Huawei is set to unveil its feverishly-anticipated Mate 30 Pro range tomorrow at a media event in Munich, Germany.
The new smartphone looks set to boast some exciting new hardware and software features, including a quadruple camera to enable some never-before-seen photography tricks, a futuristic new curved display, and a lightning-fast processor with built-in support for 5G networks.
However, new reports suggest the phone might not lauch in Europe, leaving fans in the UK and on the continent unable to get their hands on any Mate 30 models.
That’s according to a new report from LetsGoDigital which claims the Chinese vendor’s forthcoming Mate 30 series will “not be available in ‘Central Europe”http://feedproxy.google.com/”.
The outlet, which cites a “Huawei insider”, stated this applies to the entirety of the Mate 30 series – including Lite, standard Mate 30, and Mate 30 Pro models. LetsGoDigital has corroborated its reporting with “another reliable source”, so it seems pretty likely European smartphone fans are going to be snubbed this time around.
Huawei’s decision to abandon the UK and Europe with its next-generation Mate 30 seems to have stemmed from the handset’s lack of Google support.
More specifically, the firm’s new devices are expected to run open-source Android 10 but without a licence to run any Google apps and services. As a result, the shiny new Huawei Mate 30 Pro will not ship with the Google Play Store – so you’ll be unable to download your favourite third-party apps, including Facebook, Snapchat, Netflix, and more.
The Mate 30 will also not ship with any of Google’s own apps, like Gmail, Google Maps or YouTube, for instance.
While some of these mobile apps could theoretically be accessed from the preinstalled web browser, the experience provided would be inherently worse than on competing products.
As noted by LetsGoDigital, Huawei may have come to the conclusion “that launching an expensive high-end smartphone without Google apps is practically useless in Europe”.
That is because Google services, both on Android and iOS devices, are fundamental to user experiences in the region.
However, China is a different story since Google services do not come pre-installed on any smartphones in that market, so the Mate 30 experience will be no different from any of its Android-powered competitors.
Instead, Chinese users harness domestic services and applications from the likes of Baidu.
Huawei’s inability to launch a new smartphone with Google functions stems from the Trump administrations decision to place the firm on a trade blacklist.
This effectively prohibits US companies, such as Google, from doing business with the Chinese tech firm.
Express.co.uk is attending Huawei’s Mate 30 Pro unveiling in the German city of Munich tomorrow and will bring you every announcement live.