During President Trump’s first term, American companies were forbidden from working with Huawei, which effectively cut off its access to the Play Store and services. Now Trump is back in office and has started another trade war with China – so rumors are swirling that Chinese smartphone makers are looking for a backup plan in case they follow the same fate as Huawei.
Speaking of Huawei, it built its own platform, HarmonyOS. And now Xiaomi, Oppo, vivo and OnePlus along with Huawei are allegedly exploring building a Google-free version of Android.
Rumor has it that HyperOS 3 will start laying the groundwork for such a move. It’s not quite clear how much the different brands will collaborate on this project or what Huawei’s involvement will be.
Huawei went as far as removing Android app compatibility from its platform. Would Xiaomi and company do the same – and will they adopt Huawei’s Ark Compiler, Petal Maps, etc.? That remains unclear for now.
Global market share by company (image source)
Based on the most recent statistics, Xiaomi is the biggest phone maker in China, followed closely by Huawei, then it’s Oppo and vivo in third and fourth place. These companies accounted for two-thirds of smartphones shipped in China in Q1 this year. While Huawei lost its global dominance, Xiaomi, vivo and Oppo are in the Top 5 globally, so if they start selling Google-free phones it would have a major impact on the market.