Huawei Is Developing Its Mapping Service ‘Map Kit’ To Take On Google Maps

According to a report from China Daily, Huawei has developed ‘Map Kit’ – its own mapping service with the hope to take on Google Maps.

With the new mapping service, Huawei would help software developers to approach a street navigation system more efficiently, as well as allow its users to update the traffic conditions in real-time. As such, instead of developing their own mapping technologies, developers can make use of this latest tech from the Chinese tech giant.

In an interview with China Daily, a Huawei executive revealed that Map Kit would support augmented-reality (AR) mapping, which is supposed to have a few similarities with the newly-introduced AR walking directions of Google.

Additionally, Huawei’s Mapping Service “will be connected to local mapping services.” It also comes with some helpful features that are designed to recognize lane changes. Users can choose one among up to 40 supported languages. The Map Kit is expected to come into operation in October.

China Daily also revealed that Huawei was planning to team up with the Connecticut-based online travel company Booking Holdings. However, the US company has deployed a variety of online travel services on Google Maps. In other words, Booking Holdings may be one of the customers of the Map Kit, instead of a data provider.

A few days ago, the biggest tech company in China launched its own operating system called HarmonyOS in the international market, and HongMengOS in the Chinese market. The major purpose of Huawei when developing this operating system is to reduce its dependence on Android OS from Google.

HarmonyOS has a lot of advantages such as compact and light platform and high-speed operation, and therefore, it brings the seamless and optimized experience to its users. The operating system can work well on many different devices from tablets, smartphones, automobiles, smartwatches, smart speakers, to computers and wireless earbuds.