Beijing: Huawei launched two new laptop models on Monday, the first sale with its own harmonious operating system, aiming to compete with mature Western big tech competitors, despite the U.S. attempts to restrict its access to important chips.
Despite being the world’s leading manufacturer of technology hardware, China’s computer operating systems are still behind Microsoft and Apple, whose windows and Macos have been trapped in global markets for decades.
Both the new MateBook Fold and Matebook Pro run on Harmonyos 5, and the latest version of Huawei Technologies began in 2015 and launched its Mate series of smartphones five years later.
It began developing laptop prototypes in 2021.
“Harmony laptops bring new choices to the world,” Yu Chengdong, head of Huawei Consumer Business Group, said at a live press conference. “We have been doing tough things in addition to the right things.”
The basic model of the MateBook Fold, which has no physical keyboard and offers 18-inch OLED dual screens when fully expanded, will be available for $23,999 ($3,328).
The Matebook Pro model using a regular laptop keyboard costs $7,999.
Washington began to limit Huawei’s national security concerns in 2019, prompting the company to build its own capabilities to develop and produce chips and operating systems.
Huawei says Harmonyos for computers currently offers more than 150 applications, including WPS offices from Kingsoft – an alternative to Microsoft Office – and a photo editing application Meitu Xiu Xiu.
By the end of 2024, more than 7.2 million individual developers are developing applications for Harmonyos, which are installed on more than a billion devices, including smartphones and TVs.
Huawei did not disclose the chip it used to power the newly launched laptops. But it says that the relatively high price of computers is the result of the cost of new chipset manufacturing technology.
Huawei did not immediately respond to requests for comments about chips.
Reuters reported last year that the United States revoked licenses to companies such as Intel (INTC.O) and Qualcomm (Qualcomm) to bring goods for laptops and mobile phones to Huawei.
Republican lawmakers are angry at the launch of Huawei’s first AI-ai-Sable laptop powered by Intel processors.
