Why did Qualcomm choose to officially join Huawei’s Harmony OS (September 2023)?

为什么高通选择正式加入华为的鸿蒙系统(2023年9月)?

以下是Quora网友的评论：

PC Yu

To learn a new tech. It is natural for any firms to keep up-to-date with the fast-changing world.

But US politicians get in the way. That is all.

为了要学习新技术啊。所有企业都很乐意跟上快速变化的世界。

但美国政客们非要从中作梗。仅此而已。

Yevgeniy Leto

Because Huawei is coming back and Harmony OS is having a substantial presence in China and growing. It makes business sense to support it. It is all business and nothing personal or political.

因为华为回来了，鸿蒙操作系统在中国有很大的影响力，而且影响力还在不断增长。在商业支持鸿蒙是有意义的。这只是生意行为，和个人或政治无关。

Ray Comeau

It is about the future of Qualcomm, in revenue and Chinese marketshare. Estimates of lost revenue to Qualcomm due to Kirin 9000s SoC runs in the tens of billions annually in the short term.

There has been speculation that other Chinese phones will migrate to HarmonyOS over the next decade, as the ecosystem develops.

In addition several Chinese EV makers are in the process of installing Harmony OS into their automobiles. Meanwhile Huawei has said it will launch a PC version on the OS in 2024.

Qualcomm would like to avoid significant loss of marketshare and a pricing war at all costs.

因为这关系到高通未来的收入和在中国市场的份额。据估计，麒麟9000 SoC给高通造成的收入损失每年达到数百亿美元。

有人猜测，随着手机生态系统的发展，其他中国手机也将在未来十年换成鸿蒙系统。

此外，几家中国电动汽车制造商也正着手把鸿蒙系统安装到他们的汽车上。华为还表示将在2024年推出电脑端的操作系统。

高通希望不惜一切代价避免市场份额的重大损失和价格战。

Kanthaswamy Balasubramaniam

Makes Sense

Harmony OS presently has 333 Million users as of 2023

Including 3 Million Russian users and 2 Million Non Mainland users

It's unlikely that in the next 5–10 years, Harmony OS will take much market share from Android or iOS

So Harmony so far fulfills the basic US criteria

It has a huge chunk of the mainland market

It doesn't look like it would rival Android or iOS globally, so frankly the US won't care too much

So Qualcomm has made this decision

这样做是有意义的。

截至2023年，鸿蒙系统目前拥有3.33亿用户

包括300万俄罗斯用户和200万非大陆用户

在未来的5-10年里，鸿蒙系统不太可能从安卓或iOS那里夺取很多市场份额

因此，到目前为止，鸿蒙系统符合美国的基本标准

它在中国大陆市场占有巨大份额

它看起来不会在全球范围内与安卓或iOS竞争，所以坦率地说，美国不会太在意

所以高通才会做出这个决定

Another primary reason is to ensure that Huawei doesn't do a Kirin 9000s - Hongmeng monopoly that could take out Qualcomms share from the Chinese market

To be frank, I am more worried now than six months ago

Everyone seems keen to be rolling back the restrictions and ASML seems keen on partnering with China to manufacture EUVs meant for the mainland using Chinese light sources (Apparently the Light Source is the US Technology that is the reason to prevent ASML EUV exports to China)

This could make the Chinese lose steam with easier access to better chips and do what Japan did

I hope some nutter in US opposes this and passes more restrictions

另一个主要原因是要确保华为不会像麒麟9000那样垄断中国市场，夺走高通在中国市场的份额。

坦率地说，我现在比六个月前更加担心。

每个人似乎都想要撤销限制，阿斯麦似乎热切地想和中国合作，用中国的光源为中国大陆制造EUV(很显然，光源是美国技术，这正是美国禁止阿斯麦向中国出口EUV的原因)。

这可能会让中国因为容易获得更好的芯片而失去前进的动力，重蹈日本的覆辙。

我希望美国的疯子们赶紧站出来反对，通过更多的禁令才好。

Chris Keath

It is reported that Harmony OS has over 800m users now, it will soon or later spread globally, especially after Huawei mate 60 series.

Apparently, Qualcomm wants to continue to supply chips to Huawei and other smartphones manufactures by joining Harmony OS.

It is good for promoting Harmony OS, but it is bad for China's domestic chips manufacturing.

据报道，鸿蒙系统目前已经拥有超过8亿用户，迟早会在全球范围内普及，尤其是在华为推出mate 60系列之后。

显然，高通希望通过加入鸿蒙系统，继续向华为和其他智能手机制造商供应芯片。

这对推广鸿蒙系统确实有利，但对中国的本土芯片制造不利。

Drazen Zoric

An OS, is just a part of whole system, high level part. Let me say this way looking at PC. Every PC has BIOS (UEFI) which is motherboard manufacturer specific and on top of that an OS is installed. But also for OS to work properly, chipset drivers (motherboard dependent) must be installed too.

There is no difference between PC and mobile phone in that segment.

Let’s look at Intel CPU, they have “Intel Management Engine” which is fully autonomous processor inside every CPU. AMD has something similar, previously called Platform Security Processor.

操作系统只是整个系统的一部分，比较高级的那部分。让我这样说，看看PC。每台PC都有BIOS (UEFI)，这是主板制造商特有的，会在这个基础之上安装操作系统。但为了让操作系统正常工作，还必须加装芯片组驱动程序。

在这个细分市场中，个人电脑和手机都一样。

让我们看看英特尔的CPU，他们有“英特尔管理引擎”，这是每个CPU里完全自主的处理器。AMD也有类似的东西，以前叫做平台安全处理器。

In Intel IME processor is Intel Quark x86 32 bit processor which runs MINIX 3 stored in BIOS. There are also other processors for other tasks. All those are not visible to final user (OS).

Now question. Who is writing firmware for mentioned processors?

Of course, CPU manufacturer.

How Qualcomm is selling specific SoCs to China, eg latest Huawei MatePro tablet uses Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, it must also have drivers for specific OS. It is Android in other parts of the world and Harmony OS in China (cause Huawei was also banned from Android).

So, if Qualcomm wants to sell SoCs in China and if Chinese need faster SoCs, Qualcomm must provide modified firmware for Harmony OS.

Intel IME处理器是Intel Quark x86 32位处理器，运行存储在BIOS中的MINIX 3。还有其他处理器解决其他任务，但终端用户看不见这些处理器。

现在问题来了。谁在为这些处理器编写固件？

当然是CPU厂家了。

高通要如何向中国销售特制芯片，比如最新的华为MatePro平板电脑使用骁龙7 Gen 1，它也必须安装适配特定操作系统的驱动程序。其他国家采用安卓系统，中国采用鸿蒙系统(因为华为不能使用安卓)。

所以，如果高通想在中国销售特制芯片，如果中国人需要运行速度更快的芯片，高通就必须为鸿蒙系统提供修改过的固件。

Identical is for other CPUs, eg AMD, Intel, MediaTek, etc. Eg chipset drivers are produced for Windows and Linux and in past for MacOS.

China cannot buy a SoC and make its own firmware. Impossible cause this requires very deep knowledge of SoC internals what is not published. And makes no sense.

Harmony OS is also connected to exsting western software, eg it is based on Linux and uses Android graphical API to be compatible to exsting Android apps.

Apple and its iOS and MacOS are also based on Linux, well here we talk Unix (BSD Unix). Despite all money Apple did not created its own kernel.

其他CPU也是一样的，比如AMD, Intel，联发科等，为Windows，Linux，苹果系统生产了芯片组驱动程序。

中国不能买芯片，然后自己做固件。这行不通，因为这需要对芯片的内部构造有非常深入的了解，芯片的内部构造都是商业机密。

鸿蒙系统也可以连接到现有的西方软件，比如把基于Linux的软件用安卓图形应用接口与现有的安卓应用程序兼容。

苹果及其iOS和MacOS也是基于Linux的，我们称之为Unix (BSD Unix)。虽然苹果公司投入了大量资金，但它并没有开发自己的核心程序。

Eric Wang

To survive, in short. Qualcomm’s technical experts must have found out that Harmony OS architecture is superior to their own design and hope to learn something.

简而言之，为了生存。高通的技术专家们一定发现了鸿蒙系统比他们自己的设计更优越，希望能从中学到一些东西。

Bill Chen

Urm, because… national security, clean networks, destroy Huawei… not?

The fact of the matter is, if Qualcomm doesn’t join in the fun, it loses 700m potential sales.

That’s a sizable number.

But if Qualcomm sells its chips to Huawei, aren’t they contributing to Huawei’s national security threat, dirty networks and the like?

Unfortunately, Huawei is pursuing tight hard- and software integration, and Qualcomm’s snapdragon is at a distinct disadvantage, unless they customize SOCs for Huawei.

Will Huawei once again gain access to cutting edge chips? Or is Qualcomm hedging bets and using Hongmeng as a low-cost call option?

Just goes to show profit is always king in the American Art of Business.

嗯，因为国家安全，清洁网络，摧毁华为？

事实是，如果高通不加入，它将失去7亿的潜在销售额。

这是一个相当大的数字。

但如果高通把自己的芯片卖给华为，岂不是助长了华为对美国国家安全的威胁、污染了网络等等吗？

华为正在追求硬件和软件的集成，高通的骁龙处于明显的劣势，除非他们为华为提供定制芯片。

华为可以再次获得尖端芯片吗？难道高通是在对冲押注，将鸿蒙作为低成本看涨的期权？

这也说明了，在美国的商业之道中，利润永远是第一位的。

Ted Chyn

Qualcomm generates two-thirds of its revenue and profit from China. Instead of manufacturing the chips it designs, the company derives income from licensing fees related to its intellectual property. Following the embargo, Qualcomm has been permitted to supply 14nm and higher Android chips to China to sustain its operations. since most cell phone vendors in China, are converting to Harmony, enabling the chip for Harmony OS enhances Qualcomm's prospects in China, as it involves minimal expenses to adapt the microcode it possesses

高通三分之二的收入和利润来自中国。高通不生产自己设计的芯片，而是从与其知识产权相关的许可费中获得收入。在美国发布禁令之后，高通得到准许，可以向中国供应14纳米及更高的安卓芯片。由于中国的大多数手机厂商都开始改用鸿蒙系统，因此为鸿蒙系统提供芯片可以加强高通在中国的发展前景，因为它只需花费最少的成本来调整微代码。

Malan Bandara

Related

Is Huawei Harmony OS better than iOS? Why?"HarmonyOS is completely different from Android and iOS," said Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's Consumer Business Group, at the company's developer conference in Dongguan, China.” [From www.zdnet.com}

"It is a microkernel-based, distributed OS that delivers a smooth experience across all scenarios. It has trustworthy and secure architecture, and it supports seamless collaboration across devices. You can develop your apps once, then flexbly deploy them across a range of different devices."

These are the reasons that rumors and news going across the internet about HarmonyOS better that Android or iOS either. According to the statements from Huawei the upcoming HarmonyOS would be great experience for all!

华为鸿蒙系统比iOS好吗？为什么？

华为消费者业务集团首席执行官余承东在中国东莞举行的开发者大会上表示：“鸿蒙系统与安卓和iOS完全不同。”

“它是一个基于微内核的分布式操作系统，可以在所有场景中给用户提供流畅的体验。它具有可靠和安全的架构，并支持跨设备的无缝协作。你可以一次性开发应用，然后灵活地将其安装到各种不同的设备上。”

这就是互联网上关于鸿蒙系统比安卓或iOS更好的谣言和新闻的来源。根据华为的声明，即将推出的鸿蒙系统将会为所有人提供绝佳的使用体验！

Roy Tong

Related

Why is Huawei's new OS Hongmeng OS better than Android?

Is it better or not we will have to wait and see. But if HuaWei can get baidu or tencent to host, drive and champion the new mobile OS, along with China government’s blessing then the top 10 (exclude Apple and Samsung) phone manufacturers would most probably switch and join the new platform along with most of the developers. Samsung will take the opportunity to either join the new platform or create their own platform (most are not happy about google going into mobile phones manufacturing again). When this happen then most probably google mobile OS would be thing of the past.

为什么华为的鸿蒙系统比安卓更好？

是好是坏，我们还得拭目以待。但如果华为能让百度或腾讯托管、推动和支持新的移动操作系统，再加上中国的支持，那么排名前十的手机制造商(除了苹果和三星之外)很可能都会和大多数开发者一起加入这个新平台。三星将抓住机会，要么加入这个新平台，要么创建自己的平台(大多数人都不喜欢谷歌再次进入手机制造业)。如果这种情况发生，谷歌移动操作系统很可能会成为过去式。

Vickers Carter

Some people had predicted that Harmony OS will surpass Android because other Chinese models will join Huawei, what happened?

The person or persons who predicted that did so believing HarmonyOS was a new OS but when techs etc pulled Harmony apart and found it is only a fork of Android, based on Android 10 AOSP that Huawei had done a lot with to try and hide that fact. Had they known it was just Android they would have known it will never “surpass” Android and they would not have made that prediction. Claims about Harmony such as, it was 60 times faster than Android also never come to pass maybe if it was other OEMs may have changed to it by now.

有人预测鸿蒙系统将超越安卓系统，这是怎么回事？

他们相信鸿蒙系统是一个全新的操作系统，但当技术人员拆开分析时，发现这只是基于安卓10 AOSP的一个分支，华为做了很多努力来掩盖这一事实。如果人们知道鸿蒙只是安卓，他们就会知道鸿蒙永远不会“超越”安卓，他们就不会做出这样的预测了。关于鸿蒙系统的说法，什么比安卓运行速度快60倍，也是绝不可能的事，如果是真的，其他贴牌厂商现在可能早都改用鸿蒙了。

Lin Zexu

Related

Does Huawei use Qualcomm chips?

It did. Huawei used inventory of Qualcomm chips, equipped with Microsoft's Windows on Arm system, and developed a set of Windows laptops based on the ARM instruction set.

华为使用高通芯片吗？

之前采用了高通芯片。华为利用库存的高通芯片，搭载微软的Windows on Arm系统，开发了一套基于Arm指令集的Windows笔记本电脑。