Huawei is betting that the HarmonyOS operating system can grow from a niche in-house platform into a real third force beside Android and iOS. The company says HarmonyOS will pass 100 million devices by the end of 2026, and it is now claiming the target will not just be reached but exceeded.
That is an ambitious swing, especially with Huawei already saying HarmonyOS 6 is installed on more than 60 million devices. The gap is large, but the company has a habit of treating software independence as a long game, not a side project.
HarmonyOS 6 starts from 60 million devices
Huawei’s latest message follows an earlier statement in March from Richard Yu, who said the consumer business aimed to reach 100 million HarmonyOS devices. The tone has since sharpened: now He Gang, the head of Huawei’s consumer division, says the ecosystem should not only hit that mark by the end of 2026 but move beyond it.
That matters because Huawei is not just counting installs for vanity. A homegrown operating system gives the company more control over devices, services, app distribution, and the user experience, which is exactly what a sanctions-hit vendor wants when the platform owner is no longer your friend.
Huawei’s third-place ambition is the real target
The bigger goal is obvious: Huawei wants HarmonyOS to become the third major mobile operating system, challenging the Android-iOS duopoly. That is a brutally hard market to crack, but not a crazy one for a company with Huawei’s installed base, device lineup, and willingness to keep pushing its own stack.
Still, device count alone does not equal ecosystem depth. App availability, developer support, and user retention will decide whether HarmonyOS becomes a serious platform or just a large collection of Huawei hardware running Huawei software.
What Huawei still has to prove
- Can HarmonyOS 6 convert device installs into daily use?
- Will developers treat 100 million devices as a reason to build, not just a headline?
- Can Huawei keep momentum long enough to make ”third place” mean something outside its own ecosystem?
The next test is not whether Huawei can announce another milestone. It is whether HarmonyOS can keep growing once the novelty wears off and the market starts asking the only question that counts: what can this platform do that the others cannot?