Counter US sanctions against Huawei launches the strongest "brain"
What will Hongmeng bring
Imagine that you have a voice call in a car. After turning off the car, you can transfer the call to your mobile phone, walk to the door of the house and transfer the call to the smart bracelet, then free your hand to flip the bag and take the key, and then you can transfer the call again after entering the door On the TV, turn on the camera, video connection... This "Hongmeng scene" is not far away.
On June 2, Huawei released a number of new products equipped with HarmonyOS 2 (Hongmeng Operating System), including mobile phones, smart watches, and tablets.
At the same time, it was announced that many of its devices will start HarmonyOS 2 upgrades one after another.
"Today, we are in an era where everything is interconnected and all things are intelligent, and it is also an era where the Internet and social networks are highly developed. No one is an island. Everyone is connected through our Internet, smart terminals, and social networks. After experiencing so many difficulties and hard hits, our determination to provide global consumers with better user experience and better products will not change." Huawei's managing director and CEO of consumer business Yu Chengdong said at the press conference.
Open up Hongmeng, a plan B for a rainy day
Since the establishment of Huawei's Noah's Ark Lab in 2012 and the planning of its own operating system, HarmonyOS has now undergone 9 years of research and development.
In 2017, Hongmeng Kernel 1.0 was completed.
In August 2019, Hongmeng OS1.0 was released.
In December 2020, Hongmeng OS2.0 mobile phone developer Beta version was released.
The operating system is like the human brain and the foundation of the mobile phone. With it, all kinds of apps can run.
If you can’t control the operating system by yourself, in case someone doesn’t let you use it, you will be in trouble.
In 2012, the United States initiated investigations and congressional hearings against ZTE and Huawei, which caused a severe setback in the expansion of these two top domestic communications companies in the United States.
Under the crisis, Huawei had the idea of self-developed operating system.
After several years of trials, the Hongmeng system officially launched its design in 2016.
Google's Android system accounts for more than 80% of the global smartphone market, which was once the lifeblood of Huawei's mobile phones.
At the end of 2019, Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei was interviewed by foreign media. When the reporter asked what to do if Google did not obtain a license to cooperate with Huawei, he replied: "We have a very ambitious Plan B (Plan B)." Ren Zhengfei said , Huawei is determined and capable of becoming the world's largest smartphone seller, but it will take some time.
Since being involved in the Sino-US trade conflict, one of the most serious challenges that Huawei has encountered is the possibility of losing the right to use the Android system.
In fact, in May of the same year, Google suspended business cooperation with Huawei's mobile phones. Huawei can only continue to use Android through open source projects, which has a significant impact on its overseas markets.
However, the news from within Huawei is exciting.
Once Huawei's own operating system is launched, it will open up various hardware such as mobile phones, computers, tablets, TVs, cars, and wearable devices, and will be compatible with all Android applications and applications accessed through the Internet.
"We are willing to continue to use Google and Microsoft, but there is no way we are forced to go to Liangshan." A Huawei executive said.
This operating system is Hongmeng.
Its advent is by no means a stopgap measure, but an advance layout based on observations in the era of the Internet of Things and a sense of danger in times of peace.
At the 2019 Huawei Developer Conference, Yu Chengdong, as the first speaker, paved the way for the Hongmeng system in the first 10 minutes of the speech. "In the past PC era, DOS, Windows, and macOS came out with the PC; in the past ten years, it has entered mobile In the Internet age, smart phones are widely popularized, tablet OS, watch OS, and a large number of smart terminals appear; in the future, everything will be interconnected, and there will be a large number of IoT (Internet of Things) devices in various forms. Are we developing OS for every kind of hardware? This workload It is very huge, the development workload is also very large, and the ecological collaborative work is also very complicated."
"How to build a future-oriented OS?" Yu Chengdong, who raised the question, pressed the pager in his hand, and "HarmonyOS Hongmeng" appeared on the big screen behind him.
In the past thirty years, only the operating systems of Microsoft, Apple, and Google have successfully formed an application ecosystem.
Industry insiders once said with emotion, "The difficulty of making an operating system is like exploring the Mariana Trench. It is very deep. It is at the lowest level and is the foundation and soul of the entire information industry system."
Perfect microkernel, perfect external core, perfect compiler, perfect development environment... Hongmeng has a long way to go in the future.
Hongmeng is not "another Android", but an operating system for the Internet of Everything era
Since the day when Huawei launched Hongmeng, the outside world has never stopped talking about it as the "second Android".
In fact, whether it is "distributed technology" or "IoT operating system", these concepts are too unfamiliar and abstract for the public.
Faced with all kinds of speculation, Wang Chenglu, the head of Huawei Hongmeng, told reporters that HarmonyOS's positioning has always been clear. It has never targeted Android or iOS. "This is an operating system for the Internet of Everything era."
What is the Internet of Everything?
The interconnection of everything means using a set of operating systems to connect large and small hardware, including mobile phones, from the bottom, as if they are integrated into one device-from mobile phones and watches to home appliances and cars, from smart office and smart travel to Smart homes, smart factories, and "isolated islands" of equipment will be barrier-free and can be manipulated more "dumb".
Take Hongmeng as an example. Under its ecology, when a mobile phone is used to connect to a display, the mobile phone becomes a server. You can hold the mobile phone to work anywhere with a display at any time, without using a laptop; the tablet computer and personal computer can communicate with each other. , The software that cannot be installed on the tablet computer can directly call the software on the computer; even in the future, Hongmeng is expected to make "smart watches control cars" possible.
At the 2020 Developer Conference, Huawei demonstrated the linkage between Huawei mobile phones and watches under HarmonyOS 2.0: users use their mobile phones to get a taxi, and the watch immediately displays information such as the license plate number and vehicle location; while riding or walking, the watch can interact with Mobile phone coordinated navigation, providing vibration reminders when turning and changing lanes.
"The linkage of watches and mobile phones may not seem uncommon for such examples, but if the scope of equipment is expanded to the entire smart home category, such as doorbells, desk lamps, air conditioners, refrigerators, etc. Imagine, when you exercise on a treadmill, the watch monitors When the body temperature rises, automatically turn on the air conditioner, and recommend a recipe based on your recent physical condition, and let the juicer at home make a cup of health drink-this is a scene of smart life." The relevant person in charge of Hongmeng said.
However, it is not an easy task to implement the above scenario.
Collaboration and communication between different systems are a big problem, and the hardware conditions of different terminals are not the same.
Thus, the distributed technology of HarmonyOS came into being.
"The public may understand it this way. It gathers all the hardware capabilities and allows each terminal to be flexibly called according to needs. The TV can call the camera at the door, and the watch can call the computing power of the mobile phone's CPU for resource sharing." Hongmeng is responsible for this. People say.
In this sense, HarmonyOS is not a simple mobile phone operating system, but Huawei mobile phones can be regarded as a huge "remote control", which connects all products in the ecological chain that support the Harmony system through Harmony distributed technology.
In theory, under the Hongmeng system, the capabilities of the equipment can be extended indefinitely.
"We are not making a substitute for Android or iOS." In Wang Chenglu's view, if there is no essential difference, it is difficult to establish a new ecological chain; the key to the success of a new system is to seize the opportunity of industrial transformation.
"The rapid development of the Internet of Things will bring about a period of industrial transformation in the next 10 years. This will be a historic opportunity for independent operating systems."
"We must let the ecology grow on our own foundation." Wang Chenglu said.
The Chinese industry has responded positively to Hongmeng and its industrial ecology. More than 300 partners such as Midea, HKUST iFLYTEK, and Supor have joined Hongmeng Ecosystem.
"HarmonyOS uses distributed technology to enable a system to meet the needs of large and small devices and achieve flexible deployment. For developers, HarmonyOS can achieve one-time development and multi-terminal deployment, making multi-device application development easier." Wang Chenglu said.
In the view of Zhao Xiaogang, assistant professor at the School of Computer Science of Wuhan University, the innovation of HarmonyOS lies in the creation of a "super terminal" through distributed soft bus technology. Consumers can realize device interconnection through the "touch" method, greatly reducing This improves the difficulty for users to use multiple devices, and at the same time improves the interaction speed of multiple devices.
In addition, distributed intelligent applications can quickly circulate among different devices, thereby increasing the utilization rate of the equipment's computing power.
As HarmonyOS shows obvious advantages in technology and concepts, its ecological construction has also entered the fast lane.
Yang Haisong, vice president of Huawei's consumer business AI and smart full-scenario business department, disclosed that up to now, Harmony Eco has developed 1,000 hardware ecosystem partners and more than 1,000 modules and solution partners.
Huawei is communicating and cooperating with the world's top 200 APP vendors to jointly develop applications across terminal devices.
In May of this year, the Chinese home appliance industry giant Midea Group released relevant documents, announcing that it plans to launch nearly 200 models and millions of products equipped with HarmonyOS to enter the market within this year.
Yang Haisong said, taking the previously launched steaming and grilling cooking stove equipped with HarmonyOS as an example, the sales volume in the three-week pilot sales event exceeded 1,000 units, which is ten times the expected value. “I believe this data will benefit all hardware partners. They are all attractive".
Feedback from the market shows that the Chinese industry, covering home appliances, sports and health, food and travel, audio-visual entertainment, office education and other fields, has shown a positive attitude towards HarmonyOS and its industrial ecology.
The industry also generally believes that HarmonyOS based on "compatible" and "open" features will bring healthy competition and positive stimulus effects to the global market, and provide more diversified market choices for billions of mobile terminal users worldwide.
Huawei previously estimated that by the end of 2021, there will be more than 200 million Huawei equipment equipped with Hongmeng, and the number of various terminal equipment for third-party partners will exceed 100 million.
The latest data shows that more than 300 partners such as Midea, HKUST Xunfei, and Supor have joined the Hongmeng Ecosystem. It is expected that more than 40 mainstream brands will become the new entrance to the Hongmeng experience in 2021.
The comprehensive sanctions on Huawei not only failed, but instead prompted Huawei to accelerate the pace of independent innovation.
Two years ago, Huawei was included in the list of entities by the Bureau of Industry and Security of the US Department of Commerce.
At that difficult moment, a picture of the soaring Soviet Il-2 fighter jets still soaring and scarred by bullets can be seen everywhere in Huawei's Shenzhen headquarters.
This picture was personally selected by Ren Zhengfei, accompanied by the words "No scars, where the skin is thick and fleshy, and the heroes have suffered since ancient times", reflecting Huawei's determination to become a city.
In Ren Zhengfei's view, Huawei, under the suppression of the United States, is like this returning plane, flying and repairing it, "striving to be able to fly back."
Because of adequate preparations in advance, the United States cannot hit Huawei's "fuel tank" and "engine".
Ren Zhengfei “confessed” to the participants at the expert symposium of Huawei’s “2012 Noah’s Ark Laboratory” that mobile operating systems and high-end chips were made out of strategic considerations. “When (others) cut our food, back up The system needs to be usable."
This is the case with Huawei's HiSilicon chip, all "spare tires" turned "positive" overnight.
At two o'clock in the morning on May 17, 2019, Huawei HiSilicon President He Tingbo sent an open letter to the employees.
The letter read: "Years ago, it was a season of light clouds and wind. The company made the assumption of extreme survival. It is expected that one day, all advanced US chips and technologies will be unavailable, and Huawei will continue to serve customers. For this hypothesis that it would never happen, thousands of Haisi’s children embarked on the most tragic long march in the history of science and technology to create a “spare tire” for the company’s survival."
"Not only to maintain openness and innovation, but also to achieve technological self-reliance!" He Tingbo emphasized that in the future, there will not be another decade to build a "spare tire" and then change tires. The buffer zone has disappeared, and every new product is a new product. At birth, it will be necessary to synchronize the "technological self-reliance" program.
Huawei is not the only Chinese company sanctioned by the United States, but it is one of the most severely sanctioned Chinese companies by the United States.
From May 2019 to August 2020, the United States imposed three rounds of sanctions on Huawei, resulting in Huawei being unable to buy a large number of chips after September 15, 2020.
Under the core shortage crisis, Huawei's mobile phone business revenue has declined, and it is forced to sell its sub-brand Honor in November 2020.
On April 12 this year, Huawei’s rotating chairman Xu Zhijun said frankly at the analyst meeting: “Huawei has no illusions about being removed from the list of entities, and is prepared to work and live on the list of entities for a long time; Huawei will not be in the list. Assuming and fantasizing to continue to formulate company strategy, the current strategy and specific measures are all based on Huawei’s long-term survival and development under the entity list."
Looking back at Hongmeng against this background, its strategic significance should not be underestimated.
In the case that mobile phone hardware is difficult to iterate, through the deployment of a proprietary operating system, to provide a user experience that surpasses or at least is no less than that of the new Android system, and minimizes the loss of existing users, which will surely reopen the hardware supply chain. "Strategic counterattack" creates the foundation.
It is understood that Huawei is preparing to make efforts in three areas this year: First, it will invest heavily in businesses that are less affected by US sanctions, such as the cloud computing business that bucked the trend of revenue growth last year by 168%; second, it will use new products with a large number of technologies that it has stocked in the past. For example, the optical communication technology in the operator’s business is used to create laser headlights for automobiles and car head-up displays. The third is to focus on the Chinese market. Huawei’s revenue from the Chinese market accounted for 65.6% of last year’s total revenue. In 2021 , Overseas markets are still affected by the epidemic and geopolitics, and Huawei’s new and old businesses such as 5G, government and enterprise, cloud, and automobiles will rely more on the local market.
2021 is still a year full of challenges for Huawei, but it is also the beginning of the gradual clarity of Huawei's future development strategy.
Xu Zhijun said that Huawei will insist on technological innovation and strengthen R&D investment to solve the problem of continuous supply under sanctions.
Hongmeng is beginning to open, and the future can be expected.
As the so-called "putting the dead and living afterwards", the comprehensive sanctions imposed by the United States on Huawei not only failed, but prompted Huawei to accelerate the pace of self-sufficiency and independent innovation, and have a greater advantage in the fiercer technological and industrial competition in the future. .
(Our reporter Guan Xiaopu and Li Yunshu)