Huawei P40 Might be the First to be Equipped With Harmony OS

Huawei confirmed during IFA 2019 that its self-developed operating system Harmony OS is ready and might make its debut on the upcoming Huawei P40 series.

“If our smartphones continue to be blocked out by Google services, we will consider using our own Harmony OS,” said Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group.

Yu also confirmed that the Huawei P40 series will probably be released next March.

Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group
Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group (Source: Huawei)

Harmony OS, or Hongmeng in Chinese, is more like a last resort for the company. Huawei will not consider using it as the first choice, because they are still weighing options to collaborate with other players.

SEE ALSO: Huawei Unveils Long-Awaited In-House Developed Harmony OS

Yu also confirmed that the company’s Kirin chipsets are also for self-use only, while the company is considering selling them to be used in other industries including the Internet of Things (IoT).

When asked by journalists about Huawei’s potential problems using ARM, or Advanced RISC Machine by a British multinational semiconductor and software design company, Yu said that Huawei remains confident in its own CPU.

“Now we can still use ARM, and we are using them, because we have a perpetual license for certain ARM processors. Even if we can’t have access to future ARM processors, we have our own CPUs. And they may perform even better,” said Yu.

The registered capital of Hisilicon, a Chinese fabless semiconductor company fully owned by Huawei, has increased from 600 million yuan ($84 million) to 2 billion yuan ($280 million). Huawei now has Kirin, Balong, Honghu, Lingxiao and other chip series in their arsenal.