(Yicai) Dec. 5 -- The Mate 70, Huawei Technologies’ first flagship smartphone offered with the Chinese tech titan’s Android-free operating system, has gone on sale in China after more than 3.5 million pre-orders were placed.

A long line of buyers formed outside Huawei's flagship store in Shenzhen yesterday morning. Staff told Yicai that the Mate 70 Pro, priced from CNY6,499 (USD895), has emerged as the most sought-after model, with its pre-orders surpassing the combined total of the other three models. Offline pre-order slots have already been fully booked.

Huawei launched the HarmonyOS-powered Mate 70 lineup at a live-streamed event last week. The base model starts from CNY5,499 (USD757). When reservations opened on Nov. 18, they surpassed one million units within the first hour.

Richard Yu, executive director and chairman of Huawei’s consumer business group, described the new lineup as the “most powerful Mate phones in history.” The four models are the first to be equipped with HarmonyOS Next, the latest iteration of the operating system that Huawei developed without using Android open-source code.

Since 2019, Shenzhen-based Huawei has been compelled to develop its own OS and chips due to restrictions on purchasing US-made technologies.

Given the early indications of its popularity, more than 10 million Mate 70 phones could be shipped in total, according to Archie Zhang, a research analyst at Counterpoint.

A phone retailer with dozens of stores told Yicai that prior to the Mate 70's launch, the chain had secured many more units compared with last year’s Mate 60 flagship series and that upward trend is expected to continue with total orders for the Mate 70.

The Mate 60 was a major milestone in Huawei's resurgence, according to Zhong Xiaolei, a researcher at Canalys. As the first device to feature HarmonyOS Next, the Mate 70 is expected to have a greater impact on Huawei's future business through its software capabilities, Zhong said.

The market’s reception of this OS will be crucial in determining whether Huawei’s upcoming smartphones can maintain the growth momentum sparked by the Mate 60 series and attract a broader user base, Zhong added.

After overcoming various challenges and obstacles, Huawei’s product delivery timeline for high-end smartphones has returned to normal, a mobile dealer pointed out, adding that as a result, the pricing of the Mate 70 series is likely to put pressure on other phone makers.

Huawei shipped about 33.27 million phones in the first three quarters of this year, ranking it second in China with a market share of about 16.8 percent, according to IDC. Its slice of the premium segment reached 30.7 percent, up from 21.4 percent a year earlier.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Emmi Laine