HUAWEI Mobile Services (HMS) recently held its first APAC HUAWEI Developer Day (AHDD) in Singapore, together with over 150 of its industry partners from all over the APAC region. At the event, HUAWEI shared 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.
HUAWEI Consumer Business Group continues to grow strong in the global market. HUAWEI is the second-largest smartphone supplier in the world, with shipment exceeding 200 million units from January till October 2019. The shipments of other HUAWEI products also see a steady increase compared to last year – PC (+214%), smart audio (+233%), and the wearable (+272%).
“It is timely for us to introduce the HUAWEI Ecosystem as we have now evolved to a mature phase after 30 years in the industry. The HUAWEI Ecosystem is rooted in HUAWEI Mobile Services and aligned with our ‘1+8+N’ strategy. It helps our partners to expedite the digital innovation by integrating their businesses onto our platform.” said Zhang Ping’an, President, HUAWEI Consumer Cloud Service.
Under the ‘1+8+N’ strategy, the smartphone serves as One (1) centre, and HUAWEI’s Ecosystem partners connect across Eight (8) supporting devices to create a fully-connected IoT environment consisting of Endless (N) services.
“In the HUAWEI Ecosystem, HUAWEI Mobile Services is the coordination and management centre between devices, apps and end-users that maximises user experience. Together with HUAWEI’s 5G network, AI-powered system and cloud computing solution, we strive to establish a seamless AI living for all,” continued Zhang Ping’an.
HUAWEI Mobile Services Continues Its Steady Growth in Global Markets
The HUAWEI Ecosystem is set to continue strengthening HUAWEI Mobile Services’ footprint in the global markets. It serves more than 570 million global users in over 170 countries to date. 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.
Currently, there are also over 1.07 million global developers registered with HMS, with more than 50,000 apps already integrated into HMS Core, which helps to create a version of an app that is compatible with all HUAWEI devices.
In APAC markets, HMS currently provides a variety of services such as HUAWEI ID, Mobile Cloud, HUAWEI AppGallery, Themes, HUAWEI Music and HUAWEI Assistant.
“To keep up the momentum, plans are already in place to provide more comprehensive services for the partners. More resources will be opened to the APAC markets, to help app developers and content providers to distribute their services globally,” said Zhang Ping’an.
Some of the HMS’ services available in APAC markets are:
- AppGalleryis 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 Browsercovers over 200 MAUs. Apps can be integrated with HUAWEI Ability Gallery feature and provides direct services through the HUAWEI Browser.
- HUAWEI Assistantoffers personalised newsfeeds, calendar reminders and more. The app developers can connect their services into HUAWEI Assistant to reach its 160 million MAUs.
- HUAWEI Mobile Cloudis scheduled to be launched in APAC markets starting from Nov 2019, with free 5GB cloud storage.
- Quick Appallows 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 HUAWEI Developer website. This platform grants developers full access to developer services including HMS Core, HMS Capabilities, and HMS Connect.
“HUAWEI’s Chipset-Device-Cloud synergy combines the software and hardware integration tools for developers to efficiently connect their services into our ecosystem. HMS consists of all-scenario capabilities to support an app from development and testing to promotion and monetisation. In our ecosystem, the developer only needs to integrate their app once, then distribute the service across HUAWEI smart devices and meet the global users. We hope developers could focus on innovation and accelerate the app development process by leveraging on our open capabilities,” said Zhang Ping’an.
As announced during the event, a total of 24 HMS Core kits, 55 services and 997 APIs will be available in APAC markets by 2020. Among the new HMS Core services are Map Kit, Location Kit, Awareness Kit, Scan Kit, Quick App and more, in response to various development scenarios.
HMS Core also covers value-added functions for user expansion and service monetisation. For example, the newly-opened Analytics Kit could generate key data insights of a particular app. From there, the app owner can formulate their application optimisation. Covering 150 countries in 40 languages, HUAWEI Map Kit supports real-time road condition monitoring and easy customisation of the map.
HUAWEI Ability Gallery, a unified platform for integrating and distributing services, aggregates traffics across platforms leveraging on the AI-powered distribution system. Once integrated to HUAWEI Ability Gallery, the service can be distributed through multiple touchpoints on HUAWEI devices such as HUAWEI Assistant, HUAWEI Browser, HUAWEI HiVoice.
At present, more than 5,000 third-party services have connected to HUAWEI Ability Gallery in the China market, covering 117 apps in 14 categories. This feature will be launched globally in December 2019.
Tapping onto HUAWEI’s Developer Alliance to Further Growth
As announced earlier, a total of USD 1 billion has been invested in the HUAWEI Shining-Star Program to support mobile app developers all around the world. Shining-Star Program will provide training, innovation supports and marketing resources to apps and services relating to AI, AR/VR, and IoT. Developers who are eligible for the programme will receive incentive supports for development innovation, user growth, marketing and other aspects.
HUAWEI Developer Day (HDD) will be held in different cities across the region. The HUAWEI Developer Day (HDD) covers technical workshops, tech-trend analysis, case studies and the latest industry insights to empower developers with HUAWEI’s open capabilities.
Additionally, the DigiX Lab in Singapore is scheduled to be launched early 2020. This laboratory is equipped with HMS Core, AR, VR, AI, CameraKit, HUAWEI Ability Gallery and other open capabilities for mobile app developers to test their services remotely.
There are also student incubation programmes such as DigiX Geek Contest, AI internship and campus ambassador to be rolled out under the Shining-Star initiative. The company aims to encourage innovation among young developers to continuously develop the HUAWEI Ecosystem.
“HUAWEI Mobile Services is committed to strengthen our partnerships with the industry players to build a fully-connected future. We will continue to foster and support the innovation of mobile app developers and bring high-quality content to our users,” said Zhang Ping’an.
For more information, please visit https://consumer.HUAWEI.com/en/mobileservices/