Huawei phones compete favorably with Samsung and Apple in the global market. But the recent geopolitical furor between the company and the government of US is casting shadow on it rise. Can the company do without Google Mobile Service (GMS)? 2020 is a tough year for the tech giant as it battles this ban. The firm’s decision to halt bootloader unlock for its latest devices, is irking many users. Will this crisis affect their buying decision?
Last year, the Trump administration banned U.S. companies from providing technology to this Chinese firm.
The New ‘GMS’-less Huawei Phones
The fallout of this sanction is that Huawei new phones- including its Enjoy Z 5G can no longer come factory-loaded with Google Mobile Service (GMS). Google Mobile Services (GMS) is a collection of Google applications and services that help support functionality across devices. These apps work together seamlessly to ensure your device provides a great user experience right out of the box.
Apps like Play Store, Gmail, Chrome, Search and even Map need GMS in order for them to work. The apps can be side-loaded, but bear in mind that they won’t work the way they are meant to without ROM flashing.
Fans’ Reaction
What this meant for consumers is that, they won’t be able to enjoy these Google apps that usually come pre-installed on their Android phones. Rather than ditching Android completely, Huawei continues to use the open source core Android operating system on its devices. Huawei Mate 30 Pro, and Enjoy Z 5G are among devices impacted by the ban.
While some users may do well without this suite of Google apps, the question remains, whether majority of these customers will abandon the familiar Google experience, for different apps that Huawei might replace them with. This is an import purchasing decision many customers will have to consider in the future.
Huawei’s decision to stop bootloader unlocking
Beginning in 2018, Huawei’s form for making request on bootloader unlock code was taken down from their official website. The website has this notification below.
“In order to deliver the best user experience and prevent users from experiencing possible issues that could arise from ROM flashing, including system failure, stuttering, worsened battery performance, and risk of data being compromised, Huawei will cease providing bootloader unlock codes for devices launched after May 25, 2018….”
Huawei’s passionate supporters have expressed mixed reaction to this decision. Threads on social media are running hot with comments from Huawei fans who now declare they will jump ship to other brands.
Many Android phones become unusable as a result of glitch encountered during unlocking. One can understand that a company wouldn’t want people diddling with the basics of a device because it leads to frequent product returns to service center.
Going Forward
Since only a relatively small number of Android users ever cared about unlocking their phone bootloader, the overall impact on their future sale, from this restriction will be barely visible
Huawei phones remain globally competitive because of good hardware and consumer-friendly prices even without the Google mobile service. The company has planed to own its search tool, and also to partner with TomTom on a new Mapping solution. The move to develop Harmony OS for it devices is to challenge Google’s Android OS, which it currently uses. There is much to expect from the company in future to come.