Although Huawei had shipped more than 240 million smartphones in 2019, the Chinese smartphone maker still faces an uphill battle due to its operating system. Huawei’s latest and upcoming devices are still running on Android but they are not pre-installed with your usual Google apps and services due to current restrictions by the US government.
For the mass consumer, this can be a hurdle as they won’t get their usual Google Play Store and it lacks official access to their favourite apps such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. To circumvent the restriction, Huawei is pushing hard on its Huawei Mobile Services and they are pushing more developers on board to list their apps on Huawei’s AppGallery.
Recently, it was reported that Huawei has vowed to never go back to an official Android with Google Mobile Services. It cited Fred Wangfei, the Country Manager for Austria saying that Huawei will still stick to its own home-grown solution. He added that it is possible for the US to lift the restriction but that doesn’t mean that the ban could be imposed again. Because of that, Huawei doesn’t want to depend on the US and they would prefer to create a third ecosystem that exists alongside Android and iOS.
According to The Verge, Huawei says they are still open to using Google services. A Huawei spokesperson had told them that the open Android ecosystem which includes Google Mobile Services (GMS) is still their first choice and that has helped them to become the number 2 smartphone player in terms of shipment. Huawei still believes that both companies are still hoping for a license to be granted but in the time being, they are continuing to develop its own Huawei Mobile Services (HMS).
It was also reported that HMS has received a lot of positive interest in Europe and Huawei says they are one of the lead contributors to the Android open-source operating system in over the last five years.
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