Huawei, OPPO, Xiaomi and Vivo control over 40 percent of the world’s smartphone market but in their biggest market, China, do not have access to the Google Play store — Huawei do not have access to it anywhere. Now these continually growing companies are teaming up to create an alternative to the Play Store.
This new platform for developers will allow them for upload their apps onto all of the above companies’ apps stores simultaneously. The new alliance is called the Global Developer Service Alliance (GDSA) and has an aim to allow developers to more easily get their apps out to people in overseas markets.
At this stage the new platform is expected to cover nine regions including India, Indonesia, Russia and China. The Reuters report does not talk about a single play store entity but an entire platform which would effectively make all of their respective stores identical, containing the exact same apps etc.
You would think that this new alliance has been pushed along by Huawei who now does not have access to the Play Store in any region and given that they are the second largest smartphone shipping company in the world, heading quickly towards number one, the other brands have decided to hop on board for the ride (Xiaomi is number four, OPPO number five and Vivo number six). The platform was expected to launch in March but may be delayed due to the coronavirus.
It is unclear just how remuneration for developers will be handled with respect to percentages etc but you would expect them to be extremely competitive compared to the Play Store to entice developers over to their platform.
Nicole Peng, the VP of Mobility at analysis firm Canalys said:
By forming this alliance each company will be looking to leverage the others’ advantages in different regions, with Xiaomi’s strong user base in India, Vivo and Oppo in Southeast Asia, and Huawei in Europe
You would expect that although this new platform would start in these nine regions Huawei would be keen to push it out worldwide to give their phones a fighting chance outside of China. We may well see it land here in Australia and let’s hope so because the landscape was a lot better with the high quality Huawei camera in the market.
