Honor to start selling android smartphone without Google suite from this month

PTI, Mar 16, 2020, 2:54 PM IST

New Delhi: With uncertainty over supply ban imposed by the US, smartphone maker Honor plans to start selling Android-based mobile phone, Honor 9X Pro, without Google mobile services suite from last week of March in India.

The smartphone will be the first device from Honor’s stable in India that will come with Huawei Mobile Service suite, which the Chinese major is developing with an investment of USD 1 billion to create an alternate of Google apps, Charles Peng, President, Huawei & Honor India Consumer Business Group told PTI.

“Honor 9X Pro is the first Honor smartphone that will be independent of the Google Play store and will feature Huawei AppGallery, one of the world’s top three app stores. We launched the smartphone at a global Livestream event last month and are all set to bring the device to India in the month-end,” Peng, said.

The company claims to have attracted 1 million app developers for Huawei AppGallery.

Honor will continue using the Android operating system as it is an open-source platform and free for any company to use it and develop their operating system by using it as a base.

The United States government barred its companies from supplying software and hardware to Huawei in May last year. However, it has been extending a temporary license for supplying restricted products and services to the Chinese telecom gear major.

Huawei, along with Honor, commands the second position on global level in terms of market share and is next to South Korean technology giant Samsung.

Peng said that Huawei is in talks with Indian companies as well to bring them on AppGallery and many of the frequently used apps have already come on board.

When asked about Honor’s plan to attract users of leading social media apps especially US-based Facebook and Whatsapp, Peng said most of the third-party apps provide an open-source for downloading the mobile version and are already available for quick download.

Peng said that Honor will prefer to work with Google, however, the company will continue to expand Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) as an alternate option.