Huawei: Google’s already lost 50% of Android app users’ attention

Huawei has taken a swipe at Google’s Play Store claiming users, phone makers and developers are hungry for an alternative marketplace.

Huawei director Jerry Huang claimed Google’s hold on developers and consumers is not as strong  as most people believe during a briefing attended by Trusted Reviews.

“We know developers are working on GMS Core to get on Google and iOS core for the Apple App Store. This is the current business model they’re working to. You’re either Google or Apple,” he said.

“We asked, are they satisfied with that? We see today with Google there’s around 2.9 million apps [on Play Store] and everyday 6000 more are released. Huge numbers. However, the reality is that 50% of users are downloading zero apps a month, so they’re not interested in new releases. Millions of apps, zero downloads.”

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He added the firm has since crunched the numbers about regular app usage at a local, granular level to make sure its new AppGallery store is optimised and doesn’t repeat the Play Store’s mistakes and focuses on quality not quantity.

“So we asked how many apps do people need? We found they need around 80, on average, some need less some need more, but that’s the average. Half of these are pre-installed on smartphones. So on average people choose to download 30-40. We wanted to know what those were” he said.

AppGallery is the new app store set to appear on all new Huawei phones, including the firm’s newly unveiled Huawei P40 flagship line.

Huang said the firm is using its local connections in key territories to tailor its app offering to meet specific region’s needs.

“Huawei is offering an alternative system for developers to work with HMS Core for AppGallery. [For developers] we have a unique strength compared to Google and Apple; we have a global market. We’re the second largest phone maker and are huge in China. We know retailers, channel partners, networks [others don’t],” he said.

“With our strong local know-how we think we can help developers earn business and engage local consumers.”

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Huang highlighted the firm’s success partnering with the Unity games engine, BBC and TomTom maps as evidence of AppGallery’s appeal.

“Since May we are working very hard to get a technical team to build the HMS Core platform. We grew 500% in terms of apps on AppGallery. We have today over 3000 software engineers dedicated to HMS Core as a platform and roughly 270 local technical support engineers in local markets to help local developers,” he said.

Despite his claim, Huang admitted the firm still only has roughly 3000 apps actually on its store, but added that “many” more will appear in the near future.