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And so Chinese tech giant Huawei is going ahead, putting the future of its international smartphone business in play, and it is a risk that could cost the company millions of lost users. The flagship Mate 30 launch date has been announced—September 19, in Munich, Germany. But it’s an announcement that leaves more questions than answers.
“Rethink possibilities,” is the tagline for the launch. But, as I’ve reported before, the only “possibility” being debated by tech analysts is a Huawei smartphone targeting the international market without Google’s Android software and services onboard.
Right now, the company has left the market and its millions of users with a seeming contradiction. And no-one knows what this means in practice. It seems that on September 19 we may find out.
Here’s Huawei’s dilemma in five parts.
First, Huawei has launched its own operating system. Dubbed HarmonyOS, the platform is designed to operate a range of smart IoT devices—TVs, watches, car systems. But CEO Ren Zhengfei has said the OS “is not designed for phones as everyone thinks.” And Huawei board member Catherine Chen told reporters that the operating system is “not for smartphones and the company intends to continue to use Google’s Android operating system for its smartphones.” And while company consumer tech execs claim that it can be transitioned fast, tech experts from the sector don’t believe that. The software itself can clearly be adapted for a small screen smart device. But it’s a low-latency IoT platform not a smartphone platform, with a different and much less complex underlying code structure. That’s what Huawei execs mean when they say it isn’t designed for smartphones.
Second, Huawei has acknowledged that the core driver for its international smartphone business is the Android ecosystem of apps and developers. It’s an ecosystem that the company’s CEO admits would take the Chinese giant years to recreate. And they haven’t really started as yet. Remember, both Apple and Google have a decade-plus head start.
Third, Huawei execs have been at pains to confirm that the company’s smartphones will carry Google’s Android for the time being—that there are no plans for an alternative. The OS, Chen acknowledged, “is for industrial use—Huawei intends to continue using Android [on smartphones].”
Fourth, Google has hit the tech giant with the news that the Mate 30 falls outside the grace period the U.S. government had given for “new” devices to slip through the blacklist net. Essentially, the device is too new, it wasn’t registered with Google before the blacklist hit, and so Google has said it must ship without their tech onboard.
And, finally, Huawei is going ahead anyway. Right now they have a smartphone launch with no market certainty as to what software will drive it. And while the new device will no doubt come packaged with high-tech features and advances, the question remains: will anyone outside China buy the Mate 30 and cut themselves off from the ecosystem they are used to enjoying?
The China point is critical. Huawei has a huge share of the Chinese smartphone market—almost 40%. And its phones in China already ship with just the basic open source version of Android as the wider platform is banned in the country. So it does have a market for the device as things stand—just not the one it wants or needs to drive continued international growth.
We may see delayed international sales with an initial focus on China. Unless Huawei has found a major blacklist fudge or has developed a souped-up version of open source Android to power its devices. And using that proven platform from its China devices with some form of international market value-added Huawei layer and application store is more likely than a genuine HarmonyOS port.
So, all eyes on the Munich launch, now just a couple of weeks away. When will devices actually to start to sell and ship—and in which markets around the world? There is already plenty of analyst excitement on the hardware. But Huawei knows full well that it needs an answer on the software as well, to translate excitement into sales.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdof...google-gamble-risks-losing-millions-of-users/
“Rethink possibilities,” is the tagline for the launch. But, as I’ve reported before, the only “possibility” being debated by tech analysts is a Huawei smartphone targeting the international market without Google’s Android software and services onboard.
Right now, the company has left the market and its millions of users with a seeming contradiction. And no-one knows what this means in practice. It seems that on September 19 we may find out.
Here’s Huawei’s dilemma in five parts.
First, Huawei has launched its own operating system. Dubbed HarmonyOS, the platform is designed to operate a range of smart IoT devices—TVs, watches, car systems. But CEO Ren Zhengfei has said the OS “is not designed for phones as everyone thinks.” And Huawei board member Catherine Chen told reporters that the operating system is “not for smartphones and the company intends to continue to use Google’s Android operating system for its smartphones.” And while company consumer tech execs claim that it can be transitioned fast, tech experts from the sector don’t believe that. The software itself can clearly be adapted for a small screen smart device. But it’s a low-latency IoT platform not a smartphone platform, with a different and much less complex underlying code structure. That’s what Huawei execs mean when they say it isn’t designed for smartphones.
Second, Huawei has acknowledged that the core driver for its international smartphone business is the Android ecosystem of apps and developers. It’s an ecosystem that the company’s CEO admits would take the Chinese giant years to recreate. And they haven’t really started as yet. Remember, both Apple and Google have a decade-plus head start.
Third, Huawei execs have been at pains to confirm that the company’s smartphones will carry Google’s Android for the time being—that there are no plans for an alternative. The OS, Chen acknowledged, “is for industrial use—Huawei intends to continue using Android [on smartphones].”
Fourth, Google has hit the tech giant with the news that the Mate 30 falls outside the grace period the U.S. government had given for “new” devices to slip through the blacklist net. Essentially, the device is too new, it wasn’t registered with Google before the blacklist hit, and so Google has said it must ship without their tech onboard.
And, finally, Huawei is going ahead anyway. Right now they have a smartphone launch with no market certainty as to what software will drive it. And while the new device will no doubt come packaged with high-tech features and advances, the question remains: will anyone outside China buy the Mate 30 and cut themselves off from the ecosystem they are used to enjoying?
The China point is critical. Huawei has a huge share of the Chinese smartphone market—almost 40%. And its phones in China already ship with just the basic open source version of Android as the wider platform is banned in the country. So it does have a market for the device as things stand—just not the one it wants or needs to drive continued international growth.
We may see delayed international sales with an initial focus on China. Unless Huawei has found a major blacklist fudge or has developed a souped-up version of open source Android to power its devices. And using that proven platform from its China devices with some form of international market value-added Huawei layer and application store is more likely than a genuine HarmonyOS port.
So, all eyes on the Munich launch, now just a couple of weeks away. When will devices actually to start to sell and ship—and in which markets around the world? There is already plenty of analyst excitement on the hardware. But Huawei knows full well that it needs an answer on the software as well, to translate excitement into sales.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdof...google-gamble-risks-losing-millions-of-users/
