It’s been two years since Google services got yanked from Huawei devices, following US government putting the Chinese company on its entity list. It was a huge blow to Huawei, especially during a time when they’ve been aggressively working on Android phones and tablets.
Huawei Mate 30 Pro was the first flagship phone to be released without GMS.
For Huawei smartphone users, that meant losing essential apps like Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and Play Store from their phones (or no more updates after May 16, 2019). In the preceding months, Huawei took a huge hit — sales dropped and interest in Huawei phones slumped. It seemed like the end of Huawei phones at that time. Those who are technically savvy were able to sideload Google apps into their Huawei phones but that did not last long as Google proactively blocked such attempts in succeeding updates.
Huawei immediately hatched a “Plan B”, their very own operating system called Harmony OS launched on August 19, 2019. Harmony OS was originally meant for Internet of Things (IoT) products but Huawei later on clarified that it will be available to all Huawei devices.
In 2021, Huawei eventually released Harmony OS 2.0 and installed it in some of its tablets like the MatePad Pro 12.6 which we reviewed here. However, we have yet to see a Huawei smartphone running Harmony OS and there hasn’t been any announcement either.
With no Google Play Store pre-installed, Huawei introduced the App Gallery and tried to attract as many developers to sign in and add their apps and games.
This pressure has forced the hand of Huawei to eventually sell its sub-brand, Honor, in November 2020.
Despite that, Huawei remains to be a contender in the smartphone market. The Huawei P40 series was launched in March 2020, the Mate 40 series in August of 2020, the Huawei P50 series in July 2021 — all without Google’s Mobile Services. People still bought them.
Huawei went thru a very rough patch these past two years but it’s still here, very much alive and thriving. Many other smartphone vendors would have crumbled and left to ashes if they went thru the same trouble as Huawei. But the Chinese company is just too big to concede defeat.
So yes, we think Huawei has survived a world without Google. Not without a scratch, mind you. It has proven its resilience, innovation, and adaptability and perhaps in due time, Huawei might just get back to the top spot in the near future.
We would like to hear from our readers — did the absence of Google services discourage you from considering/buying a Huawei smartphone the past?
Maybe it’s just me, but a device without scroogle crap services it’s a plus, something def worth paying for, no dubious charges, bloatware, ads, trackers, etc, yet I must admit that the PS was somewhat convenient, but nothing otherworldly, nor something that you couldn’t get from somewhere else, easily and securely, everybody makes their apps readily available by some other channel precisely because things like that, same goes for the web browser, chromxz are overrated and dime a dozen, so what else can I say, there are things more important subjective-wise of course, like decent hardware to price ratio, nevertheless mine was a gift, so can’t really complain much about it, just learn to live with it…