More details surface on Huawei's planned rival to Google's Play Store
This needs to work... and fast
After Google pulled Huawei's Android support for future models, the Chinese brand has been left with a big problem: how to give users of its devices access to apps, the lifeblood of the modern smartphone.
Huawei's vision is to bolster its App Gallery, and a report from Bloomberg states that it's currently trying to sweet-talk developers and networks into getting on board.
The report says Huawei is willing to offer generous revenue shares for networks to install its store on new phones - although it's uncertain whether this is all new phones, or Huawei's own models only.
The brand is also pushing for app developers to create titles for its new platform; the opportunity to gain exposure in the difficult Chinese app market being one of its key selling points, and it's also touting the power of its own-brand processing and graphical power.
All aboard the App Gallery?
To make things easier, Huawei is offering simple software for developers to tweak their apps to run on its phones, meaning they can be ported over with minimal effort. However, Microsoft offered something similar for the Windows Phone app portal, and yet couldn't maintain the momentum as phone sales stalled.
Huawei faces an increasingly tough task going forward: even if it can convince app developers to come on board in the numbers it would need to create the thriving application catalogue users demand, it would need to sell enough phones to make it cost-effective for developers to keep updating their apps.
It's something that could be done, but it will take a lot of work - and, most likely, financial incentive - to work.
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Via 9to5Google
Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.