Huawei in 2025: HarmonyOS push, retail pivot, market gains

TL;DR:

Huawei broadened HarmonyOS across retail hardware and dev tools.
A HarmonyOS smart cash register is rolling out to 40,000+ stores.
HarmonyOS 6 brings AI agents and faster performance.
Huawei led China’s Q2 phone market share despite a soft market.
Expect more HarmonyOS-native devices into late 2025.

Huawei is using 2025 to turn HarmonyOS from a phone OS into a full platform. The goal is simple, build a self-reliant stack that runs across consumer, retail, and PC form factors.

What changed in 2025

HarmonyOS shows up at the checkout. In late September, Huawei and partners launched a HarmonyOS-powered smart cash register in China. It works with Alipay’s tap-to-pay, auto-applies coupons, and syncs loyalty points. The hardware is slated to reach more than 40,000 Meiyijia convenience stores, a sign that Huawei wants HarmonyOS in commercial endpoints, not just phones.

HarmonyOS 6 goes to developers. At HDC 2025, Huawei released the HarmonyOS 6 developer beta, adding an AI agents framework to build automated experiences without training models from scratch. Developer recruitment continued through the summer as beta phase 2 rolled out.

Momentum in devices. Huawei led China’s smartphone market in Q2 2025 with about 18 percent share, helped by strong demand for new phones despite a declining overall market. Wearables also gained, with reports that Huawei edged Apple in Q2 smartwatch shipments.

Revenue is stabilizing. Huawei reported 2024 revenue above 860 billion yuan, up 22 percent year over year, pointing to a rebound in consumer and automotive tech. First-half 2025 results show continued, if slower, growth.

What this means for users and developers

For consumers, HarmonyOS devices should feel faster and more connected. The AI agents framework aims to automate routine tasks, like travel, media, and payments. For developers, HarmonyOS 6 offers a path to build native apps for phones, wearables, and commercial endpoints, now including retail POS.

What to watch next

Wider HarmonyOS 6 availability across phones and PCs.
More retail and IoT hardware on HarmonyOS.
Global expansion remains limited, but China scale alone can grow the app ecosystem.

Why it matters

Huawei is building a parallel ecosystem to Android and Windows. If retail deployments scale and phones keep gaining share in China, HarmonyOS will attract more native apps, making it harder for rivals to ignore.

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