(Yicai) Sept. 25 – Huawei Technologies will launch public beta testing of its HarmonyOS Next operating system on Oct. 8, a crucial step in the Chinese tech giant's efforts to distance itself from Android.

The Huawei Mate 60, Huawei Mate X5, and Huawei MatePad Pro 13.2-inch series will run HarmonyOS Next as part of the tests, Yu Chengdong, executive director and chief executive of the firm's consumer division, announced at an autumn product launch event yesterday.

The development of HarmonyOS Next has benefited from over a million suggestions provided by beta version users, contributing to continuous improvements and enhanced user experience, said Yu, who is also CEO of Huawei's smart car division. 

The Mate 70 series, expected to launch in the second half of this year, will hopefully feature the "pure" HarmonyOS Next, Xu Zhijun, Huawei's vice and rotating chairman, noted earlier this year.

"The ideal scenario would be for the Mate 70 to debut with the pure HarmonyOS Next, but the timeline is very tight," an insider from Huawei told Yicai.

"Our production lines began mass production (of the Mate 70) early this month," a core supplier for Huawei's smartphones said to Yicai regarding the urgency of starting public beta tests of HarmonyOS Next. "Internal information suggests the phone will launch in November or late October at the earliest."

HarmonyOS Next is still being fine-tuned with top domestic applications in the final stages before starting public beta testing, multiple sources told Yicai, adding that compatibility work with various devices, including smartphones and personal computers, is intensively pursued.

Huawei's current laptops might be the last to run Windows as HarmonyOS matures, Yu pointed out.

"Huawei can operate without US components, as we've achieved complete substitution after the US sanctions," Yu said. "Huawei products previously used many US components, but this has significantly decreased, and we may achieve full replacement in the future."

HarmonyOS had a 4 percent market share worldwide in the first quarter of last year while surpassing Apple's iOS and ranking second in China, according to data from research firm Counterpoint. The fifth-generation tech penetration rate of HarmonyOS surged to 50 percent from 9 percent a year earlier.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev