Interview with Huawei CEO Richard Yu on the impact of COVID-19, the launch of the P40 series, and the continuing issues brought upon by the US ban
Today Huawei launched its latest generation of photography focused smartphone: the P40 series. This series consists of the P40, the P40 Pro …
Context & Ripple Effects
This interview lands one year into Huawei's post-ban flagship cycle. The company had already shipped the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro without Play Store apps in late 2019, and Ars Technica's earlier breakdown of Huawei's supply problems mapped how the ban hit hardware, software, and app ecosystem at once. The P40 series is the second flagship generation launched under those constraints — now compounded by COVID-19 disrupting launch logistics and demand.
First-order effects
- The P40 series reaches international buyers without Google services, repeating the Mate 30 playbook and forcing Huawei to sell the phones almost entirely on camera hardware and its own AppGallery.
Second-order effects
- Huawei must keep paying to lure developers into AppGallery, while rivals like Samsung and Xiaomi inherit the default-Android position in European retail channels where Huawei's flagships previously competed — a gap visible when the P40 Pro Plus launched internationally without Google services and reviewers flagged the missing apps as undercutting the camera lead.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Huawei's flagship line completes its software decoupling: the P50 series later ships as the first HarmonyOS flagship, meaning the ban plus AppGallery investment ends with a proprietary OS rather than a return to Google's ecosystem.
The trend: US export controls are pushing Huawei from Google-dependent Android flagships toward a self-built software stack, with each successive P-series launch marking another step in the split.