Ex-Huawei subbrand launch new smartphones with Google mobile service - PingWest

Ex-Huawei subbrand launch new smartphones with Google mobile service

Ex-Huawei subbrand launch new smartphones with Google mobile service

October 13, 2021 3:56 pm

Honor, Huawei’s former budget smartphone subbrand that was sold in November 2020, has confirmed that its new 5G smartphones outside China will be equipped with Google apps and services, demonstrating its capabilities to ride through difficult times after the split.

Detail:

Honor’s new 50 series will equip with Google Mobile Services, meaning that the new 5G smartphone will get access to Google Play Store, Google Maps, Gmail and other features.

“Honor has resumed cooperation with a number of supplier partners in the early stage, our 50 series will be equipped with Google Mobile Services,” Honor said in a statement on Monday.

The 50 series, which was available for pre-orders in China in June, will arrive in some European markets later this month.

Honor shipped without Google Mobile Services installed since September, 2019 amid the U.S sanction on Huawei.

In order to minimize the impacts of U.S sanctions, Huawei sold all of Honor’s assets to Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology in last November, a consortium formed by more than 30 agents and dealers of the budget smartphone vendor.

Since then, around 8,000 employees of Honor have relocated to a new headquarters in Shenzhen following the deal. According to Zhao, around 50% of 8,000 staffs are tasked for research and development.

Honor has resumed partnerships with major semiconductor companies around the world after the spin-off, and it also cut ties with Huawei’s home-grown operating system HarmonyOS. In June, Honor CEO George Zhao Ming said that the company will continue to use Google’s android on its new phones.

Context:

Huawei’s core smartphone business was hit hard by U.S restriction. According to research firm Canalys, Huawei fell out of China’s top five smartphone vendor with its global market share dropping to 26 percent in the second quarter this year from 57 percent a year ago.

In July, Huawei launched its new flagship smartphones- P50 series, but the new smartphone series were not equipped with 5G due to lack of US technologies.

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