HarmonyOS to Become the Third Largest Mobile Operating System
In his first all-staff letter of the year, Yu Chengdong, Executive Director of Huawei, Chairman of the Terminal BG, and Chairman of the Smart Automotive Solutions BU, emphasized that “the tide of the times is sweeping across the world, and HarmonyOS holds one-third of the world’s future, a responsibility and mission bestowed upon our generation of terminal makers by history.”
He also mentioned that by 2025, HarmonyOS will see significant investment in its ecosystem, aiming for 100,000 applications as a sign of maturity. This is a key goal for the next six months to a year.
Here is the full letter:
Facing the mountain, we ourselves are the path.
After five years of consecutive sanctions, Huawei’s terminal business returned to a fast growth track in 2024, with further improvement in operational quality, marking the start of a new decade of growth. Huawei’s terminal team, through action, has once again written the story of MAKE IT POSSIBLE.
A new starting point, setting off again.
Despite severe shortages in supply, Huawei’s smartphones reclaimed the top spot in the Chinese market. The Pura70 series sold over 10 million units, the Mate XT won TIME Magazine’s Innovation Award, and the Mate 70 series achieved significant improvements in photography, video capture, and performance through tight hardware-software collaboration. The “Born to Create” feature enhanced MatePad's creativity, leading to sustained sales growth in China and setting a new record. The 980g MateBookXPro created a new peak for flagship PCs. Wearables maintained the global No. 1 spot in shipments for three consecutive quarters, with the WATCH GT5 series reaching 2 million units shipped at the fastest pace in Huawei’s history, while the FreeClip earbud headphones dominated both domestic and international markets. The smart home business grew rapidly, with sales leading the industry. HarmonyOS-powered vehicles saw significant strides, with over 430,000 units delivered, achieving the highest average selling price in the high-end market for five consecutive months. Huawei’s automotive components and other products gained competitiveness, and the company turned profitable ahead of schedule. In China, Huawei also achieved a leap in brand awareness and market share in several industries.
There is no success that happens overnight; it is only through perseverance that we achieve breakthroughs. The extreme difficulties of the past few years have driven us to climb greater heights. This year, HarmonyOS made a historic breakthrough. The HarmonyOS NEXT (5.0) was officially launched, with over 20,000 native apps and services available, over 7.2 million developers, and more than 1 billion ecosystem devices. HarmonyOS NEXT, with full-stack self-developed technology, has made the core technology of the operating system independent, secure, and reliable, breaking the dual monopoly of mobile operating systems and providing the world with a third choice.
We achieved in 10 years what our European and American counterparts took 30 years to accomplish. We thank every Huawei employee, developer, partner, lecturer, consumer, and the families behind them who have supported us along the way. Over the past year, terminal employees and colleagues from other departments have visited over 290 cities, collaborating with ecosystem partners and solving technical challenges; hundreds of thousands of developers worked tirelessly over 9 months to launch thousands of apps and services; thousands of ecosystem partners invested fully, some even establishing “Starlight” teams or working until dawn for several months; thousands of lecturers spread the word about HarmonyOS nationwide, and over 300 prestigious universities supported HarmonyOS-enabled education; millions of consumer suggestions have helped HarmonyOS improve. We thank all of the partners who contributed to the HarmonyOS era!
Past successes are not reliable guides for future progress. In the new year, we will continue to build king-level products, create an extreme smart experience for all scenarios, and build a high-end brand that consumers love and trust. With the large number of HarmonyOS devices, we will drive the rise of China’s electronics industry.
The tide of the times is sweeping across the world, and HarmonyOS holds one-third of the future, a responsibility and mission bestowed upon our generation of terminal makers by history. The prosperity of the HarmonyOS ecosystem and the development of native smart capabilities are the key breakthroughs for us to achieve greater victories. In 2025, HarmonyOS will see heavy investment, with 100,000 apps being the milestone for ecosystem maturity. This is a critical target for the next six months to a year. We must break through the critical point and challenge 100 million HarmonyOS native users. We call on all employees to be pioneers in using native HarmonyOS—“jump from your own parachute first,” find problems, solve them, and co-build HarmonyOS.
Artificial intelligence, like a lotus just budding, has great potential, but we cannot wait for the rain before planting seeds. We must be bold in planting deep roots. We are committed to implementing the company’s AI strategy, enhancing AI product capabilities, and improving AI team development. Through innovation in system architecture and leveraging the advantages of collaborative hardware, chips, and cloud, we will strengthen HarmonyOS’s native intelligence. With XiaoYi as the breakthrough, we will innovate quickly, win users' minds, and bring the ultimate intelligent experience to consumers across all scenarios.
The product teams must focus on building core competitiveness around business value and market demand, adhering to the philosophy of “100-1=0,” prioritizing quality and experience. The smartphone industry will focus on six basic needs and experience excellence; the PC industry will fully seize the strategic opportunity window and establish a new system of autonomy; the +8 industries will continuously improve product strength and brand value, building high-end consumer awareness; HarmonyOS Smart Home will redefine three key capabilities—connection, interaction, and ecosystem—through AI, offering users a new intelligent lifestyle experience. The automotive industry’s shift to electrification and intelligence presents a historic opportunity, and intelligent driving is one of the best use cases for AI. HarmonyOS Smart Mobility will continue empowering car manufacturers to define a new luxury with smart technology, creating best-selling products that consumers want to drive, love to drive, and enjoy driving. The supply system will be deeply integrated with upstream and downstream partners, fostering flexible supply innovation and building a competitive industry chain.
In the Chinese market, we will attack aggressively, improving industry collaboration and achieving steady growth in smartphone and +8 sectors while strengthening the high-end HarmonyOS Smart Mobility market and targeting a “double million” sales goal. Overseas, we will seize opportunities to further build ecosystem experiences and core competitiveness for value products.
Currently, external uncertainties remain high, and we must continue to improve our layered and tiered management mechanisms, strengthen operational responsibilities, and enhance management capabilities to ensure the terminal BG continues to generate healthy, stable profits and cash flows.
Placing consumers at the center is our eternal topic and original intention—it is the starting point and end point of our terminal business. We should not focus only on KPIs but keep consumers in mind to give our work direction. We cannot use sanctions, supply continuity, and other difficulties as excuses to overlook consumer experience, nor can we harm our long-term brand reputation and goodwill for short-term benefits. We must continually challenge ourselves, delivering more competitive products, better experiences, and superior services to become the most beloved and approachable high-end brand for consumers.
Positioning determines status, and vision determines realm. The terminal team will always uphold the MAKE IT POSSIBLE spirit, daring to do what others have not thought of, what others can think of but cannot do, and even what others dare not think of. Our leaders are mission-driven and believe in victory, professional and competent, leading teams to fight tough battles and win them. Experts dare to innovate and break through, tackling difficulties, constructing technological breakpoints and moats, and leading the industry’s development. All employees continue to focus on "consumer-centric" principles, working simply and pragmatically, continually improving professional skills, adhering to compliance, honesty, and integrity, and ensuring we do not fall behind on the new journey.
With the spirit of kings, we will climb the highest peak! We have already climbed out of the difficult and challenging mud pits of the past. The future holds no insurmountable obstacles. We will do the hard but right thing, unite all the forces we can, make users satisfied, and help our partners succeed. We are destined to achieve even greater victories! When the mountain flowers bloom, we will raise our glasses to celebrate!
Happy New Year to everyone!
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