Huawei debuts Mate 30 phones without Google apps
MUNICH — Huawei launched a new flagship smartphone on Thursday but it comes without popular Google apps such as Chrome or YouTube after U.S. sanctions kicked in, limiting its appeal to consumers.
The Chinese tech giant’s Mate 30 phone series, including one for new 5G networks, runs on an open-source version of Google’s Android operating system, which by default doesn’t come pre-installed with the U.S. company’s suite of popular apps and services that licensed versions have.
It also doesn’t come with the Google Play Store, the main way users outside China access Android apps.
Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business, told reporters after the launch that consumers “can download (the apps) by themselves” from third-party sites.
“For us, we can’t really install the apps.”
Huawei, the world’s secondbiggest smartphone maker, is fighting to save its business after the Trump administration blocked access to U.S. components and technology in May on national security grounds.
Washington has issued temporary exemptions that let Huawei maintain software for existing devices, but they don’t cover new products such as the Mate 30.
The Mate 30, powered by Huawei’s new Kirin 990 advanced chipset, sports a four-camera system and screen that curves nearly 90 degrees around its long edges, for a borderless effect. Prices start at US$880.
Huawei is using its own, stripped-down version of Android, whose basic code is provided free of charge by Google. The Chinese company’s phones are popular in Europe and Asia but little known in the U.S., where its telecom switching gear has been effectively blocked for years over fears it could be used for spying by China’s communist rulers.
The Mate 30 will go on sale next week in China but won’t hit European stores until next month as the company gathers consumer feedback, said Yu. on Thursday
He said the company hadn’t expected the trade dispute to last so long when it was planning the launch.
“This U.S.-China trade war delayed us and is still not stopping, so we’ve become the bargaining chip between two great nations,” Yu said.