As per Hong Kong CNN Business, Google is pulling out Huawei’s license to its Android operating system and applications as Trump administration imposed a ban on the Chinese telecom firm. The executive order that Donald Trump had issued on May 15th mentioned that “foreign adversaries” are “creating and exploiting vulnerabilities” and that they are “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy” of America. The U.S. Commerce Department’s placed Huawei and some 68 affiliates on a so-called Entity List, a trade blacklist. Essentially, it is preventing American firms from selling to Huawei components and services for its devices without US government license and this is making even harder the resolution for the trade war between United States and China.
Beijing has criticized the adding of Huawei on the trade blacklist calling it a political move. The US is pushing back on Beijing’s bid to dominate the technologies of the future and here is a chance that China will retaliate against American companies. After all, big brands like Boeing, Tesla, Nike etc, are hugely dependent on Chinese market.
On its recent tweet, Android stated that they will complying with US government requirements, the Google Play and Google Play Protect will keep functioning on existing Huawei devices however they are “reviewing the implications”.
“Huawei Technologies Co Ltd will immediately lose access to updates to the Android operating system, and the next version of its smartphones outside of China will also lose access to popular applications and services including the Google Play Store and Gmail app,” Reuters noted. This will be a massive blow to Huawei Company, whose goal is to be top smartphone brand by the end of next year.
Preventing Huawei’s supply chain with crucial components will delay the rollout of 5G services around the world. Huawei is a leader in 5G technology and a global company with an income of more than $100 billion. Although Huawei offers its Chinese users domestic alternatives to Gmail YouTube and Google Maps, half of its business depends to a very great extent on countries other than China.
Huawei stated that it is “examining the implications from the US actions for consumers,” adding that it will continue to provide “security updates and after sales services” for all existing devices
“In terms of what measures either Chinese companies or Chinese government would take, please wait and see,” Lu Kang, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said
Huawei outside China
For many millions of users all around the world, outside China, not being able to access Google’s apps and services “kills the attractiveness of a Huawei phone,” said IDC analyst Bryan Ma. If people do buy in the future Huawei devices drawn by its high hardware and innovation, they might still be able to download Google apps. However the evidence shows that “sales installation is very challenging for users, unless they know what they’re doing,” said Nicole Peng, an analyst with Canalys. Nevertheless, even if users managed to download Google apps on Huawei phones there is a chance they won’t have access to Google Mobile services. As per ISC’s Ma, many third party apps like food delivery or ride hailing platforms will no longer be supported by Huawei and without them, in this day and age, “the Huawei phone is a brick”
