What's a Google Play? Huawei talks up fledgling AppGallery store, shows off another voice assistant with a female name
- Reference: 1585254134
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/26/huawei_appgallery_celia/
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Suddenly, Huawei found itself having to plough around $1bn into its own app store, in a somewhat quixotic attempt to turn it into a viable contender.
So, how's that going? With Thursday's launch of [1]the P40 series , which will hit European shelves later this year, Huawei was eager to tout the progress it has made in attracting third-party developers.
The biggest is arguably Microsoft, which now offers Office Mobile and Bing through the Huawei AppGallery - giving Redmond a powerful foothold in the new store. The P40 series also uses Microsoft's SwiftKey keyboard by default – although this has been the case for some time.
Elsewhere, there's the likes of SnapChat and TikTok, JustEat and Trainline. But still no WhatsApp or Facebook. No Uber Eats or Deliveroo. And, for that matter, no Uber.
In his keynote, Huawei Consumer Business Group (CBG) head honcho Richard Yu boasted of the AppGallery's 400 million monthly users, as well as its global availability in more than 170 countries. However, much of the activity undoubtedly comes from Mainland China, where Google Play is inaccessible.
Things that make you go zoom: Huawei rolls out pictastic P40 phones, no Google Play Store in sight [2]READ MORE
But apps are just one piece of the pie. Huawei's verboten status also means that users of the company's phones are cut off from Google's cloud storage platform – not to mention the Chocolate Factory's music and video stores.
Huawei was keen to sell Huawei Mobile Services as a viable replacement for consumers wary of purchasing an expensive new flagship that's walled off from Mountain View's kingdom. On the video front, it pointed to licensing deals with the likes of Lionsgate, Discovery, ITV and Universal. Huawei also bragged about access to several music catalogs, including Universal and Warner.
Much of Yu's keynote felt as though he was imploring developers to get on board, with the tech exec extolling the virtues of Huawei's local partnerships and connections. And while there's been some traction, time will tell if the company builds real momentum.
Oh Ce-Celia
Of course, no Google Mobile Services also means no Google Assistant – leaving owners of Huawei's latest kit unable to bark commands at their phone like Anna Wintour yelling really mundane questions at a bedraggled assistant who is also, coincidentally, hard-of-hearing.
Enter Celia, which will be available in the UK, as well as various French and Spanish-speaking nations. In terms of functionality, it's fairly basic, allowing users to send messages, set reminders and so on. That's to be expected, given that it doesn't have Google's access to the world's information via a hugely popular search engine.
That said, Huawei has inked deals with French search engine Quant so it's not implausible that Celia could get smarter in the years to come. And with Huawei offering its own headphones and speakers, the firm could integrate it into its upcoming "ear-worn wearable" and IoT products, a bit like the Google Nest Mini or the Amazon Echo.
Celia will arrive via an OTA update later this year. Unfortunately, it wasn't present on the P40 Pro review sample we received earlier this week. That said, it'll be interesting to see how it compares to incumbent efforts, and whether it can challenge the Google/Apple/Amazon assistant hegemony. ®
[1] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/26/huawei_p40_series
[2] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/26/huawei_p40_series/
I wouldn't bet much on the new assistant (I suppose Samsung has an assistant hiding somewhere and nobody cares), but the app store is something more interesting. Considering the percentages demanded by Apple and Google, there is a need for more app stores, and some game companies are already taking steps...
That said, does somebody understand why these sanctions make it impossible for Huawei to put Google Play on their phones, but lets Microsoft put apps on Huawei's app store? Maybe Google should put Google Play in Huawei's app store?
Why Microsoft and not Google
Microsoft applied for a license to export to Huawei and it was granted in November. Presumably Google applied and it was rejected or not yet processed.
As to why Microsoft, it was probably a goodwill gesture in the lead up to the phase one trade deal.
As to why not Google, I wouldn't be surprised if it was a favor for Trump's friend Tim Apple.
We can expect nothing less from this administration
From a user's perspective Google's software ecosystem is like a pact with the Devil. We're getting useful things like maps but we're really paying dearly for the privlege. Google exacts quite a heavy price for their code in both the use of our resources for their 'analytics' -- spyware -- and for our screen space. The balance is kept just this side of 'useful' because Google is one of the relatively few Internet companies who know just how far they can push the envelope without risking alienating their customer base. Everything worked well and was likely to continue to be mutually beneficial to supplier, user and Google for the indefinite future.
Then along comes US suppliers who are feeling a bit left out. Depending on who you listen to they're 2 to 5 years behind with usable, standards compliant 5G parts. They're also facing a competitor that owns about two thirds of the patent portfolio needed to implement this technology. Instead of realizing they've blown it and coming up with a long term investment plan to deal with this they choose a political solution. If we can't compete with Huawei let's try to bring Huawei down -- we'll stop selling them chips and try our damndest to hobble their business by any means we can. We've got plenty of PR types so we can just talk up Cold War type BS, relying on most people not having a clue what the real issues are. But the writing's been on the wall for some time -- if we'd cared to read it. These kinds of bans are a challenge and instead of damaging this company they're likely to backfire on us. So, forbidding US suppliers to sell parts merely means that these suppliers lose a very large chunk of business -- it doesn't finish off Huawei because no manufacturer is going to rely on single source if they can avoid it, they were merely buying our parts because it made business sense. The software ban is even more dangerous. Google needs people to use their mobile services just as much as users need Google's services. If a viable replacement is forced on a sugnificant part of the market then that's market share that Google has lost. Permanently -- because Huawei has no interest in making that software a business but if they're forced into it then they have no choice. The end result for us in the US is lose/lose; our hubris has once again hurt us because we can't see the world as it really is but only as we'd like it to be.
I am confused as to why Google can't offer the play store and other apps to Huawei because of the US restrictions, while another American company - Microsoft are able to have their Office Mobile and Bing through the Huawei AppGallery?