Huawei Technologies Co officially released a new version of its self-developed operating system on Friday, as the telecom equipment and smartphone maker accelerates its push to cut reliance on foreign technologies and build a software ecosystem of its own.

Compared to the previous version, HarmonyOS 4 is 20 percent more fluent in operation and can save battery power by 30 minutes, the Shenzhen-based company said.

The number of devices equipped with the HarmonyOS operating system has reached 700 million and the popularity of the brand has increased to 85 percent in June, up from 78 percent a year earlier, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's consumer business group, said at the Huawei Developer Conference 2023 held in Dongguan on Friday.

Meanwhile, 2.2 million developers are developing mobile applications for smartphones, tablets and smartwatches based on the operating system, which is designed for the internet of things era.

Citing a line from a popular poem of ancient poet Li Bai, Yu said the HarmonyOS has "climbed lots of mountains", referring to the difficulties that it has overcome since its launch.

HarmonyOS made its debut in August 2019 after the US government imposed restrictions on Huawei's access to Google's Android operating system.

The share of HarmonyOS in the Chinese smartphone market has been growing over the past few years. According to a report published by research firm Counterpoint in May, 8 percent of the total mobile devices sold in China in the first quarter were using the operating system, a jump from 3 percent over the same period a year earlier.

sally@chinadailyhk.com