Huawei races to replace Google apps for next smartphone

If you can make smartphone apps, Chinese tech giant Huawei wants you. . 2 global smartphone brand is struggling to hold onto its market after Washington accused Huawei of being a security risk and blocked access to U.S. components and techlogy.

That includes YouTube and or popular Google “core apps” customers expect on new phones. y will be missing from global rollout of Huawei’s next model, P40, due out in March, replaced by its own music, payment and or apps.

Huawei Techlogies Ltd., along with every or smartphone brand except Apple Inc., relies on Google’s Android operating system. So it's scouring world for replacements. At events for developers from New Delhi to Warsaw to Sao Paulo, Huawei is promising cash rewards if y meet a deline Friday to get apps onto its online store.

company says it will invest $1.5 billion in app development. It faces an expensive, uphill struggle to create alternatives to Google-centered world of music, navigation and or apps, according to industry experts. Ors including kia and Microsoft have tried and failed to create ir own mobile ecosystems.

Creating “diverse apps” is a “really challenging task to Huawei,” said chairman Guo Ping in videotaped comments released by company.

Huawei, also world’s biggest maker of switching gear for phone networks, rejects U.S. accusations it might facilitate Chinese spying. Chinese officials accuse Washington of using phoney security claims to hurt a commercial rival.

Trump ministration also is pressing European and or allies to exclude Huawei switching gear from next-generation telecom networks.

conflict has fed fears techlogy industries might split into Chinese, U.S. and or spheres with incompatible products.

Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, has said it wants to stay in a unified global industry and work with Google and or U.S. partners.

Android system is open-source, meaning phone brands use it for free but most also pay Google for “core apps” and software to support m.

Huawei can keep using Android but is blocked from buying those “core apps” for pre-installation. That threatens to cripple Huawei’s ability to compete with market leer Samsung and or Android-based phones.

Consumers expect “well-kwn apps that ir peers are using,” such as Google Maps, said Thomas Husson, a principal analyst for Forrester, in an email. “It would require massive investment to convince developers to develop for a new eco-system and a lot of marketing efforts."

Huawei alrey sells phones without Google “core apps” in China, where ruling Communist Party’s internet filters block access to YouTube, Google search engine and thousands of or foreign websites. Inste, Huawei phones come with Chinese search engine Baidu.com, video service Youku.com and or local apps.

But Huawei competes on a level playing field in China with competitors that face same restrictions. In or foreign markets ors have popular Google pack.

For P40, Huawei has signed an agreement for developers to use maps from a Dutch provider, TomTom. Details of or services have yet to be anunced.

In response to questions, Huawei said executives would talk to reporters next month at Mobile World Congress, industry’s biggest annual event. chief executive of Huawei’s consumer unit, Richard Yu, told reporters in December P40 would be launched in Paris in late March, using Android inste of Huawei’s HarmonyOS operating system, which it unveiled last year.

HarmonyOS is based on code developed for or Huawei devices and could replace Android if needed. But company wants to keep working with Google, which has spent more than a dece improving Android with input from Huawei and or companies.

Replacing Google apps is “a massive undertaking for any company,” said Dermot Daly, chief executive of Tapoo, an Irish app developer that isn’t working for Huawei.

Huawei Mobile Services offers some 45,000 apps. But that is barely 1.5% of 3 million titles on Google Play Store, where most Android users get apps.

Huawei needs to replace Google code that supports video and or features, said Daly. n it needs to persue developers to apt apps to run on Huawei’s new code.

“y’re t building from scratch, but y face a big technical hurdle,” said Daly. “Becoming a world-class software maker is a massive challenge.”

kia Corp. took a similar approach with its first smartphone a dece ago but failed to attract eugh apps for its system, said, Daly. He said Microsoft Corp. tried again after acquiring kia’s mobile phone unit in 2013 but faced similar lack of developer interest.

Such difficulties highlight dominance of U.S. app providers and very grual emergence of global alternatives.

For music, Sweden’s Spotify or France’s Deezer may come preloed on phones, depending on deals with local phone carriers, said Forrester’s Husson. Or options include China’s TikTok for video, Russia’s Yandex for search and email or OsmAnd and MapQuest for navigation, though ne is as highly developed as Google or Apple services.

search goes on: At an event in New Delhi, Huawei promised $20,000 per app for development costs, according to newspaper Ecomic Times.

In London, website Telecom.com said developers were promised a 20,000 pound ($26,000) reward if y meet a Jan. 31 delines. A video released by Huawei said company has set aside $10 million to subsidize app writers in Poland.

Huawei says its 2019 sales rose 18% to $122 billion. But it warned smartphone business, which shipped 240 million handsets last year in 170 countries, could suffer.

Trump ministration has postponed full enforcement of sanctions after U.S. processor chip makers and or vendors warned y would lose billions of dollars in sales. But Ren, company founder, has said Huawei expects m to go ahe.

Huawei has one of world's biggest research-and-development budgets and ramped up spending on developing its own chips and or techlogy long before running afoul of Washington.

It spent more than $15 billion last year — more than Apple or Microsoft — and a total of 485 billion yuan ($65 billion) over dece before that. Industry analysts say company is increasingly self-sufficient in chips and or components.

Huawei has yet to confirm details of P40, but news reports suggest it will run on company's Kirin 990 chip inste of one from Qualcomm or Intel. That reduces risks of supply disruptions.

“We will become more open and work with our partners around world to develop secure, sustainable and thriving eco-systems,” said Guo, its chairman.

At same time, Huawei is trying to persue Cana to release its chief financial officer. She is being held in Vancouver on U.S. charges related to a possible violation of tre sanctions on Iran.

Ren, who founded Huawei in 1987, expresses confidence it can withstand U.S. pressure.

“ United States might furr escalate ir campaign against Huawei, but I feel impact on Huawei’s business won’t be very significant,” Ren said during an appearance at World Ecomic Forum in Switzerland. “I think we are more confident that we can survive furr attacks.”