Huawei's HarmonyOS beats iOS for sixth consecutive quarter in China
What's the story
Huawei's homegrown operating system, HarmonyOS, has outperformed Apple's iOS in China for the sixth consecutive quarter. According to Counterpoint Research, HarmonyOS captured a 17% market share in Q2 2025, surpassing iOS at 16%. Android continues to dominate the Chinese smartphone market with a massive 66% share.
Market impact
HarmonyOS's rise in China
The surge in HarmonyOS's popularity has been attributed to Huawei's Nova series smartphones and the foldable Pura X. This development highlights how Huawei is using its software as a key part of its strategy to shield itself from US tech sanctions. Despite its success in China, HarmonyOS still lags behind globally, powering only 4% of smartphones sold last quarter compared to Android's 79% and iOS's 17%.
Evolution
HarmonyOS launched in response to US trade blacklist
Launched in 2019 as a response to Washington's trade blacklist, Huawei has been positioning HarmonyOS as an alternative to Android. The company launched an upgraded version called HarmonyOS Next last year, which ditched support for Android apps completely. The latest version, dubbed "pure blood" in China, is already powering 17 million devices according to Huawei's announcement at its Connect 2025 conference.
Developer outreach
Huawei offers $140 million in subsidies to app developers
To grow its developer ecosystem, Huawei has launched Tiangong, a program offering 1 billion yuan ($140.5 million) in subsidies to lure app developers from different industries. "Huawei has already built an ecosystem entirely independent of the United States," said Tao Jingwen, a senior executive at Huawei. This independence goes beyond software as the company recently revealed a public road map for its Ascend AI processors to take on US chipmakers like NVIDIA.