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Huawei has seemingly been confirmed as the manufacturer in line to build Google’s next Nexus smartphone.
Kevin Yang, the Director of China Research at analyst firm iSuppli, revealed that Google opted for the Chinese company to build the handset via his Weibo profile (via GizmoChina).
This follows rumours last week that suggested Google would be working with both Huawei and LG for the 2015 Nexus line-up.
Speculation put LG as handling the smartphone, largely because it was the OEM behind the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 smartphones.
It seems, however, that Huawei will be picking up the reins on the smartphone, while LG will purportedly tackle Google’s next Nexus tab.
Huawei is Xiaomi’s biggest Android competitor in China right now, so it’s unsurprising Google wanted to get the company on board.
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Huawei also has its own custom-built Kirin chip series, which means it can produce the processors for a Nexus smartphone in-house.
This means Google and Huawei won’t have to rely on a third-party, most notably US chip manufacturer Qualcomm.
It seems to be part of a growing trend in the mobile industry to eschew dependence on Qualcomm. Both LG and Samsung are producing handsets with custom-built chipsets.
It’s worth noting that Google has never worked with Huawei on a Nexus device before, so it will be interesting to see what the Chinese OEM can muster up.
The last round of Nexus devices – the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 – were both met with chilly reception, described as underwhelming by many critics.
Google will almost certainly make a much greater effort to wow consumers with the next batch of Nexus wares.