At the Pixel event this year Google announced their new Made For Google accessory program, where third party accessories are tested by Google and are guaranteed to work with the Google devices and be up to Google’s standards. Now Huawei are said to be getting onboard with their own accessory program, and why wouldn’t they? They are the number two smartphone manufacturer in the world.
According to ITHome website a “Made for Huawei” program has been launched within the company, and their first accessory will be a USB-C to HDMI cable for use with Mate 10 phones. The ability for a Mate 10 to project to a monitor using such an accessory is a big advantage in many parts of the world. Having tested this functionality out myself I can say that it does not work with all USB to HDMI cables. For Huawei to control such a thing people would get a much more consistent experience.
Huawei are not just the second largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, but depending on the month are first (or marginally second to Vivo) in China. That is a lot of phones they ship and as such a lot of accessories are required. The quality of accessories can often vary, especially in China — we have all been burnt by sub-par accessories from eBay/AliExpress. This can result in a poor user experience, something Huawei is keen to avoid: for them it is all about the user experience.
By controlling the quality of accessories that are “approved” by Huawei for use with their devices, they can control the user experience even more. At this stage it is unclear whether they will charge accessory manufacturers for this certification but it can only mean that we will see better quality accessories for Huawei phones (and other phones): hopefully the price of them does not increase along with it. At this stage it is also unclear how Huawei will police this certification — I am sure some of the less reputable manufacturers will just copy the certification logo on their packaging and sell it as is.
Of course, many of the accessories included in the program will also be able to be used with other devices (cables, chargers etc) so it should result in an improvement in the quality of accessories for all.
