By Xie Jun and Ma Jingjing, Global Times

Chinese telecom giant Huawei is set to introduce its HarmonyOS for its mobile phones at the beginning of June, a move which not only shows the company’s successful shift to a new business focus that can largely free it from US supply chains, but also shows China’s technological rise that starts to break the US monopoly of operating systems, experts said.

HarmonyOS, or Hongmeng in Chinese, the Huawei-developed operating system which is currently used in gadgets like wearable devices and smart screens, will be rolled out for its smart phones on June 2, Huawei confirmed with the Global Times on Tuesday.

The company posted a short video on its Weibo account showing the boot screen of its HarmonyOS mobile phone, with many netizens commenting that they are anticipating the arrival of self-developed operating systems.

Chinese telecom analysts spoke highly of Huawei’s HarmonyOS phones, as it could not only help Huawei break US technological blockade, but also shows China’s powerful entry into the software field that has long been dominated by US IT giants like Apple and Google.

Zhang Yi, CEO of the iiMedia Research Institute, said that launch of the HarmonyOS by Huawei marks a “historic turning point” that China is increasingly free itself from the US restrictions on Chinese tech firms and the country’s general information industry.

“It sends a signal that Chinese companies can fight their way out of the US technological blockade as long as they insist on independent innovation, and that the so-called US technology myth is not unbreakable like many people thought,” Zhang told the Global Times.

For the company itself, a shift to the software business is also a wise choice as the software sector, whose upgrading cycle is much slower than hardware sets, can help Huawei win more time when its mobile phone business is facing difficulties arising from US chip supply restrictions, Zhang said.

“I think it’s just a matter of time before China breaks through mobile chip technological bottlenecks, but the rise of the software business will help Huawei survive this period instead of being beaten down by sudden blows,” Zhang said.

Huawei has been caught in the Trump administration’s strike against China’s technological rise, which resulted in global chips supplies to Huawei being blocked.