What you need to know
- Huawei aims to fill the void left by the Play Store by simply pre-installing the most popular apps on its phones before they're sold.
- The P40 may be among the first smartphones to test this strategy.
- The list of apps installed will vary between regions.
Huawei is looking to create its own alternative to Google Mobile Services, complete with an app store and everything. It's even got other Chinese smartphone makers, such as Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo, to sign up to its Global Developer Service Alliance, which allows each company to prop up its own app store over the Play Store.
Yet, even with all those machinations in the works, there's no denying that the U.S. ban on its phones has taken a massive toll on the company's ability to sell its phones outside China. And though flustering international sales have been more than compensated by increased sales in the company's homeland, it obviously needs some sort of solution.
And so while it continues working on making a viable Play Store alternative, in the meantime, it's hoping to preinstall the 70 most popular apps on its phones. If you can't bring the user to the app store, then you must bring the apps to the user, as they say.
The list of apps selected will vary depending on the region in which the smartphones are to be sold, and will be based on the Play Store's listing of top apps.
The strategy, which comes courtesy of Mobiltelefon.ru, will be extensively tested in the coming months, with the Russian publication claiming that Huawei will "overwhelm us" with up to nine new phones in the next four months. Among these will be the Huawei Y7p and P40 Lite. And if the Lite variant is getting the treatment, it's reasonable to assume that the full P40 series, expected to debut sometime next month, may also feature these sideloaded apps.
Whoever knew a company installing bloatware on its phones would actually be seen as the solution to a company's flagging sales one day?
