Huawei lost access to Google Play Services with the US trade ban that was instituted last year, and that has some consequences that you probably don't think about at first. Obviously missing the Play Store is the biggest problem, but it also affects other functions of a smartphone. Gmail support is worse without the native app, YouTube gets limited since it'll only be available through a browser, but, most notably, navigation gets broken without Google Maps.
Huawei thinks they have a solution for Google Maps, however. The company has announced a partnership with TomTom for mapping data to replace Google.
Now don't expect TomTom to be able to match Google Maps perfectly, or you'll set yourself up for a mini-Apple Maps 2.0 fiasco. But between TomTom and just not doing anything to try and get better map data, this move makes perfect sense. And with TomTom being a Dutch company, this trade ban won't cause any more waves with this partnership.
Huawei has declined to give any more details about the deal, but it's apparently been in the works for some time. It should at least keep their phones functional outside of China, even if they're not perfect. It'll buy them some time to try and get this trade ban situation figured out, too.
source: Reuters
