Like Brexit. Huawei is now facing the unbelievable reality that things are about to go very wrong indeed. Their newly-announced handsets will lack the default Google apps that people use on a daily basis. Despite several reprieves, Google has has now confirmed that the Trump Trade Termination will stop them licensing their apps, and that means that the upcoming Mate 30 will be hit hard.
The handset is due to arrive, we believe, on September 18th in Germany. However, Huawei now faces trying to launch and market a new phone which lacks popular apps like Gmail, Maps, Drive, YouTube, Chrome and the Play Music / Play Video apps. The biggest hit, though, is the lack of the Google Play store.
Whilst the standard Android OS will be available, Huawei will now be blocked from putting the apps on the phone.
If who’ve bought imported handsets before, you may be aware of this experience. Lacking Google apps on some imported phones has resulted in buyers using questionable ways of adding those Google apps back in. You can grab APK’s to do that, but it’s not the experience that Huawei customers or Huawei themselves want.
So, what now? Well we’ve got a new OS from Huawei on the horizon, but that’s going to be monumentally difficult to introduce to consumers. In the past we’ve covered some excellent mobile OS’s which haven’t hit the big time – Sailfish, Ubuntu, Tizen etc. Despite the power of Huawei, will things be any different?
The new OS, called “HarmonyOS” was having compatibility checks last we heard (so that Android apps can run on it), but it won’t be ready for the Mate 30, so what will Huawei do?
For Huawei phones on the market now and for those in your pockets, nothing will change, but the future is looking very uncertain for Huawei.