This is an issue Huawei is already facing, with the Play Store and other Google apps not available in newer Huawei handsets like the P40 Pro straight out of the box.
But – at the moment – there are ways for Huawei fans in the West to work round this.
Bryan Ma, vice president of devices research at IDC, told CNBC that it will tricky for Huawei to build a library of apps that appeals to Western audiences with the current trade block.
Ma said: “It won’t be easy for Huawei to build up a library of premier applications outside of China, as many of them rely on Google for things like digital rights management, location, payment, and notification services”.
While Neil Shah, research director at Counterpoint Research, added: “Outside of China, it will be struggle as most of the marquee applications come from big profile US developers — Netflix, Facebook properties (Instagram, WhatsApp), Google apps, etc — which are obviously banned to collaborate with Huawei.
“So overall, without marquee developers on board, it’s going to be a tough sell.”