Huawei could be planning to pre-install up to 70 apps on its upcoming international smartphone models to make up for the lack of Google services. The Chinese smartphone maker is banned from using software from US companies like Google, putting its phones at a disadvantage as compared to competitors like Samsung in the international market.
According to Mobiltelefon.ru, Huawei could pre-load nearly 70 selected apps on its smartphones this year. They are expected to be the most popular apps from the Google Play store or viable alternatives to the apps that are dependent on Google services. The pre-loaded apps will vary according to the region.
Since Huawei smartphones can’t run google services, the company will have to provide viable alternatives to popular apps like YouTube and Google Maps. The report states that Huawei will launch its own video service called as Huawei Video sometime in March this year. This is likely going to coincide with the P40 launch in the same month.
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Huawei’s app store, called the Huawei AppGallery, has around 45,000 apps right now, but it is still nowhere close to the 3 million figure on the Google Play Store. Without access to the Google Play Store, the Chinese smartphone maker will have to ensure that popular apps like Uber, Spotify are available in its own store. Also, it will have to provide viable alternatives to Google’s own apps. In this regard, the company is already in talks with companies like Tomtom (for Google Maps alternative) and Russia’s Yandex.
Huawei reportedly plans to pre-load these apps on at least nine models in the next four months. Mobiltelefon.ru’s source says that Huawei is likely to use this strategy on mid-range models using Kirin 810 and Kirin 710 chipsets. This could include the Huawei Y7p and P40 Lite E models. So Huawei could be using a different strategy for upcoming flagship devices like the Kirin 990 powered Huawei P40 series.
It makes sense why Huawei would want to pre-load a bunch of apps on its international smartphones. Without Google services, the availability of apps would be a big concern on Huawei’s phones. But if most of the popular apps are already on the device, users might be less worried.
However, pre-loading as many as 70 apps doesn’t sound like a good idea, even if they are curated according to the market. Imagine the nightmare sorting out 70 different apps on a brand new smartphone!
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