Huawei launched a campaign this week to attract British and Irish developers to new create for Huawei Mobile Services (HMS), apps an alternative platform to Google 's Android Play Store .
The company announced at its developers conference that it will offer £20 million ($26 million) to mobilize developers and get them to work on applications for HMS.
Huawei has released 24 open-access kits for developers, covering a range of functions, such as location-based applications, services or language learning services.
“We have announced our investment plan of 20 million pounds to encourage our partners and to be able to build an excellent ecosystem together”, said Anson Zhang, an executive of Huawei UK.
Huawei doesn't have many options and will have to be very convincing and highlight the benefits of HMS to attract developers. Last May, Google banned Huawei from using certain parts of the Android operating system after the Chinese company was blacklisted by the US. As a result, some new devices cannot use popular Android services, such as the Play Store, Maps or YouTube.
With this data, Huawei was forced to resort to an open -source of the Android operating system, which does not include essential Google applications.
Ben Wood, analyst at CCS Insight, said: “What Huawei is trying to achieve is quite clear: if Google does not allow it to use apps, then it will build its own”.
Applications need to be created, similar to those that exist in the Play Store. According to the analyst, Huawei is trying to achieve this by using money as an incentive.
However, Wood is not sure that Huawei's attempt will be successful. Various companies have tried to "beat" Android and Apple iOS (e.g. Windows 10 Mobile, BlackBerry,Samsung's Tizen OS), but have not been very successful.
Even if the Chinese company creates good apps on its platform, it will have to make sure those apps are maintained and updated regularly. Regular updates must be made to keep users and their devices safe.
Huawei has millions of users not only in China but also in 170 other countries. The US ban does not seem to have affected the company's sales. During 2019, seven million devices.
Therefore, it is a great opportunity for European developers themselves, many of whom are already trying to penetrate the Chinese market.
If the developers respond, a big «battle» with Google will begin, which is a tough opponent, as it has billions of users. However, Huawei must try, since due to the US ban, it has no other choice. The most certain solution would be to put an end to the trade war between the US and China. Only in this way would it overcome these difficulties.
