While the dispute between Huawei and the US continues unabated, the company seems to be doing quite well in the wearables sector. Although the smartphone saw a 42.4% drop in shipments last year, shipment volume for its smartwatch increased by 90% year-on-year in China and Asia and 50% globally. As a result, Huawei is reportedly limiting its smartphone production this year and investing more in its wearables, which now support third-party apps to further boost sales.
For those who don’t know, Huawei’s smartwatches run the LiteOS, which is used on devices . It doesn’t currently support apps . However, starting today, the company is gradually opening up its wearables ecosystem to third-party developers in an effort to attract more buyers. In fact, the company has released the popular fitness app “Fitify” for the Watch GT 2 Pro.
Huawei also announced that it is willing to work with independent developers and companies to port their applications to its growing portfolio of devices.
In a statement on the matter, Derek Yu, VP Huawei CEE & Nordic at Huawei Consumer Business Group, said: “We are already the global market leader in wearables, rapidly gaining market share in this category across multiple geographies. In Q3 2020, we shipped 10.7 million products globally, with a 19.5% market share. By making Fitify our first third-party app for our wearables, we are sending a message to many other developers . Our wearables are becoming incredibly popular, and you can benefit from being part of the Huawei AppGallery and the wearable ecosystem.”
To further attract developers, Huawei plans to offer a comprehensive full-spectrum business support solution for all app content providers, covering the entire cycle from ideology, development and distribution to operation and data analysis. The company has also developed unique integration packages to help developers maximize AppGallery listing for their apps.
