Huawei to support its devices after Google Android bar
- by Dikshita-Tiwari
- May 21, 2019 13:31
Huawei will support its smartphones and tablets by providing security updates and services, it said, after Google barred it from updates to the Android operating system. But the Chinese technology firm did not say on Monday what would happen with phones it sells in the future, which are unlikely to have access to Go8ogle’s popular services, including Gmail, YouTube and maps unless a special licence is obtained.
.jpg)
Huawei’s devices in its home market use a custom operating system based on open source Android but do not include access to any Google services, which are banned in China. But Google’s curbs will hugely damage Huawei’s global appeal.
“Huawei will continue to provide security updates and after-sales services to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphone and tablet products, covering those that have been sold and that are still in stock globally,” a Huawei spokesman said by email.
“We will continue to build a safe and sustainable software ecosystem,” Huawei, which aspires to leap-frog Samsung to be the world’s biggest smartphone maker, said.
“As one of Android’s key global partners, we have worked closely with their open-source platform to develop an ecosystem that has benefitted both users and the industry,” it added.
Almost half of the 208 million phones Huawei shipped in 2018 went outside mainland China, and Europe is the most important overseas market where its devices had a 29% market share in the first quarter of 2019, technology research firm IDC says.
The Google loss was likely to cost Huawei all of its smartphone sales outside China as “device purchasing is now almost entirely driven by the ecosystem,” industry analyst Richard Windsor said.
Leave a Reply