The Harmony OS
With the rapid development of 5G and AI technologies, the new era of the Internet of everything is coming. However, the innovation of the mobile Internet is still limited to a single device, mainly cell phones, and the fragmented single-device operation experience can no longer meet people’s needs in different scenarios.
As the operating system of the Internet of Everything era, Harmony OS creatively integrates multiple physically separated devices into a “super terminal” through distributed technology. The software and hardware capabilities of different devices can be called and combined on-demand to bring users the most suitable wisdom experience for their scenarios. Even if users switch scenes, the smart experience can migrate across terminals and flow seamlessly.
Huawei
Although Huawei has repeatedly stressed that HarmonyOS is not for smartphones, but “when can smartphones use Harmony” is still the most concerned about the outside world. It is undeniable that the cell phone is the core entrance of Huawei’s “1+8+N” full-scene strategy, it is only a matter of time to use HarmonyOS. So, near the end of 2020, we saw the shining debut of HarmonyOS 2.0 Beta for developers.
Of course, ordinary users will have to wait if they want to try it, but in fact, we can already experience the new system in many products and scenarios, and the popular “multi-screen collaboration” function, behind which is inseparable from Harmony’s Distributed technology. Do you say that when you use these products, you do not realize that they are related to HarmonyOS? It’s right that you don’t feel it because the natural integration of multiple devices and phones in different scenarios is exactly what HarmonyOS wants to do.
It’s hard to understand Harmony OS, just one “distributed” is enough to make people confused; but it can also be very simple to understand Harmony OS, some people compare it to “movable type,” some people say it’s like Lego, its commonality is flexible assembly.
In layman’s terms, HarmonyOS’s distributed technology is to assemble all kinds of hardware at will according to the need; a smartphone can call the big screen of a TV and computer, and a computer can also call the camera of the smartphone to take pictures and scan codes. For most IoT devices without a screen, the smartphone screen is the best operation panel, such as the aforementioned oven and soybean milk machine equipped with HarmonyOS, you can use your cell phone to intuitively and conveniently perform various operations and get the operating status of the appliances. In a word, “a device is not enough, multiple hardware to come together.
The open-source of HarmonyOS has been progressing steadily according to the schedule previously announced by Huawei. 2020 September 10, HarmonyOS will be open source for the smart screen, wearable device, car, and other terminal devices with 128KB-128MB RAM; December 2020 will be the first to release smartphones to developers. By the end of April 2021, HarmonyOS will be open-sourced for devices with 128MB-4GB RAM, including tablets and low memory phones, and a commercial version will be released in due course. After October 2021, open source will be available for all devices above 4GB.
The number of IoT devices equipped with Harmony OS is gradually increasing, and developers are also using the beta version of HarmonyOS for smartphones. We have reasons to believe that the HarmonyOS cell phones for general users will arrive next year as scheduled, so what can we expect then? What kind of sparks can we expect? HarmonyOS-equipped cell phones and other devices?
As we said before, under the HarmonyOS system, the hardware of different devices can be assembled at will, it can also be understood that, for HarmonyOS, there will be no cell phone, computer, TV, IoT, so developers are no longer limited by the original cell phone hardware and development model, which brings greater imagination.
Take the hottest e-commerce live broadcast, for example, Huawei’s official HarmonyOS application example is the anchor in the process of live broadcast, you can easily switch each lens only through the phone, this is from the perspective of the anchor and the business, and as consumers, we can fully expect developers to adapt HarmonyOS, we can watch live on TV while using the phone to place orders; there are many businesses have been trying AR makeup trial. If we can use the screen of a TV or computer to view the effect, will it be a better experience?
The “original God” game exploded worldwide, but many players are looking at the low-resolution picture quality on the phone shed tears, if you can use the home 4K Smart TV, not to mention an “original God” ten can run. It is important to note that the so-called hardware, not only refers to the camera, screen, sensors, these components with physical form, but also includes the hardware arithmetic.
After sweating in the gym, how many calories were consumed, how far did you run, and how much iron did you lift? Generally speaking, we can only look at the machine after the end of the workout, but with the distributed technology, these data can be seamlessly transferred to the phone, not only can be permanently saved, but also by the phone to analyze, interpret, tell the user the length of fitness, whether the strength is appropriate, how the body condition during fitness, and even to develop a reasonable fitness plan.
And all this, the manufacturer to do is only in the framework and platform provided by Huawei for simple development and does not need to make an application from start to finish.
It is not yet possible to say that the distributed technology used by HarmonyOS is the optimal solution to end the fragmentation of the IoT market, but HarmonyOS undoubtedly provides a new way of thinking, connecting different end devices with a unified standard, complementing the hardware capabilities of different devices, simplifying the steps for users, and making it possible for vendors to provide one-stop services while improving the experience. Therefore, it is not too much to say that Harmony OS is an epoch-making operating system.
Related Reading
Of course, Harmony’s ability to release and explore individual hardware is much more than that, and the resulting changes will be disruptive, so the above ideas are just to introduce the jade. When more devices, manufacturers, and developers join this ecology, the integration of not only terminals, but also data related to life, work, entertainment, health, and other aspects, there will be experiences and products beyond our imagination, and what will greet us will be a new pattern of everything connected!
Article is originally published on C114 Communication Network
