Huawei officially released its self-developed Huawei Mobile Service (HMS) for the overseas market in early 2020. The mobile service was launched as a replacement for Google Mobile Service which the company was required to remove from its Android fork EMUI after the US government imposed sanctions on the company. The removal of affected smartphones released after the ban was imposed in 2019.

Huawei later revealed that the service has been in development for quite some time but the abrupt ban made the company fast track the process. It also rolled out incentives to attract developers to start developing apps for its HMS app store. The company’s effort has apparently started yielding fruits.

During the online press conference where it announced its 2020 annual results, the company disclosed that it raked in a total sales revenue of 891.4 billion yuan globally last year. Surprisingly, this represents a 3.8% revenue increase year-on-year. The Chinese tech giant then added that in 2020, HMS has become the world’s third-largest mobile application ecosystem. As of the end of 2020, HMS has up to 2.3 million registered developers worldwide. The bulk of the developers are in China while overseas developers stand at 300,000. The store also houses over 120,000 extended applications.

Data previously released by Huawei shows that as of December last year, HMS has over 500 million active users drawn from over 170 countries and regions. Huawei is also projecting the mobile services to other domestic smartphone brands to use n their phones. Also, there is HMS for cars which has been deployed by BYD and Mercedes in their latest cars released for the Chinese market.

In addition, Huawei also stated that HarmonyOS has attracted more than 20 hardware vendors and 280 application vendors who are participating in the expansion of the app store.

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(via)

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In an effort to keep its business afloat after the US government blocked access to components for its smartphones, Huawei turned to other businesses that weren’t affected by the US ban. One such aspect is the development of smart cloud solutions for cars. One of such solutions is the HMS for Car solutions.

After the US ban prevented Huawei from using Google Mobile Services, it unveiled its own version dubbed  Huawei Mobile Services (HMS). The company, later on, showcased a custom version for cars called Huawei HMS for Car. Last year, Huawei’s rotating chairman Guo Ping disclosed that the company was in talks with manufacturers to use the HMS. Apparently, German car maker Mercedes will be deploying the HMS for Car on the 2021 Mercedes Benz S-Class. This was disclosed by Yu Chengdong, the CEO of Huawei’s consumer business.

The Huawei CEO touts HMS for Car to deliver a fast application service that will allow users to enjoy various in-car leisure and entertainment functions such as reading news, listening to stories, watching videos, and playing games while driving. He also disclosed that as a smart car cloud service solution, HMS for Car will continue to provide everyone with a high-quality travel life based on the rich application ecosystem of Huawei cloud services.

The accompanying posters show that the smart display installed on the car will feature several apps with icons of various apps such as SF Express, Lychee, Bilibili, etc. seen on the display screen. There is likely going to be more apps and we expect the users to have access to Huawei’s app store to download more apps as desired.

We can’t say for sure if this solution will be on the China models of the S-Class but we believe it will be for China only since Mercedes already uses Android Auto for most of its models in Europe and elsewhere.

The Mercedes Benz S-Class is said to include the S400L, S450L, and S500L models, with prices starting at 899,000 yuan (around $139,046. The car’s central control screen utilizes a massive 12.8-inch OLED screen having a resolution of 1888×1728 pixels. The in-vehicle system onboard the sleek ride also includes a voice assistant and the software can be updated remotely via OTA push.

Recall that BYD General Manager Zhao Changjiang recently disclosed also that the company will utilize Huawei HMS for Car on the BYD Han. This brings to two the number of car manufacturers that are already deploying Huawei’s cloud solution. We expect more brands to come on board soon.

RELATED;

• HarmonyOS is arriving on Huawei Flagships including Mate X2 from April 2021
• Huawei turns to other businesses to make up for its loss of the smartphone market
• Huawei HMS for Cars will soon arrive in BYD Han series sedans

(via)

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