Following yesterday’s news that Huawei’s Mate 30 would be unable to launch with Google services on board, there is speculation today that the Mate 30 may be delayed.
The South China Morning Post reports that the development may prompt Huawei to delay sales of the upcoming handset in western markets, because the lack of availability of Google’s services would have a detrimental effect.
While Huawei’s new handsets may continue to run on the Android operating system, it seems they would be doing so without Google’s direct assistance and without the inclusion of Google’s proprietary (licensed) software.
This development comes at odds to claims made earlier this month at Huawei’s developer conference. There, executives had said Huawei had “secured access to Android” in meetings in the US, but it seems that mightn’t have been the full story.
The US trade ban on Huawei will, it seems, prevent the Chinese telecommunications equipment giant from selling upcoming devices with popular Google mobile services, such as Google Play and Google Maps.
The report from the South China Morning Post is a little sketchy, noting that the planned delay is not final and that any further action by the US government might affect the firm’s decision.
With a mid September launch, we would expect to see invitations being sent out soon, and there’s been nothing shared on social media yet (the first place this kind of thing usually appears).
Launching without Google’s Services would be a risky move, and while it likely wouldn’t affect sales in China – where Google’s Services aren’t included anyway – there would be a measurable impact elsewhere.
That impact is already being felt: Huawei saw its smartphone shipments in Europe decline by 16 per cent in the second quarter of this year, according to research firm Canalys.
Richard Yu, the chief executive of Huawei’s consumer business group, recently said the US trade ban could have wiped out shipments of about 10 million smartphones from Huawei in the past quarter.
Without access to Google services, the prospects for Q3 and Q4 shipments outside China seem bleak as well.
