Huawei signs up TomTom for Google Maps app alternative

In May 2019, President Donald Trump-government issued a gag order banning trade between the Huawei and Google, Microsoft and other domestic companies. This move meant the Chinese company would no longer use Android and Windows OS for its Android mobiles and PCs, respectively.

Later, Trump gave a partial reprieve for the affected companies to make alternate arrangements in 90 days. So far, the US President has extended the ban thrice and is expected to end in February 2020.

But, Huawei believing the US-China trade talks would eventually fail, announced its proprietary HarmonyOS in August 2019, which it claims can integrate seamlessly with PCs, phones, smart wearables and other future consumer-electronics products.

With grace period about to end in a few weeks, Huawei has announced to have signed a deal with Amsterdam-based company TomTom, to offer navigation (& realtime traffic data) service, the Google Maps alternative for its future mobiles.

We have come to understand that Huawei is going ahead to steadily decrease the reliance on Google Mobile Service (GMS), which includes Android, Gmail, YouTube, and Google Maps, but, it will be in stages.

Read more | Trump effect: Huawei brings Google Android-alternate OS

It is expected to bring the proprietary Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) in a couple or three months most probably with Huawei P40 series phone launch.

Top Huawei officials have confirmed to DH that the company has plans to offer incentives in the form of cash rewards to Indian developers to create mobile applications for the company's HarmonyOS ecosystem.

HarmonyOS (Credit:Huawei)

It can be noted that Huawei, which has gained a strong foothold in China, is steadily increasing its market share in Europe, the Middle East, and India. It has already toppled Apple as the world's second-biggest mobile company was touted to dethrone the leader Samsung in a few years.

Must read | After Google's snub, what Huawei's next move will be?

However, Trump's order put Huawei under stress in mid-2019. Now, Huawei has its task cut out to make HarmonyOS stable and has enough apps, most importantly match the quality of Google apps in the ecosystem before the official roll-out.

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