Huawei is trying to attract developers to develop for its app gallery, after being restricted from Google’s Play. The Chinese tech giant is promising funds to developers in that case.
This is not something new as the company is trying workarounds to tackle the issues caused by the US trade ban in 2019. Huawei smartphones still can run Android OS but can’t run Google services and apps including Google Play. In replacement of Google’s app store, the company has been trying to deeply integrate its own app gallery unlike before.
At a recently held Developer Day in London, Huawei announced a $26 million investment to involve British and Irish developers to make their apps available on Huawei’s App Gallery. Sure the company knows that its hardware expertise needs good software and smart options to attract consumers. That’s only possible the company has its own services app ecosystem that does not depend on Google’s ones.
Huawei Offers Half Revenue Cut Than Google/Apple
With that big investment, Huawei promises a 15% revenue cut for the apps. That’s exactly half of the 30% that Google takes from the developers for an app. Not to mention Apple that also lavies 30% for the apps. The company literally included that it would bring less spam notifications and that ads aren’t important to them. In addition, the developers would be able to market their apps on users’ home screens.
While Huawei’s App Gallery already exists in its phones, most users tend to use Google Play instead. The company’s app gallery hosts quite a few popular apps and games. It includes Amazon, Snapchat, TikTok, and Fortnite, however, it still misses a lot. The company just has to call developers to develop to overcome the issue.
Apart from a few mid-range devices including the recent Huawei Y-series, the high-end flagships are currently running an open-source version of Android. Specifically, the Mate 30 series that was released without Google’s apps and services, it doesn’t run Google apps. Even with having developers develop for the app gallery and make this a big lot, it still won’t run Google apps — the Maps, Gmail, YouTube, etc.
While the company’s own Harmony OS has been officially suggested to be ready by the mid-2020 for Huawei phones, there is no clue about its progress either.
