The Honor smart screen equipped with Harmony OS officially unveiled
As Huawei’s first terminal product using Harmony OS, the Honor smart screen is highly expected. At present, the screen is not only a specific application of Harmony OS, but also an important measure of Huawei to layout smart family. At the same time, it will also inject new blood for the longtime sluggish CTV industry.
Just after Huawei launched the Harmony operating system, the Honor smart screen, the world’s first terminal product with Harmony OS was unveiled.
“This is the first tangible product carrying Huawei smart-screen strategy and its Harmony OS, which is of great significance.” Said Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business.
As the smart screen resembles TV, why not be called Honor TV? Zhao Ming, President of Honor, explained that Honor smart-screen is not the traditional concept of TV, but the future of TV. Honor will make smart-screen just like mobile phone, bring its new technology to TV field, and make big-screen products more attractive.
“It’s not so much a TV as a phone with a big screen. Functionally, it’s more like a smart screen with an intelligent operating system.” Said Zhong Xinlong, an researcher of the Institute of Saidi think-tank Informatization and software industry.
It is reported that Honor smart-screen possesses four technology highlights, which are homegrown smart chips, a built-in lifting AI camera,powerful flash casting and screen-control besides Harmony OS. What’s more important is that you can control other smart products through it.
Among them, Harmony OS serves for Huawei’s contextualized intelligent-life strategy, which is a modular-design oriented to multiple terminals. Combined with the camera supporting video calls, the screen-control function and the control over other products, the Honor smart screen is expected to achieve the highlight of cross-terminal collaborative experience.
Zhao Ming stated that Honor aims to build a “dual center” for intelligent life. Mobile phones are the center of individuals, while smart screens are the emotional center of families, including video and audio entertainment, multi-device interaction, information sharing and management centers.
“Honor’s smart screen is not to grab TV market share, but to occupy the important position of future big screens in living rooms in advance. Smart screen is likely to become the control center of home devices in the future. To layout now is an important step for Huawei to seize the opportunity to build smart families.” Consumer electronics observer Hu Hongsen said.
Zhong Xinlong deems that Millet also put forward smart home and made a series of products before but Huawei gets down to IoT to construct intelligent home. In this sense, the best embodiment of the IoT in smart home is “smart eyes” -- TV. Since Harmony OS needs a carrier, while TV technology is relatively mature, and Huawei
has distributed voice services, mobile miracast and other technical advantages, so smart screen can be regarded as the carrier of Huawei’s years of technology accumulation.
Honor’s advantages to generate smart screens are self-evident. Hu Hongsen analyzed that first, relying on Huawei, the super IP, Honor can guarantee a strong brand influence. Second, through the application of Huawei Harmony OS and HiSilicon Honghu chip, the screen has strong discourse autonomy, which has obvious advantages in the CTV industry where plagiarism is rampant. Third, the current CTV industry market is full of homogenization competition in the pivot of transition and upgrading when new concepts and products are needed, therefore, it is the right time for Honor to release smart-screen.
According to the report, Honor is now the largest online smartphone brand in China, accounting for 24 percent. More importantly, the Honor smart screen is also a big screen with growing capabilities which will gradually evolve with the strengthening of Harmony OS technology and ecological capabilities so as to better adapt to the intelligent life in the future and bring more possibilities to users.
Mr. Zhong said: “from the market side, smart screens have also brought some good inspiration to other smart TV companies. First, we can no longer just do the simple operation interface of android system as in the past, but we need to make more and deeper customization, optimize services and functions, and improve consumer experience. Second, Harmony OS is open, so friends, including TV manufacturers, are welcomed to join to optimize it. Third, although smart screen is just the first step, it is the key to unlock IoT in smart home.
Mr. Hu claimed: “That Honor jumps into the competition will provide a new concept to the sleepy CTV industry, injecting new blood. However, to save the CTV industry on the downside way, more “Honors” are needed to stand out. They own technologies, brands and products, which can foster the “momentum” for local brands.”