The rapid expansion of Huawei Technologies Co's self-developed operating system HarmonyOS showcases its technological resilience amid prolonged US government restrictions, experts said.

The comments came after Huawei recently announced that the number of devices running its self-developed HarmonyOS 5 had exceeded 17 million, marking a significant milestone in the growth of its independent operating system.

Alongside this achievement, the company announced a major strategic investment of 1 billion yuan ($140.6 million) dedicated to fostering innovation within the Harmony-OS AI ecosystem and supporting developers in ushering in a new phase of artificial intelligence integration.

Industry analysts view this move as a critical step for Huawei in establishing a software ecosystem capable of competing in the AI era.

Zhu Yonggang, president of Huawei's terminal cloud services, said: "HarmonyOS is advancing at full speed. Its rapid growth represents a collective change in China's tech industry through collaborative innovation."

Zhu presented an expanding ecosystem map that illustrated HarmonyOS 5's reach across numerous domains — from smartphones and smart vehicles to smart home devices and industrial applications.

Since its launch, HarmonyOS 5 has been expanding at a rate of millions of new devices per month. These 17 million units include not only Huawei's own products, but also a growing number of devices from ecosystem partners. This year, Huawei has fully integrated HarmonyOS 5 across its product lineup, including smartphones, PCs, tablets, watches and smart screens. The operating system is designed to deliver a seamless AI-powered experience that transcends traditional technical boundaries.

For example, Huawei's foldable laptops incorporate HarmonyOS AI with converged application ecosystems, while its triple-fold smartphones offer PC-like applications and interactive experiences, enabling enhanced mobile productivity.

Wang Liansheng, an expert from the China Electronics Standardization Association, said, "Against the backdrop of dominance by Google's Android and Apple's iOS in global operating systems, HarmonyOS's rapid expansion demonstrates Chinese tech companies' determination and capability to break through technical barriers."

The HarmonyOS ecosystem is built on OpenHarmony, an open-source project established after Huawei donated the core capabilities of its operating system to the OpenAtom Foundation in 2020 and 2021. Over the past five years, Open-Harmony has garnered more than 130 million lines of code and over 9,200 community contributors.

It has supported the development of more than 1,300 hardware and software products and over 70 industry-specific distributions, spanning sectors including finance, transportation, education, energy, aerospace and consumer electronics. OpenHarmony has become a foundational digital platform for countless industries.

Song Jia, deputy secretary-general of the China Association for Promoting UN Procurement, said: "The rapid development of the Harmony-OS ecosystem holds strategic significance for China's digital independence and innovation. Reaching 17 million devices is a critical scale threshold, indicating that HarmonyOS has entered a phase of rapid growth."

The upgrade to HarmonyOS 5 represents not only quantitative growth, but also a qualitative evolution in AI capabilities.

Huawei said it aims to comprehensively support innovation and development within the Harmony-OS AI ecosystem. AI agents are becoming a central direction for HarmonyOS's evolution. Through this initiative, Huawei will support developers in creating more AI-native micro-services and intelligent agents.

With its inherent advantages in AI and full-scenario connectivity, HarmonyOS is expected to deliver more advanced AI experiences that transform how users access information and services, experts said.

"The competition among operating systems is ultimately a competition of ecosystems," said Song. "Huawei's large-scale investment in ecosystem construction precisely targets this crucial aspect. However, challenges remain and more efforts are needed to improve application diversity, ensure developer profitability and increase global market acceptance."

masi@chinadaily.com.cn