Huawei’s HarmonyOS gains traction in China with 103 million smartphones shipped

Nearly half of smartphones and tablets running the Chinese tech giant’s Android alternative were shipped in 2024

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Huawei launched its latest HarmonyOS devices, the Pura 80 series smartphones, on June 11. Photo: Reuters

Published: 5:00pm, 13 Jun 2025Updated: 6:24pm, 13 Jun 2025

Huawei Technologies has shipped more than 103 million smartphones and 21 million tablets running its proprietary HarmonyOS operating system, with nearly half delivered in 2024, according to consultancy Canalys.

The Shenzhen-based technology giant shipped 46 million smartphones and 10.5 million tablets last year, signalling an accelerating pivot to its in-house operating system, serving as an alternative to Google’s Android amid US sanctions.

Huawei has been transitioning its devices to its own OS since 2021, ramping up efforts after Washington placed the company on its Entity List in 2019 over national security concerns. The privately held firm has since expanded HarmonyOS beyond smartphones and tablets, launching two laptops running on the system last month.

Huawei made the move two months after its licence to use Microsoft Windows expired. The expiration cut the company off from the operating system that runs on roughly 70 per cent of personal computers (PCs) globally and 80 per cent in China, according to analytics service Statcounter.

In a research note, Canalys analyst Emma Xu described Huawei’s HarmonyOS-powered PC launch as a “leap amid global tech restrictions”, as the Chinese company makes a “strategic pivot toward platform autonomy and technological sovereignty”.

It is a “watershed moment in its long-term goal to establish a fully self-sufficient hardware-software stack”, Xu added.