Creating vibrant ecosystem for HarmonyOS

"Sixteen percent is a threshold for an operating system's ecosystem to develop prosperously. It is a threshold that Huawei must attain," Wang said.

He added that it is very important to cultivate a sound ecosystem for HarmonyOS in two years. The company has hundreds of millions of mobile phone users. If they upgrade their smartphone systems to HarmonyOS and feel that the experience is good, they will stay with Huawei's products, he said.

On top of encouraging consumers to embrace HarmonyOS, Huawei is devoting heavy resources to motivate software developers. In 2019, Huawei said it would invest $1 billion to encourage software developers to be part of the HarmonyOS ecosystem, with 80 percent of the money going to overseas applicants.

Huawei focuses on two aspects－encouraging Chinese app developers to go global and attracting as many overseas app developers as possible.

In September 2020, the company also said it would build three new laboratories and five new service centers abroad to better help developers as part of its broader push to create a vibrant software ecosystem for its in-house operating system.

Wang Yanmin, president of the global eco-development department at Huawei's consumer business group, said the company would invest more resources to build three eco-partnership laboratories in Germany, Poland and Russia.

And Huawei will also build five global developer service centers in Romania, Russia, Egypt, Mexico and Malaysia, which will be designed to better help global developers enter these markets through localized organizations and platforms, Wang said.

Huawei also said it would significantly reduce its cut from transactions on the platform and let application developers enjoy more profits than Google and Apple do on their Android and iOS app stores, respectively.

Huawei is not the first Chinese company to try to develop an operating system. Internet giant Alibaba Group made a similar push, but it failed.

"Compared with internet companies, Huawei's giant hardware base provides it the biggest edge in promoting HarmonyOS. The company ships millions of pieces of hardware every year, including smartphones, personal computers and smartwatches," said Xiang Ligang, director-general of the telecom industry association Information Consumption Alliance.

Analysts said although Harmony-OS still has a long way to go before it can be an alternative to iOS and Android, its development will bring about healthy competition.

Customers across the world, whose needs have been increasingly diverse, will stand to benefit the most, Xiang said.

Ma Miao, a software developer in Changsha, Hunan province, said: "I am impressed with Huawei's resilience amid mounting pressure. And I am happy to be part of its long march to popularize HarmonyOS."