Despite the problems that they faced with the previous U.S administration, Huawei is still doing pretty well in other spaces aside from its smartphone and wireless business. Its wearables for instance are doing pretty well and might even do better as they have now announced that their smartwatch OS, LiteOS, will now be opening up for third-party app developers. This means that Huawei smartwatch owners will finally be able to have apps on their wearable that were not created by the Chinese OEM.
In case you didn’t know it, Huawei smartwatches ran on their own proprietary software called LiteOS. This meant that all the apps running on the wearables were proprietary as well. Given that they have been doing pretty well sales-wise, this is probably something that didn’t bother users that much. But of course, you would always want to explore other apps especially as there are some great 3rd-party developers out there.
XDA Developers says that Huawei announced they are now opening up LiteOS for those who would want to create apps for their smartwatches. To kick things off, they have released the fitness app Fitify for the Watch GT 2 Pro. The app brings tons of workout routines and training plans for users who want to be healthier and get more fit. No news yet if it will be available for other Huawei smartwatches but that should probably eventually follow.
Huawei said they are willing to work with independent developers and brands to create apps or bring their existing apps to their wearables. Derek Yu, VP Huawei CEE & Nordic at the Huawei Consumer Business Group encouraged developers to be part of the Huawei AppGallery and wearables ecosystem as they have shipped 10.7 million wrist wearable products in the third quarter of 2020 alone.
Huawei will also be offering operational support solution for app content providers that will cover from ideation, development, distribution, operation, and data analytics. They have also come up with integration kits so developers will be able to fully take advantage of the AppGallery listing for the time when their app is finally released.
