From technological autonomy to the ecological flywheel: When HarmonyOS 5 crosses the "tens of millions milestone"
What exactly does 10 million mean?
In the smartphone industry, when the sales volume of a new model exceeds 10 million units, it means it is a blockbuster, with a solid user base and brand influence. In the traditional automotive industry, when a brand reaches a cumulative global sales volume of 10 million vehicles, it is usually regarded as an industry benchmark, with economies of scale and a mature supply chain.
In the field of operating systems, when a system achieves 10 million device installations, it means that a brand - new system ecosystem has officially entered a positive - cycle stage, forming a positive flywheel where "developers are motivated to invest and users have reasons to choose".
This is HarmonyOS 5, which breaks the market pattern dominated by iOS and Android.
On July 30, Huawei officially announced that the number of HarmonyOS 5 terminals had exceeded 10 million, nearly nine months after the official release of this version. As a major milestone in the construction of the HarmonyOS ecosystem, it can be said that with the support and co - construction of eight million developers and the support of millions of users, HarmonyOS, which covers more than 40 types of terminal devices, has passed the most difficult period.
On the day of the official announcement, Yu Chengdong, Executive Director of Huawei and Chairman of the Consumer Business Group, recalled the journey of HarmonyOS in a Weibo post and expressed his gratitude to users by holding a lottery for 100 Pura 80 Digital Edition devices. At the same time, a group of celebrities "cheered collectively" and leading ecosystem partners showed their recognition.
In the "Dialogue" program broadcast on CCTV on August 16, Yu Chengdong shared the little - known stories behind HarmonyOS and the future vision for it with a group of industry experts and ecosystem partners.
10 million is not only a number but also a watershed in history. What HarmonyOS 5 has crossed is not just a milestone in development scale, but also a new beginning for an ecosystem flywheel and digital sovereignty.
Ten years in the making, HarmonyOS 5 rewrites the global operating system landscape
In terms of connectivity, no innovation is greater than an operating system.
In 1946, the world's first general - purpose computer, "ENIAC", was born, opening an era of computing where programs were run by punching cards. In the 1970s, computers gradually evolved into microcomputers. The launch of Microsoft's DOS operating system marked the beginning of the personal computer era.
Later, there was Windows, represented by the graphical user interface, and today's mobile - operating - system market is divided into three major players. As the allocator of software and hardware resources, the operating system has always stood at the core position of the intelligent industry, connecting the upper and lower parts.
Connected to the application ecosystem above and the computing hardware below, the operating system, regarded as the "soul of the computer", connects every link of the intelligent industry. It is precisely this mission and status that determine that its innovation is destined to be a "long march" in a quagmire invisible to the outside world.
As Yu Chengdong said in the "Dialogue" program, "The operating system and chips are the most important cornerstone in today's electronic information era. We hope to develop a world - class operating system from China, apart from those of Apple, Google, and Microsoft."
Technological independence is precisely the most important mission of the birth of HarmonyOS. From its project establishment in 2015 to the launch of its first version on August 9, 2019; from the first release of HarmonyOS NEXT to developers in 2023, officially announcing the end of Android compatibility, to the official commercialization of HarmonyOS NEXT in 2024, as the total number of HarmonyOS ecosystem devices approaches 1.2 billion, Huawei also announced in the first half of 2025 that its terminals have fully entered the HarmonyOS era.
After ten years of hard work, HarmonyOS has finally broken the long - term monopoly of the global mobile operating system market by Android and iOS by overcoming technological blockades, integrating the upstream and downstream industrial chains, and jointly building an ecosystem with eight million developers, and has established a foothold in the global core technology competition.
"The breakthrough of 10 million HarmonyOS 5 terminal devices is a major milestone." In Yu Chengdong's view, this is a crucial moment. Because achieving this feat with HarmonyOS 5 involves too much difficulty and Huawei's firm determination to make a breakthrough.
First of all, the migration of underlying technologies is extremely difficult. As a completely self - controllable and brand - new operating system, HarmonyOS 5 requires all applications to be re - developed or migrated based on its self - developed underlying technologies such as the kernel, file system, and graphics engine.
This migration is not a simple "interface replacement" but a systematic reconstruction covering multiple aspects such as application logic transformation, UI interface adaptation, performance optimization, and security interface access, which is a full - stack challenge for developers and ecosystem partners.
More importantly, the R & D code scale of HarmonyOS has reached 130 million lines, and its core modules such as the kernel, outer kernel, file system, and graphics engine form a huge and highly coordinated engineering system.
As Yu Chengdong revealed in the program, the R & D of the HarmonyOS operating system has lasted for six years from the official announcement of its commercialization preparation to the present, with more than 10,000 people involved each year, and the cost has reached tens of billions. "But all these investments are very worthwhile."
Secondly, this is also a very risky business decision.
Yu Chengdong said in the "Dialogue" program that the ecosystem migration is a "chicken - and - egg" problem. Without a large user base, developers are reluctant to invest. Without a good application experience, users also have doubts and concerns about the upgrade.
Huawei directly chose to pre - install HarmonyOS 5 on the new HUAWEI Pura X released in March 2025, and then the HUAWEI MateBook Pro and HUAWEI MateBook Fold Master Edition, which first adopted the HarmonyOS operating system in May. Not every manufacturer has the determination to test the waters with high - profile new products.
In the global mainstream operating system market monopolized by American technology giants, how should we view the current HarmonyOS 5?
We have to admit that the commercial success of Apple's iOS with its closed - loop ecosystem shows us how high the cost is for users to migrate between different mobile ecosystems, while Android has quickly achieved wide - scale global market coverage by lowering the access threshold for developers and manufacturers with its open - source strategy.
However, what HarmonyOS wants to do is different from both of them. From the desktop to the mobile end and then to the IoT terminals, HarmonyOS has been an operating system for all terminals in the era of all - things intelligent interconnection since its birth. Developed for the new digital era, it has shed the burden of the complex and redundant architecture of the past and started with new technologies and capabilities, building a late - comer advantage that can lead and move forward rapidly, and better releasing the integrated value of the new wave of technologies such as AI.
For example, its distributed technology that allows one - time development and multi - terminal deployment enables users to have a consistent and smooth operation experience on multiple types of terminals. Its self - developed HarmonyOS kernel and Xingdun security architecture can greatly improve the system's fluency and privacy protection capabilities. The new Xiaoyi intelligent agent, based on the powerful AI foundation of HarmonyOS, has system - level capabilities, is ubiquitous, and enables in - depth interaction.
In short, the five major advantages including refinement, intelligence, interconnection, security, and fluency, as well as the growing ecosystem, have not only become the reasons for more and more users to upgrade to HarmonyOS 5 but also helped Huawei terminals return to the top position in the Chinese market after a four - year absence. According to the latest data from IDC, in the second quarter of 2025, Huawei mobile phones regained the top position in the domestic smartphone market with a market share of 18.1%.
Now, the number of HarmonyOS 5 terminals exceeding 10 million means that this first fully self - developed operating system in China has shed the label of being a novelty. The intelligent experience it brings is continuously crossing the bottom of the "smile curve" and moving towards the "peak of trust".
After 10 million units, the HarmonyOS ecosystem flywheel accelerates comprehensively
If the breakthrough of 10 million for HarmonyOS 5 is from 0 to 1, then the co - construction of the HarmonyOS ecosystem is from 1 to 100.
Yu Chengdong also admitted in the "Dialogue" that "Developing an operating system is difficult, and building an operating system ecosystem is even more difficult. Migrating the application ecosystem is not only a huge amount of development work but also a chicken - and - egg problem."
As a completely independent operating system, the biggest challenge for HarmonyOS 5 lies in how to break the ecological paradox of "users first or developers first". Huawei chose to break the deadlock with the explosion of terminal installation volume first, then improve the user experience with the prosperity of the developer ecosystem, and finally form a positive - cycle ecological flywheel.
More specifically, as Yu Chengdong mentioned at the HUAWEI Pura X launch event in March this year, Huawei terminals have officially entered the HarmonyOS era, and every product after the Pura X will be equipped with HarmonyOS 5, which means that the HarmonyOS ecosystem will have an "innate user base".
At the same time, Huawei is also actively investing a large amount of resources to co - build with developers, providing migration toolchains, technical support, and incentive programs to enable rapid application adaptation. In the early transition stage, it released full - stack tools such as the ArkTS language, ArkUI interface framework, and Ark compiler to developers, promoting the migration of applications to the native HarmonyOS.
In the full - scale HarmonyOS adoption period, with the official commercialization of HarmonyOS NEXT, Huawei has established an application adaptation, performance, and security certification system in addition to the migration toolchain and has continuously provided hundreds of millions of incentive funds to help and guide developers to quickly complete the listing and update of HarmonyOS applications.
First of all, the top 5000 national - level applications such as WeChat, Douyin, and Taobao have been launched on HarmonyOS. Take the HarmonyOS version of WeChat as an example. As an app with a user base of 1.4 billion, adapting WeChat to HarmonyOS 5 is undoubtedly a huge challenge. All the functional codes accumulated over the past decade need to be rewritten from scratch.
This not only requires a lot of time but also a large amount of technical investment and human - resource support. With the high - level attention of Tencent, by specially establishing a development center for the HarmonyOS mobile end, starting the development of both the PC and mobile ends simultaneously in March 2024 and iterating multiple versions over more than a year, it finally achieved a breakthrough in the download volume of 11 million.
Liu Nayu, the representative of Tencent Group's HarmonyOS product R & D, also admitted that they also faced uncertainties when they first switched to the HarmonyOS system. However, as an Internet and technology company with a common vision, Tencent is also willing to invest in the development of HarmonyOS. For ecosystem partners, this is a huge co - construction ground.
The maturity of the HarmonyOS version of WeChat is just an epitome of the growth of the HarmonyOS ecosystem. In the wave of HarmonyOS adoption, Chinese leading Internet companies such as Tencent, Alibaba, and ByteDance have become the vanguards of HarmonyOS adaptation.
Ru Xuan, the representative of Alibaba Group's Taotian cooperation with HarmonyOS, also revealed the "HarmonyOS goal" of the entire Taotian Group. All apps including Taobao, Tmall, Xianyu, and 1688 will achieve 100% adaptation by September 30 this year. Yang Lipeng, the general manager of the Technology Department of the 12306 Science and Technology Innovation Center of China Railway, also told the process of the cooperation between the official app of China Railway and the HarmonyOS team to launch innovative functions and said that as a national - level app in the travel field, "We actually think we have the responsibility and obligation to join the HarmonyOS ecosystem and support its improvement."
As of June this year, a total of more than 30,000 HarmonyOS applications and meta - services are also in full - speed development and update. The active adaptation of leading application manufacturers is not only a sign of the prosperity of the HarmonyOS ecosystem but also the key to making it a commercial traffic pool. In Yu Chengdong's view, the co - construction of the HarmonyOS ecosystem is a collective charge of Chinese technology companies, turning the impossible into possible by working together.
Now, as a group of Chinese apps such as TikTok and Temu go global, the HarmonyOS operating system is bound to go abroad with China's mainstream apps. At that time, the HarmonyOS ecosystem will stand on the world stage and co - build with global developers and partners, which will also drive more small and medium - sized application developers to join the HarmonyOS ecosystem.
Why can't the HarmonyOS ecosystem abandon small and medium - sized application developers?
We should know that the operating system market is monopolized by foreign technology giants, and domestic software is almost completely passive in the ecological chain. As a domestically developed, self - developed, open, and inclusive operating system, HarmonyOS has now broken this one - way dependence pattern.
More importantly, HarmonyOS has an efficient and comprehensive development system that can reduce the development difficulty and adaptation cost for small and medium - sized developers.
From the distributed architecture that allows one - time development and multi - terminal deployment, effectively reducing the terminal adaptation cost by 70%, to the editorial recommendation of the HarmonyOS AppGallery, which is a system - level traffic entrance, providing exposure benefits, and then to the supporting Ark engine and DevEco Studio toolchain, HarmonyOS can escort small and medium - sized developers through the entire innovation chain of development, growth, and operation.
This is why, as of June, the number of registered developers in the Huawei Developer Alliance has reached eight million, the monthly average number of times of reading and using development documents on the official website has reached 8.4 million, and the number of HarmonyOS tool downloads has reached 1.1 million. Behind this explosive growth is the result of the interaction between Huawei's developer incentive program worth tens of billions of RMB and the HarmonyOS training system with more than one million learners.
