Huawei isn’t letting the last-minute cancellation of Mobile World Congress stand in the way of its 2020 launch plans. Amid the extraordinary circumstances stemming from the novel coronavirus now dubbed COVID-19, Chinese telecom giant Huawei is pushing forward with plans for its latest generation of flagship phones, the Huawei P40 and P40 Pro, which will be unveiled in Paris on March 26 with an expected release date soon after. Just like its predecessor the P30 series, the upcoming premium phones won’t feature Google’s suite of services (which includes Google Play Store, Gmail, Google Maps and so on) nor will it have the full might of Google’s Android operating system behind it due to the ongoing trade ban with the US. Instead, the phones are expected to operate yet again on Android’s generic open-source operating system and consumers will have to download apps via Huawei’s App Gallery as a substitute for the Google Play Store, which isn’t the case for fellow Chinese phone makers such as Realme.
It is worth noting however that Huawei seems to have a plan to wean the company off its reliance on Google. According to Reuters, Huawei has banded up with Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo to build a challenger to the Google Play Store known as the Global Developer Service Alliance — and it too will reportedly launch in March.
The launch of the P40 handsets will mark Huawei’s second and latest flagship launch since the US slapped the Chinese telecom giant with an export ban last May. But until official announcements are made in the coming weeks, we leave you the with the most credible rumors of the much-awaited Huawei P40 and Huawei P40 Pro
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