Huawei on Tuesday launched the Mate 70 series of smartphones able to running the corporate's latest homegrown operating system, because the Chinese giant continues its push toward technological independence within the wake of U.S. sanctions.
The Mate 70 is the successor to the Mate 60, which launched last 12 months and caused a stir within the tech and political world. It contained a semiconductor that many had assumed could be difficult for Huawei and China to provide given widespread U.S. restrictions geared toward cutting off the world's second-largest economy from top chips. Huawei was separated from Google's Android operating system in 2019, forcing the Chinese tech giant to develop its own software.
Huawei didn't mention which chip the phone ran on, but Richard Yu, head of Huawei's consumer and automotive business, said the Mate 70 can run HarmonyOS NEXT – the corporate's first fully self-developed mobile operating system.
Huawei hopes that the operating system can change into a viable alternative to Android and Apple's iOS in China. The company's early versions of HarmonyOS were built using open source Android code.
However, HarmonyOS NEXT reportedly now not uses this code, marking a big update in Huawei's software development.
“HarmonyOS Next has great potential as an alternative in China,” Will Wong, senior research manager at IDC, told CNBC. “This is not only because of Huawei’s brand name, but also because the company is committed to attracting developers to join its ecosystem.”
The company's consumer business was crippled after various White House restrictions denied it access to key technologies from chips to software. But the launch of the Mate 60 last 12 months revitalized Huawei's business in China, putting pressure on Apple.
Huawei began accepting reservations for the device earlier this month and has amassed greater than 3 million reservations for the device on a Chinese e-commerce site. This doesn’t necessarily must result in sales.
The company talked about its device's artificial intelligence features, including photo editing tools. This comes at a time when smartphone makers are attempting to draw customers with recent AI tools. In China, the race is on for homegrown players to make an impression with their AI tools before Apple Intelligence is launched within the country.
The Mate 70 series is available in three variants: Mate 70, Mate 70 Pro and Mate 70 Pro+. The Mate 70 starts at 5,499 ($759) Chinese Yuan, while the Mate 70 Pro+ starts at 8,499 Yuan.
On Tuesday, Huawei also unveiled its latest foldable smartphone called Mate X6, which starts at 12,999 yuan.
New operating system in focus
Last 12 months, Huawei seemed to be buoyed by the success of its devices in China, posting growth that propelled it back into the list of the country's top five smartphone vendors.
The company has tried to publicly reveal its technological prowess, from the Trifold smartphone launched in September to HarmonyOS NEXT, to point out that it shouldn’t be slowed down by US sanctions.
In addition to the Mate 70 series and Mate X6 foldable having the ability to run the brand new operating system, Huawei said a few of its older devices will receive the software upgrade in the approaching months.
The success of operating systems often is dependent upon the suite of apps available. During the launch event, Yu demonstrated how HarmonyOS NEXT's AI can interact with popular apps corresponding to Alipay, considered one of China's largest mobile payment services.
Currently, Huawei's latest phones, alongside HarmonyOS NEXT, are heavily focused on the Chinese market as the corporate still faces growing challenges abroad.
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