With the US cracking down and banning Huawei, the Chinese tech company has had to become a bit creative in sourcing partners for certain features for their phones. Previously, Huawei partnered with Google to provide Huawei users with the navigation tools and functions within Google Maps. Since becoming blacklisted in the US over privacy concerns, Huawei lost that partnership.
According to Engadget, Huawei will now partner with TomTom, a development company based in the Netherlands. TomTom, most notorious for their GPS devices, have also developed apps for mobile devices. The TomTom GPS Navigation includes the standard fare in regards to navigational tools including live traffic updates.
Per Engadget’s report, the deal was finalized some time ago but was only announced now. The representative from TomTom’s Remco Meerstra declined to go into any further details regarding the newly formed partnership.
Huawei’s blacklist in the US barred the company from forging any deals with any American companies. This included the partnerships made with Google. Following the blacklist, Huawei was unable to utilize any hardware or software provided by Google including the Play Store, YouTube, and of course, Google Maps.
The partnership between Huawei and TomTom plugs only one of the many holes made by the lack of Google support. The Chinese manufacturer is continuing to develop its own alternatives and focus on getting a wider western audience to use its AppGallery.
