Late last year in September, Huawei launched its latest Mate series of flagship smartphones. However, owing to the political situation between the company and the USA, it was forced to release the Mate 30 series without the most crucial part of Android — Google Play Services. At the time, Huawei had no alternative to the proprietary Google Mobile Services (GMS). But soon thereafter, the company revealed its own Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) and HMS Core. To provide location and mapping services, HMS Core included Location Kit and Map Kit — which are alternatives to Google's Fused Location Provider and Maps SDK. However, the company still didn't have access to Google's mapping data. Now, according to a recent report from Reuters, the company has partnered up with TomTom for its mapping services.

As per the report, Dutch navigation and digital mapping company TomTom revealed that it has closed a deal with Huawei Technology for the use of its maps and services in apps. The deal will give Huawei access to TomTom's maps, traffic information, and navigation software, which will allow the company to develop apps for its smartphones. TomTom's spokesperson Remco Meerstra revealed that the deal had been closed some time ago, but had not been made public by the company. However, Meerstra refused to provide any additional details regarding the agreement. Huawei is expected to launch its next flagship range of smartphones — the Huawei P40 series — later this year in March. The upcoming devices will utilize TomTom's mapping data and any default Maps application that Huawei offers on its future devices will likely use TomTom's maps.


Source: Reuters