We’ve heard this story of Google partnering with Huawei before and today The Information is adding more fuel to it. While previous information stated that Google would be turning to long-time partner LG as well as new buddy Huawei for the Nexus smartphones this year, it looks like going forward Huawei’s mention in the whole project will be getting more solid.
Huawei is said to be looking to Google to help it push its first Android Wear smartwatch, the Huawei Watch, in key Western markets. Huawei’s insistence on positioning its gorgeous Watch as the go-to device in key smartwatch markets is said to be based on the fact that Google is working on Android Wear integration with iOS. By the time that is rolled out, Huawei Watch will likely be just a few days old in the market since it is yet to go on sale anywhere. With its premium design profile, it could benefit immensely from members of the iPhone crowd interested in giving Android Wear a spin in place of the costly Apple Watch. In return for all those favours, Huawei gets to churn out Google’s Nexus smartphones.
Huawei Watch aside, getting the chance to make the next Nexus smartphone could be pivotal to Huawei’s efforts to break into the US consumer device market and also boost its image in the West which has been severely hurt by allegations that it could be a source of backdoors that transmit data back to Beijing and hence could not be trusted. Huawei is one of the biggest smartphone vendors on the planet and making the next Nexus guarantees it not just brand visibility which it already has but the support of the diehard backers of the Android platform who are the most likely people to flock the Play Store and order a Nexus device within minutes of its availability.
