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Implications Of Google-Huawei Ban On Mobile App Development

Implications Of Google-Huawei Ban On Mobile App Development

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Google-Huawei Jigsaw Puzzle Pieces Side by Side With Man in Middle

The United States and China are rivals on the world economic and political stage. Both countries are both political and economic superpowers. At the time of writing this blog post, the United States is the largest economy by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), followed by China, with Japan being the third largest.

The rivalry between the United States and China often produces tense situations between the two countries, and these countries’ policies have implications that reverberate globally. One such policy resulted in the Google-Huawei Ban, which sent shockwaves throughout the mobile app development ecosystem.

Some Background on The Ban

In May 2019, the United States Government issued a ban on Huawei, citing national security concerns. The ban prohibited American companies from doing business with Huawei without government approval.

The ban included a ban on the sale of American technology and components to Huawei, as well as a ban on the use of American software, such as Google’s Android operating system, on Huawei devices.

The ban has since been expanded to include a broader range of Huawei technologies, and has had a significant impact on the company’s ability to conduct business globally. It should be noted that before the ban in May 2019, Huawei was one of the world’s leading smartphone manufacturers and had a substantial global market share.

According to research conducted by IDC (International Data Corporation), Huawei was the second largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, with a market share of 15.2% in the first quarter of 2019. This was behind Samsung (20.9%) but ahead of Apple (12.1%). Huawei was also one of the fastest-growing smartphone manufacturers, with its market share having risen by more than 2% in the previous year.

It’s worth noting that after the ban, Huawei faced a difficult time and had to adapt to the changes, but it’s still a major player in the smartphone market, and the company is still trying to find ways to navigate through its challenges.

Huawei’s Response To The Ban

Huawei’s response to the US ban has been a combination of legal action, lobbying and developing its own alternatives to American technology, while also continuing its efforts to expand its enterprise and carrier businesses.

However, this blog post is focussed on the impact of the Google ban. When considering the Google ban specifically, Huawei’s response has been to develop its own operating system as an alternative to Google’s Android OS.

In the months following the ban, Huawei announced that it was working on its own operating system, named HarmonyOS, which could be used on smartphones, tablets, laptops, smart TVs, and other devices. The company stated that HarmonyOS was designed to be “completely different” from Android and would be more versatile, allowing it to be used on a wide range of devices.

HarmonyOS is now an established platform. Additionally to HarmonyOS, Huawei has also developed its own app store, called Huawei App Gallery, which is a platform for developers to distribute their apps. This is an alternative to the Google Play Store which was banned for new Huawei devices.

Huawei devices that were released before the ban continue to run Google services, and Huawei has continued to provide security updates and after-sales services to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphone and tablet products already running Google’s Android, covering those that have been sold or still in stock globally.

Impact On Market Share

The Google-Huawei ban has had a significant impact on mobile app development. Since the ban prohibits American companies such as Google from doing business with Huawei, this has major implications for both Huawei and app developers, as it affects the ability to use Google Play Services and Google Mobile Services (GMS) on Huawei devices.

Without access to GMS, Huawei devices released after the ban no longer have access to popular apps such as Google Maps, YouTube, and Gmail. This has made it difficult for Huawei to compete with other major smartphone manufacturers, in terms of app availability and user experience.

Mobile App developers have also faced challenges as a result of the ban. Many developers, including Webmobyle, rely on GMS for certain features and tools in our apps, and have had to either make significant changes to our apps, in order to continue supporting Huawei devices or develop separate apps for the Huawei Mobile Services platform.

According to StatsCounter, Huawei’s global smartphone market share as of December 2022 was 5.25%, which is a huge drop from the 15.2% it had in the first quarter of 2019, before the ban was imposed. It is important to note that, for Africa, the Market share was at 11.49% as of December 2022.

It’s worth pointing out that the company’s market share may change over time, as the company continues to navigate the challenges of the ban, and adapt to new market conditions. For mobile developers serving the African market, the current Huawei market share is still significant and growing.

This means that it is crucial for mobile developers in the African context to not count Huawei and its Huawei Mobile Services out. This on its own presents a significant challenge for these developers, because it introduces another ecosystem, with another app store to contend with.

Many App Stores and A Fragmented Mobile App Ecosystem

The Google ban on Huawei has resulted in the creation of multiple app stores, and a fragmented mobile app ecosystem. Before the ban, Huawei devices were primarily dependent on the Google Play Store, which is the main app store for Android devices.

However, following the ban, Huawei was no longer able to use the Google Play Store on its devices, which created a gap in its app ecosystem. In response to the ban, Huawei developed the Huawei App Gallery, which is its own platform for developers to distribute their apps.

However, the Huawei App Gallery is not as widely used as the Google Play Store, and therefore, it does not have the same selection of apps as the Google Play Store. This means that Huawei devices are missing a lot of apps that are available on other platforms.

There is also the Apple iOS app store which has a global market share of 14.4% as of December 2022. There are also smaller, lesser known app stores that are coming up. As a result, developers now have to create and maintain multiple versions of their apps for different platforms and app stores, which can be time-consuming and expensive.

Adapting Within The Chaos

At Webmobyle, we are experiencing the fragmented mobile ecosystem first-hand that the resulting chaos has brought. Before the Google-Huawei ban, we had only to worry about two app stores: Google Play and the Apple App Store.

Before the ban, we were developing one cross-platform app using Flutter. Flutter enabled us to develop just one Flutter app to deploy native apps to both the Google Play and Apple app stores. Because we extensively use Google Mobile Services in our Flutter apps, we cannot now, easily deploy apps to the Huawei App Gallery.

Now that there are three platforms to which we will have to deploy our apps, especially for our African clients, we have had to adapt our workflows to build this reality into the mobile apps we develop in order to quickly adapt. But that is the nature of business and life in general, nothing stays the same, and we must adapt quickly or face extinction.

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