Chinese giant Huawei is all set to launch its much-anticipated flagship smartphones — Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro at an event in Munich, Germany on 19th September.
Recently, there were reports that Google has not certified Huawei’s Mate 30 series for Android. Now, the company has confirmed that the Mate 30 will launch without any Google apps. Instead, the phone will reportedly come with third-party alternatives running on a bespoke version of Android 10.
This means that the entire Google suite of applications, including the Google Maps, Calendar, Google Drive, Google Assistant and Gmail will not be present on the upcoming flagship.
Even though Mate 30 series is not certified by Google, the phones will still run Android 10 operating system because the OS is open source, allowing anyone to use it. The company could have opted for the HarmonyOS but Huawei has confirmed that it has no plans to do so this year.
Huawei Mate 30 series would be the first to ship without Google’s services after the ban on the company by the United States. According to analysts, Huawei’s smartphone sales will see a drop of at least 10 million units in 2019.
While the company has been preparing for the potential loss of access to Google’s Android, news of Google’s stance on withholding preinstalled apps from upcoming phones came as a shock to the company in late August.
Huawei was banned from getting software and chips from the US-based firms in May this year but was granted a 90-day grace period. After that expired on 19th August, the United States extended the grace period by another 90 days but it seems like Google is not one of the companies in the list.
In a recent interview, Huawei CEO Richard Yu has hinted that the company will launch its first HarmonyOS-powered next year, possibly the Huawei P40. He has also confirmed that its own OS is now ready to run smartphones.
