Competition in the smartphone industry has never been more intense, especially when it comes to the West against the East. The latest in a long line of power plays sees Chinese giants Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi and Vivo forming a new combined platform to contest the dominance caused by the Google Play Store.
This new partnership, called the Global Developer Service Alliance (GDSA), aims to offer an alternative for both consumers and app devs to purchase and distribute apps, movies, music and the like on the Play Store, which many would know isn’t readily available in China.
It is interesting to note that Google services are still available on three of the four smartphone companies, with Huawei being the exception following its ongoing ban from last year. As such, it makes sense to develop the GDSA for Huawei, at least, who, in recent months, has been gradually on the incline to prominence once more with the development of its own operating system in HarmonyOS, as well as the commercial success of the Huawei Mate 30 series.
And as many would also know, this would certainly boost options for app developers especially, who are no doubt looking to port their latest apps to more platforms other than Google and Apple, and perhaps the GDSA could provide a cost-effective alternative.
“By forming this alliance each company will be looking to leverage the others’ advantages in different regions, with Xiaomi’s strong user base in India, Vivo and Oppo in Southeast Asia, and Huawei in Europe,” said Nicole Peng, VP of Mobility at mobile industry analyst firm Canalys (via Reuters).
Having allegedly been in development since 2019, the GDSA was planned to be released to the public in March 2020 across nine regions, including Indonesia, India, and Russia, but Reuters also reports that the launch could be delayed due to the recent outbreak of the coronavirus.
Currently, all four companies have declined to comment on the development of the GDSA.
Marion has a serious RPG addiction. Sometimes it bleeds into real life; he forgets to sleep because he thinks he has a Witcher’s body clock. Forgive him in advance if he suddenly blurts out terms such as “Mind Flayer” and “Magic Missile”, because never once does he stop thinking about his next Dungeons & Dragons game.
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