This is something we expected. In fact, Google said as much a few weeks ago – which was unprecedented. But there are no Google apps available on the Huawei Mate 30 Series.
This isn’t a surprise, given the fact that Huawei is on the US blacklist, so that it can no longer do business with US companies. And that includes Google. That also means that it cannot license Android or use any Google services at all.
No Play Store, no nothing from Google
These days, it’s hard to find a smartphone without anything from Google on it. So the Mate 30 Series is going to look a bit odd, because there is no Google services on there at all.
Not only is there no Play Store, no Gmail, no Google Photos or anything else from Google. But Huawei can’t even use the word “Android” when it comes to marketing and promotional material. That word is licensed to Android partners. And with Huawei not being an Android partner any longer, it cannot use that word.
That’s why you are seeing a lot of “EMUI10” when talking about the software on the Mate 30 Series. Without any mention of Android, when it’s coming from Huawei.
Huawei Business Group CEO, Richard Yu acknowledged this in the press conference today. Stating that it cannot use Google Mobile Services core, “today that’s because of a US ban that these phones cannot preinstall the GMS core, it has forced us to use the HMS Core (Huawei Mobile Services) running the Huawei app gallery on the Mate 30 Series phones.”
Of course, the Huawei App store is not as robust as Google’s. It’s pretty big and has a ton of apps available, but it’s nowhere near what the Play Store is.
Users can still install the Amazon App Store though.
This is a major blow to an otherwise impressive smartphone
The Mate 30 Series was shaping up to be a pretty impressive smartphone.
Looking at some impressive cameras and features, top-of-the-line specs and huge batteries. But a Huawei Mate 30 with no Google apps is essentially dead on arrival, outside of China.
Luckily for Huawei, China is still its biggest market. So it will likely sell well in its homeland. But Huawei’s aspirations for moving into Europe and even into the US has been halted by President Trump’s trade war with China. In which Huawei has become a pawn.
Huawei, China and the US are all working together to get this ban lifted, but as for now, it’s still in effect. And it’s going to hurt Huawei pretty drastically.