Chinese manufacturing giant, Huawei, has been developing the HarmonyOS system for many years. However, after the series of bans from the U.S., the company had to hurriedly release this system. After some tweaks to the system, Huawei released HarmonyOS for smartphones in China. As of now, we are yet to have this system for global models. Nevertheless, since the start of the project, Wang Chenglu has been the head of HarmonyOS development. According to the latest reports, the former president of Huawei’s consumer BG software department has resigned. Could this spell trouble for the Huawei HarmonyOS system? Maybe not. Nevertheless, Huawei is yet to make an official statement with regards to his departure.
However, Wang Chenglu posted a Huawei badge on Weibo a few days ago. The post comes with the text: “For the memory of forgetting”. This post confirms the rumours of his departure.
Wang Chenglu graduated from Harbin Institute of Technology with a doctorate in engineering. He joined Huawei in 1998 and served as President of the Central Software Research Institute and President of the Consumer BG Software Department.
Wang Chenglu is the leader of Huawei’s Hongmeng OS. He previously said in an interview with the media that during his tenure at the Central Software Institute, he had the idea of making HarmonyOS. After being transferred to the consumer business, he has been promoting Huawei to build its own software and system ecosystem.
Huawei HarmonyOS is not a copy of Android or iOS
Earlier, he said in his keynote speech at the 2020 Sina Technology Billboard that the emergence of Harmony OS is not an alternative system to deal with US sanctions. Harmony OS is neither a copy of Android nor a copy of iOS. It is a full-scenario operating system for the future IoT era.
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He revealed at the time that Huawei’s goal is to conservatively estimate the installed capacity of Huawei’s own equipment to be 200 million units in 2021. More importantly, Harmony OS will also be open to third-party devices, with conservative installations. In this way, HarmonyOS will have more users around the world. According to the company’s target for last year, it should have 300 million to 400 million HarmonyOS devices.
At a press conference at the end of 2021, Yu Chengdong announced that the number of Huawei devices equipped with HarmonyOS has exceeded 220 million. Harmony OS Connect shipped more than 100 million new ecological devices in 2021. The company claims that these two together constitute over 3.2 billion units. This also means that Huawei HarmonyOS has hit its 2021 annual goal.
In April of this year, the latest data released by Yu Chengdong is that the number of Huawei devices equipped with Harmony OS exceeds 240 million units. The shipment volume of ecological devices exceeds 150 million units.
Wang Chenglu destination still have links to Huawei
In response to the rumours of Wang Chenglu’s departure, there are speculations about his destination. There are reports that he will join Shenzhen Kaihong Digital Industry Development Co., Ltd. (Shen Kaihong).
Previously, in order to develop and strengthen Harmony OS, Huawei first open-sourced Harmony OS and later announced that it would donate the code of Harmony OS to the Open Atom Open Source Foundation. According to reports, Shenzhen Kaihong has launched an intelligent IoT operating system (KaihongOS) based on OpenHarmony. It provides solutions for both consumers and the industry.
It is worth noting that Shen Kaihong also has a Huawei background. According to industrial and commercial data, it was jointly established by Chinasoft International and Shenzhen Capital Operation Group Co., Ltd. (a subsidiary of Shenzhen State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission). However, Hubble Investments, a subsidiary of Huawei, also holds shares.
Sina Technology called Shenzhen Kaihong for verification but did not receive a corresponding reply. If the rumours are true, then Wang Chenglu, the head of Harmony OS, has not left the Harmony OS business.
