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Android Cellphones China Technology

Huawei Expects 20 Percent Drop In Android Smartphone Sales, Thanks To Lack of Google Apps (9to5google.com) 32

Posted by BeauHD from the cause-and-effect dept.
According to a report from The Information, Huawei expects to see a 20% drop in sales of its Android smartphones during 2020, thanks largely to U.S. government restrictions on Huawei's access to American technology, including Google software. 9to5Google reports: "Huawei's overseas smartphone sales didn't collapse last year in part because the company could keep selling some of its old models that the Google ban didn't affect," reports The Information. "But this year, Huawei expects its shipments to fall to around 190 million to 200 million smartphones, according to these people." The 240 million figure in 2019 was thanks largely in part to the timing of the U.S. ban. Huawei's extremely popular P30 and P30 Pro smartphones still shipped with Google apps in most regions and, because they were launched before the ban took place, Huawei was able to continue updating the devices, even launching a slightly revamped variant to boost sales. This year will certainly be bleaker as Huawei won't be able to support Google apps on its P40 series, set to launch later this month. Other factors such as the coronavirus outbreak could only further have an impact on Huawei's sales this year.
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Huawei Expects 20 Percent Drop In Android Smartphone Sales, Thanks To Lack of Google Apps More

Huawei Expects 20 Percent Drop In Android Smartphone Sales, Thanks To Lack of Google Apps

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  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • The Huawei situation complex, I do not think mobile handsets are a big risk since easily replaceable but so it goes. Anyway while the G apps very good and convenient an alternative would help with competition. Ruskies pushing their ware. As the genie cliche goes careful what you wish for.

  • Will not buy further Huawei products however, without Google Apps.
    (As much as I detest some of the crap Google does as a business and Google does with their apps {maps has become a joke on Android})

    Mate 20 is otherwise extremely fast, feature rich, cheap, keeps 'old' features which are great.
    Hope to hang onto it as long as humanly possible.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by slaker ( 53818 )

      What's maps doing or not doing for you? The only complaint I really have is it getting confused in extremely crowded big city downtown areas (e.g. Chicago, Denver, NOLA), but I've always chalked that up to tall buildings vs. GPS signals.

    • I detest some of the crap Google does as a business and Google does with their apps {maps has become a joke on Android}

      Sir, your detestation is inadequate.

      I live in London, England, and when I use maps to look up addresses, it often ranks one in London, Canada higher up the list than a place in my street. Similarly searches for places in Edmonton (part of London, ENGLAND, and a mile from where I live) return results from Canada - other searches deliver results in Australia - seriously, what makes Google

  • This will be the real test of how open Android really is.

    If a manufacturer as big as Huawei cannot sell Android phones without Google's blessing, then Android is it just Google's walled garden.

    • If only you had any idea what we're talking about.

      This is about apps, not the OS.

      Try again.

  • At first people are going to see the lack of Google apps as a disadvantage, but over time they will grow to like their devices being telemetry and crap free.

    Give it time- soon NOT having Google will be a selling point.

    • over time they will grow to like their devices being telemetry and crap free

      No, they won't. Telemetry and spying lets Google provide some very personalized services (like targeted ads for example). Privacy respecting competitors simply don't have the data to provide the same convenience. Most people have no understanding of the issues with Big Brother watching them all the time, so they'll choose convenience. And then Google and the other data vampires point to those people and say that their behavior is acceptable under community standards, and roll over the minority that cares ab

      • " I won't buy a Sony TV, even though I like their new models, because they need a Google account to work."

        I wonder how long it will be you can't buy a TV that does not have this kind of 'feature'. And of course, you won't have to connect it to your network as it will have a cellular data modem built into the set. Even if you can disable this by opening up the set and cutting a few traces (instantly voiding the warranty), they will have it where the set won't work if it can't connect to the mothershi

  • So, in China, QQ is the biggest social network, plus it has its own e-mail service. Gmail, check.
    Youku and iQiyi have half a billion visits daily for video streaming. Youtube, check.
    Baidu Maps and Autonavi are both highly rated, and the former, I would assume, has enough ties to The Party to get actual-mapping data. Maps, check.
    QQ Music exists.
    Weibo and WeChat handle photo storage and sharing, as well as data-based messaging. Photos and Hangouts, check. ...so, from what I can tell, it seems like virtually every popular Google service has a very-popular, China-specific replacement. If these apps aren't integrated into the Alibaba app already, it seems like all Huawei has to do is make their own App Store and preload all the apps everyone uses anyway. Done. Moreover, I'm uncertain as to whether Xaomi or the other Chinese OEMs are in any better position - if Google can't have their software shipped with any of them, then I don't see any winners there.

    Now, I'm sure a bunch of very smart people in Huawei are aware of the very popular not-Google apps and are still giving this waterfall decline projection anyway. I, on the other hand, knew about QQ and Baidu, and spent ten minutes Googling the rest, so I am very much aware of my own ignorance here.

    Hence, the question: If the surface level appearance is that Huawei could easily say 'meh', and load a first party app store with all the popular services replacing core Google software, then there must be some major piece of the puzzle I'm missing for Huawei to decide not to do that.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kokuyo ( 549451 )

      So ig they make 40% of their revenue outside China and expect that they will see a 50% decline in sales outside China, you got your 20% decline right there.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Huawei is going that route. Their newer devices have a different app store with more Chinese apps in it. By all accounts the phones are very good, it's just that you will need to either use the web versions of things like Twitter and Facebook or side-load those apps.

      Chinese companies had already re-implemented all the Google services anyway. Not just the apps as you point out, but the back end stuff. There are open source versions too, like microG.

      It will be interesting to see what the longer term response

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Baidu Maps sucks. Really sucks. The likes of Weibo and Wechat are popular mainly only because of the great firewall. Without the firewall, these two are obliterated by the likes of Whatsapp and LINE in Chinese-majority territories like Macau (China), Hong Kong (China), Taiwan (China?) and Singapore. Even when those competing apps has far less features than Wechat and QQ.

      Hence, the question: If the surface level appearance is that Huawei could easily say 'meh', and load a first party app store with all the popular services replacing core Google software, then there must be some major piece of the puzzle I'm missing for Huawei to decide not to do that.

      Huawei already has their own appstore (AppGallery) even when Donald Trump has not yet become president. In fact, virtually all of the Chine

      • Hong Kong is China, but has its own independent government system that is subservient to China. Taiwan is not affiliated with the PRC at all and is an independent state with its own sovereign government known officially as the Republic of China. The PRC claims Taiwan as its territory, but this claim is only recognized by the PRC and its allies. It is not recognized by most of the rest of the world and more importantly it is not recognized by the government currently in power in Taiwan. If they tried to enfo

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Kjella ( 173770 )

          Isn't it technically a little bit weirder than that? From what I've understood Taiwan is what remained of the government that was there before Mao's China and from 1949 to 1971 they sat on the UN Security Council as the "real" China in exile. Neither side has to my knowledge ever relinquished their claim to the whole of China, formally they're therefore still in a sleeping civil war. Whether or not Taiwan should formally declare independence (or rather, rescind their claim to mainland China) has been a hot-

        • If they tried to enforce this claim militarily, they'd be starting a war with a large part of the rest of the world. While it's possible they could win such a war, it'd be bad for business, and the PRC cares slightly more about good business than about enforcing their unrecognized claims and starting a world war.

          I think the Ukrainians would beg to differ.

    • I think they are doing that, and that's why they're expecting a 20% drop in revenue. The part you're missing is that while Huawei does sell extremely well in China, that's not the sole source of their sales. They also sell elsewhere, in places where people aren't going to want to use Chinese knockoffs of Gmail, Youtube, etc. They're going to want to use Gmail and Youtube. Huawei knows this, which is why they're factoring in 20% lower sales.
    • In China? Yeah, they will probably not be hit very hard. But outside of China most (all?) of the services you mention are not either available or not very popular. OTOH Google apps and many who depend on Google Play Services are considered essential for many people outside of China. That's why this is such a big deal
    • I am pretty sure they do not worry about sales in China but the rest of the world, where Google is available.
      BTW, you do know that Google doesn't work in China, right?

  • The silly part is: It's not like you can't just install an arbitrary APK on the phones. Like grabbed from the Play "Store".

    It's not like they have to care about Content Mafia legalized criminals anyway, now in this situation, being already booted. Especially when they aren't even interested in not paying the protection money anyway.
    All they need, is some proxy "store" that grabs the APKs via other means, and also passes the payments on.
    Ditto for those push services.

    Then again, not having Google's own "apps"

  • A lack of google apps is precisely the reason why I flash ROMs.

    Seriously, if they really were to release linux drivers for their hardware, spying or not, Huawei would suddenly become VERY interesting to me.

    • I'd be all over that. The problem is proprietary software. Huawei could free itself and help develop Linux on phones thus selling more hardware. Everyone wins.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Google has a no-compete agreement for Android. If you make hardware - that is open source friendly you are expelled from the club.Acer tried, and was brought back into line. The no-compete appears to be on a manufacturer level, not by model. Although battered Huewei so far is unwilling to free their otherwise excellent hardware. Huawei should release a model, and cite US restrictions for BOTH sides being able to fulfill behind doors promises.BTW this includes early obsolecence and no future upgrades and no
  • If only Huawei would make it possible to unlock the bootloader and upload custom ROMs like Lineage OS.

    Sadly, some time ago, they cancelled their program for customers/developers where over could sign up, get an unlock code and go for it. I got my M5 Lite tablet before the program was shut down, but didn't get the code, so now I'm fully dependent on whatever updates Huawei releases.

    For that reason they are off my list, I expect any phone purchased in 2020 or later to have a hardware lifespan of over 5 ye

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