Huawei has launched its latest flagship phone, the Mate 70, featuring a completely homegrown operating system, HarmonyOS Next, marking a significant step in its efforts to circumvent US sanctions and establish an alternative to Android and iOS, CNN reports.
The phone, priced starting at 5,499 yuan ($760), represents a bold move away from Android-based applications, showcasing Huawei’s commitment to developing entirely independent technology.
The Mate 70 follows the surprise success of last year’s Mate 60 series, which confounded industry experts given the US government’s efforts to restrict China’s access to advanced semiconductor technology. Huawei executives have stated that all new phones and tablets will utilize HarmonyOS from next year. This shift, they claim, is essential for maintaining market dominance in the premium segment, strengthening consumer loyalty, and attracting users from competing platforms.
The Mate 60 Pro’s August 2023 launch became a symbol of US-China tech rivalry, reigniting interest in Huawei’s high-end smartphones. This is reflected in a dramatic market share increase for Huawei in the Chinese market for phones exceeding $600, rising from 11% in Q3 2022 to 33% in Q3 2023—a remarkable turnaround achieved at the expense of Apple, whose share dropped from 72% to 52% over the same period.
Huawei, once the world’s second-largest smartphone manufacturer, has been struggling since facing US export restrictions in 2019. These restrictions forced the sale of its Honor budget brand, severely impacting its position. The initial HarmonyOS launch in 2019, while supporting Android apps, was a response to the US trade blacklist, which prevented Google from supplying its Android OS to new Huawei devices.
The company has since focused on developing a fully independent platform, reportedly gaining support from major Chinese tech companies, which are actively developing compatible apps for HarmonyOS. Huawei aims to reach 100,000 apps within the next year, a key objective for establishing a robust ecosystem. While the Mate 70 has already received over three million pre-orders, analysts at Counterpoint Research project over 10 million shipments, acknowledging that building a competitive app ecosystem will take time.
