Huawei launches first phone without Google apps

Chinese tech giant Huawei launched its latest high-end smartphone in Munich on Thursday, the first of its mobile devices not to carry popular Google apps.

"Today because of the US ban... we cannot pre-install Google's applications,” said Richard Yu, who heads Huawei's consumer business group, as he unveiled the group's latest Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro models.

Huawei's "Mate 30 Pro", the latest smartphone by the Chinese tech giant Huawei is displayed after a presentation to reveal Huawei's latest smartphones "Mate 30" and "Mate 30 Pro" in Munich, Germany, September 19, 2019. [Photo: AFP/Christof Stache]

But heading off fears that a phone without popular apps like Whatsapp, YouTube or Google Maps could not succeed, he stressed that the equivalent platform by the Chinese giant offered a choice of 45,000 apps through the Huawei App Gallery.

Yu added that the Chinese giant was investing US$1 billion (900,000 euros) into its Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) core software ecosystem, as he urged app developers to bring their creations to the system.

Huawei, targeted directly by the United States as part of a broader trade tensions with China, was added to a "blacklist" in Washington in May.

As a result, the new Mate will run on a freely available version of Android, the world's most-used phone operating system that is owned by the search engine heavyweight.

(Story includes material sourced from AFP.)