Huawei set to launch HarmonyOS 2.0 later this year

"HarmonyOS 2.0 is arriving soon, but might not be available for smartphones this year," reports GizmoChina.

Furthermore, the launch arrives with HMS Core 5.0 (Huawei Mobile Services), which has been in development for more than a year and has exceeded 700 million monthly active users from across the globe, with over 80,000 applications and 1.6 million registered developers.

HarmonyOS is expected to arrive on PCs first which means Huawei notebooks, like the Matebook X, which would mark a departure from Windows.

The company, however, already looks ahead and plans to launch the third version of Harmony OS in 2021, bringing it to speakers, headphones, VR glasses and many other devices.

The company's CEO, Yu Chengdong, had previously revealed that smartwatches and other IoT products will be equipped with HarmonyOS in the future.

Meanwhile, the temporary general license that allowed Google to work with Chinese giant Huawei on maintaining smartphones has expired in the US, threatening to kill Android updates for the current devices.

The Washington Post reported on Sunday the license expiry will spell trouble for rural telecom companies and Huawei phone users in the US and "expiration means some wireless networks and phones won't receive software updates."

A top Huawei executive in May claimed that HarmonyOS can very well challenge Google and Apple operating systems.

"Huawei is in a position to deliver an ecosystem that is on par with Google and Apple ecosystems," said Eric Tan, Huawei's head of consumer cloud services.

Huawei's App Gallery reached 420 million users in the first quarter of this year. According to the company, App Gallery is now available in more than 170 countries.

In the wake of the US-China trade war, the Chinese giant last August officially launched 'HarmonyOS' aimed to reduce the company's reliance on Google-developed Android OS.

In December last year, Huawei said it is preparing to bring Harmony OS to smartphones.