Huawei is the company suffering the most amidst the tussle between the US and China. It can no longer ship new smartphones with the Google certified Android OS which includes Google Mobile Services (GMS). The company is using the AOSP version of Android and has replaced GMS with its own Huawei Mobile Services (HMS). Now, Huawei claims to have over 1.5 million registered developers with a year-on-year growth of 115 percent.
According to Tan Donghui, Vice President of Huawei Consumer Business Group, Huawei Mobile Services has seen a huge spike in developer registrations in recent months.
In addition, the number of monthly active users of Huawei’s terminal cloud services has reached 650 million. With a year-on-year growth of 66.7 percent, the number of applications on the AppGallery linked to HMS Core has now crossed 60,000.
Huawei Mobile Services Has Seen A Rise In Developer Registrations
The AppGallery on the new Huawei and Honor smartphones is a direct replacement for the Google Play Store. While the numbers look impressive, there are still many top Android apps missing from the AppGallery. Despite this, Huawei has succeeded in replacing some of the essential apps.
While Huawei is the third largest global smartphone brand, the App Gallery has now become the third largest app marketplace in the world.
Huawei claims the AppGallery is now available in more than 170 countries. On the other hand, the company also seems to be developing HarmonyOS as an alternative to Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.
Can users live without Google apps?
Since the Google apps are banned in China anyway, the lack of GMS will not affect the company’s business in its home country. Last year, Huawei announced its plan to invest $1.5 billion to help increase developer registrations.
It also came up with a $1 billion fund for the Shining-Star program. This fund will be used to bring a wider range of apps to HMS.
The Mate 30 series running on AOSP version of Android 10 is the first smartphone to come equipped with HMS. Even the recently launched flagship Huawei P40 series also came without the Google apps.
Alongside the new smartphones, Huawei is also relaunching older smartphones that have been certified by Google with the GMS services.
The latest ruling from the US has made it even more difficult for Huawei. It can no longer work with companies that use US-made machinery and software. TSMC, which produces the Kirin chipsets for Huawei, has stopped accepting new orders.
However, the orders accepted before the new rule change have to be honored. While it won’t have an impact on the Huawei upcoming products, TSMC can no longer produce new Kirin chipsets for Huawei.