next year. At the developer conference in September, Huawei announced these plans and is now in the process of gradual implementation.

Specifically, developers can now visit the official website of the Huawei Developer Alliance to apply for the HarmonyOS 2.0 beta upgrade for mobile phone developers. Huawei opens a complete set of HarmonyOS 2.0 system capabilities, APIs (application development interfaces), and development tools such as DevEco Studio to mobile phone developers to help them develop new applications more easily and efficiently.

This is also an important measure taken by Huawei to build a Hongmeng ecosystem. "It is not difficult to build an operating system technically. Ecology is the core. Ecology involves far more breadth, depth and complexity than all individual technologies." Wang Chenglu, president of Huawei's consumer business software department, said, "At the same time, if the ecological development cannot match the opportunities of industrial development, it is very difficult to succeed in strengthening the ecological development."

The path of the operating system is long, but Huawei has to make a choice. In the face of external attacks, Huawei needs to prepare quickly for a rainy day. On the other hand, the Google Internet of Things operating system Fuchsia, which Hongmeng benchmarking, has also accelerated the speed of open source. The two have different layout purposes, and the ecology is still in the initial stage of enlightenment. However, the operating system slot in the IoT era has been opened.

Mobile phone: the most important puzzle

Why develop Hongmeng?

Wang Chenglu explained at the release site that at present, almost all application ecosystems are based on smart phone platforms. Although smart watches, smart TVs, car machines, including other IoT devices, have appeared for several years, the ecological development is very slow. The problem behind this is that there are too few applications. The core factor of the problem is the high fragmentation of the operating system.

Therefore, HarmonyOS was originally designed as an operating system for the future Internet of Everything era. "We hope to use a set of operating systems to solve the problem of all IoT hardware devices carrying systems. Hardware manufacturers do not need to cut or find a new system installation when producing different hardware." Wang Chenglu said, more importantly, HarmonyOS provides a distributed programming framework for all application developers, so that everyone can use their familiar high-level language to write business logic once to run on all devices, so as to maximize the sharing of ecology on isolated devices.

It can be seen that distributed, cross terminal and multi scenario are the features constantly mentioned in Hongmeng OS. Hongmeng's applications also start from IoT. Previously, some watches and large screen products of Huawei have been equipped with Hongmeng OS, and Huawei mobile phones will soon support Hongmeng OS. Although Hongmeng is not limited to mobile phones, mobile phones will be the core of Hongmeng's ecological landscape in terms of both the frequency of use and the magnitude of mobile phone connections.

This beta version for mobile phone developers mainly includes three parts. Yang Haisong, vice president of Huawei Consumer Business Software Department, introduced to the reporter in the interview: "The first part is the distributed programming framework, the second part is the distributed UI, and the third part is the DevoEco Studio Beta 3 version, which is the developer's tool platform. For example, in the first part of the development framework, there are more than 15000 APIs, which can enable mobile application developers to meet the call requirements for system capabilities, and also enable people to develop at one time and deploy at multiple ends. Since the open source of Hongmeng project, we have gathered more than 100000 developers and talents in the ecosystem. "

With the continuous promotion of Hongmeng OS mobile phone version, more and more application manufacturers are participating in it. At present, more than 120 application manufacturers, such as JD, UnionPay, Youku, iFLYTEK, have started to develop and innovate based on HarmonyOS, and more application cooperation is still in progress.

From the perspective of future user experience, according to Huawei, HarmonyOS integrates multiple physically separated devices into a "super terminal" through distributed technology. For example, HarmonyOS can optimize the travel experience through the collaboration of mobile phones and watches. When waiting for online car hailing, users do not need to take out their mobile phones frequently to check the vehicle dynamics. The license plate number, vehicle location and other information will be synchronized on the watch in real time, and can be seen when raising their hands.

Blueprints of Huawei and Google

Coincidentally, Google Fuchsia OS, which was targeted by Hongmeng, has also made new moves recently. Last week, it officially opened its source code to the public, allowing more developers to participate in it. Fuchsia is also designed for the era of the Internet of Things, and is considered to be the unified operating system for Google's mobile phones, computers, the Internet of Things and other devices.

In the face of the next generation operating system in the IoT era, Google and Huawei have each drawn a grand blueprint and made progress step by step in the planning. However, they are still in the early stages of development, and the ecological construction remains to be seen.

"It has to be said that Google has accumulated profound experience in the operating system and has excess research and development capacity. The original Android operating system was not designed for mobile phones, but for robots. But after adding the communication operating module, it found that it was very suitable for mobile phones, and then quickly popularized." A software industry practitioner told the 21st Century Economic Herald reporter, "Android is to accomplish the mission of the Internet, but now Google has found that it is inappropriate, including fragmentation and other issues. Therefore, Google redesigned Fuchsia for IoT, which can be said to be an unfulfilled ambition to accomplish Android. However, this dream is not easy to realize, and the development speed is not fast. Android started in the past and grew rapidly, but now Fuchsia's elaborate design has not yet achieved anything. "

If you look at Huawei, Hongmeng is facing a difficult battle. Under the sanctions of the United States, Google's cooperation is cut off, and Huawei can only start again in the software field. Although the research and development related to Hongmeng is under way, Huawei is not planning to enter the battle now, but has to accelerate the progress and implement it as early as possible. For Huawei, this road has to be taken. Although it is difficult, it must be prepared for the future. Hongmeng has tried to expand from home, and can also get more support from domestic hardware manufacturers. Huawei's own mobile phones and wearables and other IoT products are also of high magnitude.

Huawei revealed that at present, more than 20 hardware manufacturers have joined the HarmonyOS ecological construction. Yang Haisong told the reporter: "Next year, our goal is to have 100 million ecological devices equipped with HarmonyOS, and the development is beyond our expectations. In particular, almost all the leading smart home appliance enterprises in China have been talking to us, and some have signed contracts."

In his opinion, "The most difficult time for an ecology is now. From 0 to 1, we hope to reach 16% market share (life and death line) in the horizontal scenario by the end of next year. For example, smart home, at the end of next year, we expect to occupy the life and death line of China's smart home equipment shipments, that is, 16% of the shipments is our bottom line goal, which is very (challenging). "

As for Huawei's self-developed products, Yang Haisong said, "At present, the market share of Huawei's self-developed products in many categories has exceeded 16%. In the future, Huawei's self-developed devices, which upgrade to EMUI11, will be upgraded to HarmonyOS first."

On the whole, the current operating system and the Internet of Everything ecosystem present an interesting situation. The original Android belongs to Android, and the Internet of Things belongs to the Internet of Things. Now Hongmeng and Fuchsia have emerged one after another. With the rise of Arm and Apple's opening up of the multi terminal software ecosystem with the support of Arm chip, we can feel that the rallying point of the new era is being sounded. Under the situation of global disputes, it is worth discussing and observing how Hongmeng's blueprint will unfold.