Huawei Mobile Services held its first Asia Pacific HUAWEI Developer Day (AHDD) on November 13, 2019, in Singapore together with over 150 of its industry partners from the respective region. The event saw Huawei dispensing its vision of building an open ecosystem – an all-scenario, seamlessly connected digital living supported by progressive technologies such as its own Huawei Mobile Services open capabilities, HUAWEI devices, 5G Networks, and AI-powered apps.
The strength of Huawei continues to grow in the global market. It is currently the second-largest smartphone supplier in the world, with a gigantic 200 million-plus units sold from January till October 2019. Other Huawei products are also not far behind and are seeing a stable increase compared to last year – PC (+214%), smart audio (+233%), and the wearable (+272%).
Huawei is using its ecosystem’s ‘1+8+N’ approach to helps its patterners to expedite the digital innovation by integrating their businesses onto its platform. Under the ‘1+8+N’ strategy, the smartphone serves as One (1) center, and HUAWEI’s Ecosystem partners connect across Eight (8) supporting devices to create a fully-connected IoT environment consisting of Endless (N) services.
With the Huawei mobile services at the center between devices, apps, and end-users, The Huawei Ecosystem maximizes user experience. Huawei consumer cloud services president, Zhang Ping’an hopes to combine this ecosystem with Huawei’s 5G network, AI-powered system, and cloud computing solution to establish a seamless AI living for all.
Serving more than 570 million global users in over 170 countries, Huawei is setting a footprint in the global market. As of 2019 Q3, HMS has achieved 390 million global monthly active users on HUAWEI AppGallery, with more than 180 billion total app downloads within a year since it started the global service in 2018.
A whopping 1.07 million developers worldwide are currently registered with Huawei Mobile Services (HMS), with more than 50,000 apps already integrated into HMS Core, which helps create an app that is compatible with all Huawei devices.
Various services such as Huawei ID, Mobile Cloud, HUAWEI AppGallery, Themes, HUAWEI Music and HUAWEI Assistant are provided by HMS in the APAC markets.
Plans the keep up the momentum are already in place in order to provide more comprehensive services for the partners. Zhang Ping’an stated that more resources will be opened to the APAC markets to help app developers and content providers to distribute their services globally.
Some of the HMS’ services available in APAC markets are:
- AppGallery is HUAWEI’s official app distribution platform that covers 170 countries and regions with 390 million Monthly Active Users (MAU) since it started global service in April 2018.
- HUAWEI Browser covers over 200 MAUs. Apps can be integrated with the HUAWEI Ability Gallery feature and provides direct services through the HUAWEI Browser.
- HUAWEI Assistant offers personalized newsfeeds, calendar reminders and more. The app developers can connect their services into HUAWEI Assistant to reach its 160 million MAUs.
- HUAWEI Mobile Cloud is scheduled to be launched in APAC markets starting from Nov 2019, with free 5GB cloud storage.
- Quick App allows users access to the app without downloading it. Currently, there are 2,500 developers who have connected their services into this platform with more than 1,000 quick apps released in the China market. The Quick App IDE is now available to global developers.
Chipset-Device-Cloud Synergy for Businesses to Achieve More with HMS
To facilitate the growth of its smart ecosystem, HMS has opened up its chipset-device-cloud abilities to global developers via the HUAWEI Developer website. This platform grants developers full access to developer services including HMS Core, HMS Capabilities, and HMS Connect.
HMS Core is a series of software development frameworks that allow developers to create a version of the HUAWEI device-compatible app. These kits shorten the process of developing the app at a lower cost.
A maximum of 24 HMS core packages, 55 products, and 997 APIs will be available on APAC markets by 2020 as announced during the event. Map Pack, Position K are among the new HMS Core services.
HMS Core also includes app extension and system monetization value-added features. For instance, the newly opened Analytics Kit could generate a particular app’s key data insights. From there, their software configuration can be formulated by the device manager. HUAWEI Map Kit supports real-time road condition monitoring and easy map customization covering 150 countries in 40 languages.
HUAWEI Ability Gallery, a unified platform for integration and distribution of services, aggregates AI-powered distribution system traffic across platforms. The service can be distributed via multiple touchpoints on HUAWEI devices such as HUAWEI Assistant, HUAWEI Browser, HUAWEI HiVoice, once integrated into the HUAWEI Ability Gallery.
More than 5,000 third-party services have currently connected to the China market’s HUAWEI Ability Gallery, covering 117 applications in 14 categories. In December 2019, this feature will be launched worldwide.
Tapping onto HUAWEI’s Developer Alliance to Further Growth
As previously announced, the HUAWEI Shining-Star Program has spent a total of USD 1 billion to help mobile app developers around the world. The Shining-Star Program will provide AI, AR / VR, and IoT-related apps and services with education, technical support, and marketing tools. Developers eligible for the initiative may receive incentive funding for development innovation, user growth, marketing, and other aspects.
The HUAWEI Developer Day (HDD) will take place throughout the region in different cities. To empower developers with the open capabilities of HUAWEI, the HDD covers technical workshops, tech-trend analysis, case studies, and the latest industry insights.
Furthermore, the launch of the DigiX Lab in Singapore is scheduled for early 2020. This lab is equipped with HMS Core, AR, VR, AI, CameraKit, HUAWEI Ability Gallery and other open capabilities for remote testing of their services by mobile app developers.
As part of the Shining-Star initiative, there are also student incubation programs such as the DigiX Geek Contest, AI internship, and campus ambassador. The organization aims to foster innovation among young developers to grow the HUAWEI ecosystem continuously.
Zhang Ping’ an assured that Huawei Mobile Services is committed to enhancing their collaborations with industry players to build a fully connected future. He stated that they will continue to foster and help mobile app developers ‘ creativity and provide their customers with high-quality content.
