The recently announced Honor 20 Pro may appear a lot later than planned. Due to persistent problems with Huawei, the device has not yet been approved by Google. A new release date is still unknown.
Honor 20 Pro release postponed
The Honor 20 Pro will not appear in Europe for the time being, reports the French 01Net. The device was announced on Tuesday but is not yet certified by Google. Due to the trade ban of the US government, it is unclear whether and when Google may still approve the device.
Originally the Honor 20 Pro would appear in the united states at the beginning of July. The release date has now been postponed to an unknown date ‘in the future’. The Honor 20, a slightly cheaper version with a less impressive camera, has already been approved and will probably appear according to schedule next month.
Honor is a sub-brand of Huawei. That Chinese company is currently in heavy weather. The US government has put Huawei on the black trade list. This means that Google, Qualcomm, and other companies may no longer have any business contact with each other. Before an Android smartphone has the Play Store, it must first be inspected by Google. Those inspections may now no longer happen, so Huawei can only release devices without Android apps.
There is a good chance that the device will get a release date in the short term. On Tuesday it was announced that the ban will be suspended for three months, so that ‘current cases’ can be dealt with. In theory, Google and Huawei can make agreements as usual until the end of August.
Huawei is working on a solution
However, this also has its hooks: American companies may not be able to discuss new agreements or products with Huawei even with the temporary suspension. It is still unclear whether the Honor 20 Pro falls under current affairs, as part of Google’s long-term collaboration with Huawei, or as a new product.
Nevertheless, this delayed release is a taste of the new relationships in the mobile world. As long as the ban is in place, Huawei cannot introduce any Android smartphone with Google software. For flagships that appear this fall, such as the Mate 30, Huawei must, therefore, look for a different solution. Huawei says it is working on its own operating system, Hongmeng OS. This is based on Android and therefore supports almost all existing Android apps in theory. Huawei claims that Hongmeng can be supplied on smartphones from this fall.