Major Chinese internet companies are rushing to hire app developers for projects centered on Huawei Technologies’ HarmonyOS mobile platform. This comes as the US-blacklisted telecom equipment maker expands the utilization of its in-house operating system, aiming to distance itself from Google’s Android ecosystem.
E-commerce giant JD.com, gaming powerhouse NetEase, and leading food delivery service Meituan are among the Big Tech firms actively recruiting HarmonyOS app developers, as reported by online career platforms Maimai and liepin.com.
Meituan, based in Beijing, is actively seeking HarmonyOS infrastructure engineers, offering a monthly salary ranging from 40,000 to 60,000 yuan (US$5,492 to US$8,238) for developers with HarmonyOS experience. JD.com and NetEase are specifically looking for developers to create apps tailored for Huawei smartphones, according to the job postings.
This recruitment drive by major internet firms aligns with Huawei’s strategy to expand the adoption of HarmonyOS as an alternative ecosystem within mainland China. The company, facing the impact of US sanctions, has set out to make HarmonyOS a widespread platform, as emphasized by its founder and CEO, Ren Zhengfei.
HarmonyOS, Huawei’s self-developed mobile operating system, was designed to run on various devices, challenging Google’s widely adopted Android platform. Currently, over 700 million devices operate on HarmonyOS, with more than 2.2 million third-party developers contributing apps to the platform, as highlighted by Richard Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business group.
Yu also revealed plans for HarmonyOS Next, the next iteration of the mobile platform, which will involve phasing out support for Android-based apps on devices running the new operating system. The company is expected to release a developer preview version of HarmonyOS Next in the first quarter of the upcoming year. HarmonyOS was introduced in August 2019 as an alternative operating system for Huawei, three months after the company was added to the US Entity List, restricting its access to software, chips, and technologies from US suppliers, including Google apps and services.
As the HarmonyOS will be slowly replacing all Android on the newer smartphones, users who are used to sideloading of APKs from unofficial stores will soon find that their app may no longer work pending an update of a new app for the HarmonyOS NEXT.
Will the HarmonyOS Next be another failure like Windows Mobile ? Comment below.
Source SCMP