After the global launch of the P40 series of smartphones, Huawei is rolling out Huawei Music, Huawei Video and Huawei Reader to more markets. They’re meant to give a boost to the Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) ecosystem and the company’s app marketplace AppGallery, which Huawei is reliant on in the absence of Google apps and services.
For now, Huawei Video is available in 11 European countries as well as another 15 countries and regions around the world. The platform is partnering with BBC to bring a news category to users in 20 countries and plans to offer BBC TV shows and documentaries in the future. The free version of Huawei Music is already available in more than 90 countries, but it recently started offering a paid tier in 16 European countries for 9.99 euros (US$11) a month and is planning to add more. Huawei Reader, an ebook app, is currently available in China, Spain and Malaysia.
Despite some impressive specs for the new P40 phones, they could still be a hard sell without any Google apps or services. To try to solve its app dilemma, Huawei has also been courting local app makers and searching for replacements. Huawei says HMS is now being used by 400 million users in 170 countries and regions, but it’s unknown just how many of those users are outside China.