Google and Huawei Go Their Separate Ways
Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images.
Hong Kong: Google has decided to restrict Huawei’s access to its operating system and apps.
As reported by CNN, this is due to the recent step taken by US President, Donald Trumps’ administration to blacklist the Chinese Tech firm.
The recent decision comes as a substantial blow to Huawei’s progress, whose goal was to be the leading smartphone brand by the year 2020. It has been reported that the Trump administration barred American companies from selling to Huawei without a “US government license” last week, in a significant escalation of the trade war with China.
“We are complying with the order and reviewing the implications” said, a Google spokesperson on Monday.
So far Huawei has been able to achieve the target of being the world’s 2nd largest selling smartphone and relying on Google services (GOOGL) for its devices. These include both the Android system as well as the Google Play app store.
CNN has further reported that while older versions of the Huawei phones will be largely unaffected for now. The Tech Company will only be able to access the public version of apps and services from Google. The news was originally confirmed by Reuters.
“Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices” continued the Google spokesperson but did not provide further details.
The tech company said that it has been working to develop its own operating system for the last three years, “in case it is needed”.
A spokesperson for Huawei, Glenn Schloss said:
Beijing has criticized the US led campaign as a “political” move to blacklist trade, according to reports from CNN.
A spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lu Kang, on Monday said, “China supports Chinese companies defending legitimate rights according to Laws.”
He continued to say:
While being cut-off from the Google ecosystem could be a massive blow to Huawei’s goals of overthrowing Samsung as the world’s leading smartphone manufacturer, Huawei can still try to win its consumers over with its “competitive hardware” and “innovation” and convince them to download the Google apps after they have bought the phones, said Nicole Peng, an analyst with Canalys.
IDC’s analyst Bryan Ma believes that while the customers may be able to download Google apps individually, since most apps will not be supported on Huawei’s devices, the Huawei phone will essentially be “a brick.”
Stay tuned to Baaghi.TV for more updates.
