The White House has added Huawei, the second-largest smartphone maker, to its list of entities. Chinese smartphone maker Huawei will not be able to use future versions of Android after a ban by Google following an executive order signed by President Trump.
“The move by the Department of Commerce’s Department of Industry and Security, with the support of the President of the United States, Huawei, a Chinese-owned company that is the world’s largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer, on the entity list, “Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement.
This means that US companies like Google cannot trade with Huawei or any of the listed companies without a special license. “This will prevent American technology from being used by foreign-owned entities in a way that could potentially undermine US national security or foreign policy interests.”
Huawei has confirmed that while it will continue to provide app updates and next care services, you will still be able to fix security on the mobile OS and gain access to Google Play services – for the time being. For Huawei customers, there is no immediate dramatic change. Following initial reactions to shares of Google and other technology companies falling on Wall Street, the White House temporarily delayed the ban, giving the company 90 days to maintain its network and support existing customers.
It also escalates Trump’s trade war with China. The war is expected to cost the average U.S. family an additional $770 million this year, which could go up to $2,300 a year if Trump presses for a 25 percent tariff on all goods from China, as he claims he will be several times. The move is partly aimed at security concerns in the United States and several other countries that Huawei’s equipment could be used by the Chinese government for surveillance – something the agency has denied.
But things will change with the next OS update. Android Q is going to be released in August. The main operating system is open source so it will continue to work but some features and some applications like Google Maps, Gmail, and YouTube are no longer available.
This is likely to surpass the United States, where Huawei phones are popular worldwide and fail to develop base software, which is going to be a huge problem for the company’s customer base. Trump’s blacklisting of Huawei will have an impact on other technology companies that sell components to Chinese manufacturers such as Intel and Xilinx.
Samsung is the world’s largest smartphone maker, with a 22 percent market share, but Huawei has been growing steadily over the past 18 months, surpassing even Apple and its iPhone.
The new rules mean that Huawei’s phones will no longer be supported by Google in the future, so rumors are rife that the company will migrate to its own operating system, something that was previously referred to as Plan B but may now come to the fore.
