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The Empire of the counter-attack environment.The Chinese Telecoms giant Huawei announced the launch on Wednesday, June 2 on its own operating system, called Harmonyos.In the grip of American sanctions for two years, the company wants to fight better for its survival in the arena of smartphones despite the loss of the Android license, belonging to Google.

Huawei unveiled its first mobile devices equipped with the new Harmonyos system during an online event broadcast from its headquarters in Shenzhen, in the south of the country, from 8 p.m. locals (12 h GMT).

The development of Harmonyos was closely followed by the tech world since the Trump administration launched in 2018 a very aggressive campaign to short-circuit the ambitions of Huawei, suspected by the United States of espionage for the benefit ofBeijing.

Huawei was placed in 2019 on black list by Washington, which prevents the Chinese group from accessing American technologies for its products, and in particular the Android operating system, property of Google and used by almost all manufacturersof Smartphones outside Apple, which uses its own iOS.

However, so far no company has managed to tackle the duopoly of mobile operating systems: Blackberry, Windows Phone of Microsoft and the Fire of Amazon have each abandoned the battlefield.

First World Supplier of Telecommunications Basic Stations Equipment and other network equipment, Huawei had launched himself in the mobile phones in 2003, using Android.

He had become one of the three main smartphone manufacturers in the world, with Korean Samsung and the American Apple, even occupying the number one place, stimulated by Chinese demand and sales in emerging markets.

But the American sanctions, which notably cut the company of the global supply chains into components, plunged its mobile telephony segment in uncertainty.

According to analysts, the biggest challenge that awaits Huawei at the moment lies in applications: convincing enough developers to reprogram their apps and other content so that they operate with Harmonyos, so that consumers continue to buy Huawei phones.

Application challenge

Being deprived of Android, Huawei can no longer offer users of its smartphones very popular applications, such as the Google research browser or its mapping function, Google Maps.

Huawei's access to the fleas necessary for the manufacture of a smartphone was also limited, and its deliveries fell spectacular during the last quarters.

According to analysts, Huawei should easily be able to solve the problem of applications in China, its internal market: those it has developed are designed for its compatriots.

Towards independence from the American market

But in the rest of the world, the perspectives are much darker.

"In terms of content, when you talk about the international market, you cannot live without Google, without Amazon or YouTube.It will be a challenge, "said Elinor Leung, head of internet research and telecommunications in Asia at Clsa.

The problems of Huawei led to an important reshuffle of the company, founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, former engineer of the people's liberation army who still holds the CEO position.

Since the American pressure has intensified, Huawei quickly turned to new product lines considered to be less vulnerable and refocused on its main domestic market.

In an internal note to its employees last week, Ren Zhengfei, called on its employees to an all -out transformation of its group and to accelerate autonomy in software.

Thus, "the United States will have very little grip on our future development," wrote the businessman.

The firm has accelerated its diversification in sectors such as dematerialized computing ("cloud") or connected vehicles, beyond 5G where it is already one of the leaders in the.

Huawei announced, last month, his wish to work in partnership with Chinese car manufacturers to deploy smart vehicles.

With AFP

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