Huawei launches first sanctions-hit phone without Google apps

Chinese tech giant Huawei launched its latest high-end smartphone in Munich on Thursday, the first of its mobile devices not to carry popular Google apps because of US sanctions. "Today because of the US ban... we cannot pre-install" Google's applications, said Richard Yu, who heads Huawei's consumer business group. But heading off fears from users, he stressed that the equivalent Huawei platform offered a choice of 45,000 apps.