Today I want to touch on a different topic. The hero of this article is Huawei, a company that has been developing its own ecosystem under an American blockade for more than a year. First, let's look at what an ecosystem is.
An ecosystem is a lasting, self-regulating system formed by species that interact closely with each other and with their environment. In the world of technology it's the same. By the Huawei ecosystem we mean the devices Huawei makes and how they interact with each other and with their users.
For years we've watched different brands compete in the mobile sector. Among them, the biggest — Apple, Samsung and Huawei — have always left other makers behind in sales. But among these 3 giants, one maker has stood out, and that's Apple. Apple stands out because it has reduced its dependence on other manufacturers to a minimum in the devices it makes and has built its own ecosystem. With a wide product range, the company puts its own operating system on each of its devices — phones, tablets, laptops, smartwatches, headphones and more — and makes them work together. That means once someone enters this ecosystem, it's hard to get out. A person whose devices are all Apple knows that if they replace their phone with an Android device, the connection between the phone and their other devices will break, so they don't take that risk. With exactly this strategy, Apple has won loyal customers for years and stood apart from its rivals. Huawei and other makers, on the other hand, depended on a giant like Google at every step. Until the clash between America and Huawei a year ago.
In this clash, which began when Huawei's sales overtook Apple's in the mobile market a year ago, America banned companies within its borders from selling any software or devices to Huawei. This meant that Huawei could no longer use any Google services on its devices, nor import processors and other parts from companies like Intel and Qualcomm. In this situation, the only way out for Huawei was to build its own ecosystem: to reduce its dependence on other makers and produce its own operating system and the parts its devices need. And that's what happened.
In a short time Huawei introduced its own operating system, Harmony OS, and its app store, App Gallery. After that, the hardest task for the company was to make it easy for developers to get used to this operating system and publish their apps on App Gallery. For that, HMS (Huawei Mobile Services) was introduced. Just like Google Services, HMS provided all the tools developers needed. Still, many software companies weren't interested in making the effort for App Gallery when App Store and Google Play had millions of users. To raise their interest, Huawei made AppGallery completely free and cut its commission on app sales to half of what other stores take. Today many apps have found their place in this store too.
Just like Apple, Huawei installed its own operating system on each of its devices (phones, tablets, laptops, smartwatches, headphones) and made them work together. On top of that, Huawei is also a leading company in technologies like 5G, which means that in some areas it even has bigger advantages than Apple. That's why Huawei can be considered a complete ecosystem.
After a period of temporary hardship, Huawei became a company with minimal dependence, managed to double its sales within China and kept its sales almost stable worldwide. In short, it turned the American blockade to its own advantage. Its other Android rival, Samsung, is still on its way with Google, and perhaps the same fate awaits it too.
At the moment, the 2 companies with their own ecosystems are Apple and Huawei. It's fair to say we may see very big changes in the mobile sector in the near future. What's your opinion on this? In a market where giants like Nokia and BlackBerry once couldn't compete with their own operating systems, do you think Huawei will succeed?
