Right now, Huawei is the most prominent example of how a company could survive in the smartphone market without Google’s help. After the Chinese giant got banned by the US government, it went on to create it’s own operating system and is also readying alternatives to Google Mobile Services (GMS).
GMS is a pack of Google apps and APIs that your phone needs to work the way it does. Huawei has previously said that HarmonyOS and its apps are just a backup plan for the company. However, Huawei seems to have had a change of heart and now the company wants to move forward in the digital world (without Google).
As per reports, Huawei’s head of Consumer Business Group in Austria, Fred WangFei, said that they don’t want to rely on Google Services even if the US ban gets lifted in the future. He mentioned this several times to avoid any confusion while Andreas Proschofsky from Der Standard newspaper was questioning him.
That’s a bold move, given the level of dominance Google has. But when Huawei is facing the consequences of political turmoil between the US and China, it might not want the same thing to happen again in the future.
Speaking of countermeasures, Huawei is actively working on Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) and AppGallery. The company seems comfortable with investing a whopping $3 billion in 2020 if that’s what it takes to free itself from Google.
However, entirely ditching Android is not on the cards. Huawei would still get its hand on AOSP (the open-source version of Android minus Google services), which is up for grabs for anyone.
Huawei takes u-turn
An official statement from Huawei has been provided that contradicts the claims made by WangFei.
“An open Android ecosystem is still our first choice, but if we are not able to continue to use it, we have the ability to develop our own,” Huawei told XDA.
This reinstates the possibility that Huawei’s first choice would be GMS, and it would only look for home-baked alternatives when absolutely necessary.
Tweakers journalist Arnoud Wokke, unaware of WangFei’s comment, asked the same question to Huawei’s Netherlands general manager and got a response that goes in line with the above statement. As per the official, Huawei would switch back to GMS.
“Google has been a partner for many users. We believe in choice for consumers in services on their devices,” he said.
However, all of this should be taken with a little grain of salt until any concrete announcement comes from the company.
