The global fallout now explained concerning Huawei’s ban and new companies are adhering to the ban on Huawei by US – ICT Catalogue reports from TechRadar
The latest Huawei ban news sees the embattled Chinese electronic giant losing relationships with more essential component suppliers, as well as key retailers refusing to stock its phones. This might not be a bad news at all, as details emerge of a possible Google Play Store rival and Huawei execs pledging to find a way around the chip issues.
Huawei in finding itself at the center of a global tussle between the US and China after Trump administration placed the Chinese electronic giant on the ‘entity list’, limiting the transactions that companies in US could do with it.
This has global effects. This led Google in blocking Huawei’s future access to Android updates and its license, UK-based chip designer ARM has ceased all activities with the brand, and multiple retailers and networks around the globe only have to put a stop on dealing with the Chinese tech giant, Huawei, for fear of sanctions from the US government.
This has caused a slight reprieve though, as on May 20 the US Commerce Department issued a temporary license for Huawei to work with businesses in the United States, which means companies in US can only resume their partnership with the brand on a short-term basis.
Read more related to the ban on Huawei:
However, this is going to last from now till August 19 and it’s unclear how Huawei will be able to gain the full license to work with the companies in US while the government considers it a threat to national security.
The temporary permit hasn’t seemed to lead to a rekindling of efforts from companies like Panasonic or Microsoft, and more brands are following suit.
So it seems, for now, that this is nothing more than a delay to a hugely difficult time for Huawei and in a few months the company will no longer be able to offer access to crucial Google apps or work with vital technologies.
The company has already seen growth slow in the month of April as the ban began, but since then other brands have pulled out of relationships with Huawei, so it’s expected that worse results will take effects the month of May.
Moreover, Huawei ban has spread to its involvement in the Wi-Fi Alliance and SD Association. It has been suspended from both, so the company’s ability to shape the future of these core technologies is in now question.
In the face of all of these setbacks, Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei maintained a positive outlook for the brand, stating: “We will certainly be able to continue serving our customers. Our mass production capacity is huge, and adding Huawei to the Entity List won’t have a huge impact on us. We are making progress in bidding worldwide.”
What Does The Ban Mean If I Have A Huawei Phone?
Perhaps the most useful piece of information about current Huawei phones is Google’s statement issued – TechRadar confirms.
“We are complying with the order and reviewing the implications. For users of our services, Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices,” a spokesperson told us.
That’s good news if you’ve just spent large amounts of money on a Huawei P30 Pro: as alluded to above, current devices from the Chinese brand will continue to get security updates and access to the Play Store for the foreseeable future, as Google has promised not to leave those out in the cold.
The temporary lifting of the ban will also allow the two brands to prepare better Android support for current and future models, meaning that Huawei will be able to do business as it has been – so current customers will be able to benefit for longer. Google has since resumed its relationship with Huawei, to enable it to deliver benefits for longer.
Huawei has also confirmed that it will continue to do all it can to support the phones currently out in the wild, and is looking at other implications of Google’s decision.
The company told us: “Huawei has made substantial contributions to the development and growth of Android around the world. As one of Android’s key global partners, we have worked closely with their open-source platform to develop an ecosystem that has benefited both users and the industry. Huawei Ban: The Global Fallout Explained.
“Huawei will continue to provide security updates and after-sales services to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphone and tablet products, covering those that have been sold and that are still in stock globally.”
Huawei Australia has echoed the sentiment, also claiming that “those that are planning to buy a Huawei device in the near future” need not to worry about the sanctions, according to the Director of Corporate Affairs from Huawei Australia, Jeremy Mitchell. Huawei Ban: The Global Fallout Explained.
In a report from the Director of Corporate Affairs, it was confirmed that comment was asked regarding the recent lifting of the ban, but Huawei declined.
Whether this will allow the flexible Mate X to launch with ‘full fat’ Android remains to be seen, but that’s likely to be a huge target for the brand. It’s spent enormous sums marketing that model since the unveiling in the month of February and is keen to lock in its reputation as a technological leader.
It looks like the bendable phone will, at least, be delayed though – the CEO of UK network EE said, during the launch of its 5G networks, that the brand had temporarily paused stocking the phone while it worked to understand the implications of the trade ban.
UK retailer Dixons Carphone has followed suit, halting plans to bring the 5G handset to launch as planned while the UK gears up to enter the next phase of connectivity.
So while the fact remains that current models will be offered speedy updates, it’s unclear how long these will last for, and the fact networks are already getting jittery about the sanctions isn’t going to make anything easier for Huawei. Huawei Ban: The Global Fallout Explained.
While most smartphone brands will honor security updates for two to three years after launch of a new handset, one might expect this to be much shorter in the case of Huawei phones, given these restrictions from Google.
What About Future Huawei Phones?
ICT Catalogue can’t confirm how the future of smartphones produced by Huawei is going to look like without the license from Google for Huawei to use Android operating system on its latest phones.
The move from Google means it will no more work Huawei directly on issuing updates to its system, and will not be giving the company the access to Google Play store. This is a kind of blow to the Chinese mobile brand, which only spoke recently about its plans to be the largest smartphone manufacture in the world.
This shows that if Huawei wants to continue to be using the operating system from Google, Android, it will need to use the Android Open Source Platform (AOSP), which functions as a free system that any brand can use as an underlying foundation for its mobile products.
However along with the Google Play Store it won’t have access to the core Google apps like Google Maps, YouTube and Chrome – as the three core elements of Google’s business that it’s not duty bound to make available to anyone.
Without access to the Play Store, Huawei would be forced to work directly with developers to get them to create versions of their wares for its latest phones. This era would be similar to that of Amazon’s Fire OS, which is based on AOSP but has its own app store, as the retail giant seeks to control the platform its Fire tablets and Echo devices run on.
If Huawei does have to use AOSP, the consequences could be devastating, as access to a fully-stocked app store is crucial to the success of any modern smartphone – Nokia and Microsoft failed to make Windows Phones a viable alternative to Android and Apple’s iOS, even though both brands poured millions into developer tools and enticing the top app creators onto their platform.
However, Huawei has claimed that it’s been developing its own alternative to Android for nearly seven years, calling it a ‘Plan B’ that’s ready to go should it lose access to the services listed above – naming it the HongMeng OS, and stating its alternative operating system will be launched either at the end of 2019 or the beginning of 2020, and would work across “mobile phones, computers, tablets, TVs, cars and smart wearable devices.”
In the latest statement, Huawei said: “We will continue to build a safe and sustainable software ecosystem, in order to provide the best experience for all users globally,” which sounds like it already wants to generate some positive hype around its alternative OS.
However, Huawei also said it would rather continue working with brands like Google and Microsoft (whose Windows operating system runs on Huawei laptops) to offer the best experience – a sentiment it has since offered around all its suppliers, hinting strongly that it hopes to resume actions when this ban is lifted.
Huawei is also claiming that it can still create smartphones and other equipment with the components it has stockpiled before the ban, as well as creating new partnerships around the world. Huawei Ban: The Global Fallout Explained.
The brand has continued to state it believes working with international partners remains the best course of action – although has confirmed it’s looking at how to manage as much as possible within its own country.
”Huawei has been working hard on developing its own AppGallery and other software assets in a similar manner to its work on chipset solutions.” Ben Woods, Chief of Research at CCS Insight. ”There is little doubt these efforts are part of its desire to control its own destiny.”
If Huawei loses access to the Google Play Store, it would take an enormous amount of investment to attract developers to create app options that would keep users of its smartphones happy – and you have to wonder whether the brand would feel it was worth continuing to make phones at all when faced with that kind of hurdle.
The same would also apply to Honor, the sub-brand of Huawei phones, in the future. Honor might have tried to distance itself from its parent company, but it’s been confirmed that it will be subject to the same sanctions.
However, the launch of that brand’s Honor 20 smartphone went ahead as planned and made no mention of the issues facing its parent company – so it’s clear that devices currently created and in the supply chain are still going to be supported in the Android ecosystem. Huawei Ban: The Global Fallout Explained.
Since the news of the Android suspension, more details have emerged about Huawei’s plans for the App Gallery on the HongMeng OS: it’s been reported that the brand is offering app developers access to Chinese users, as well as financial incentives to networks to add its app portal to phones.
Developers would be able to simply and quickly tweak their Android apps to work on Huawei’s platform, and theoretically have access to a huge Chinese user base – although it remains to be seen whether Huawei phones will continue to be sold in strong enough numbers worldwide for developers to update and maintain their apps.
What of the ARM news, is it truly damaging?
The huge issue Huawei is facing now is that chip designer ARM is not going to work with the Chinese brand for the short term. That may seem odd, as it’s a Japanese-owned brand that is headquartered in the UK, but as its designs use US-based technology, there’s now a fear this might fall foul of the trade restrictions set by Trump’s administration. Huawei Ban: The Global Fallout Explained.
If the Huawei ban means it won’t be able to use ARM reference designs in its chipsets, it would be incredibly difficult and costy for the brand to replace them – and it may prove to be impossible, which would cast further doubt over the future of Huawei’s phone arm.
Reporting to BBC by Huawei’s spokesperson: “We value our close relationships with our partners, but recognize the pressure some of them are under, as a result of politically motivated decisions. We are confident this regrettable situation can be resolved and our priority remains to continue to deliver world-class technology and products to our customers around the world.”
The upcoming Kirin 985 chipset is not believed to be affected, which would mean that Huawei may release another cycle of smartphone before the ban truly causes issues, but partners and networks are already starting to react to the US’ trade license suspension.
However, the loss of ARM support might take a little longer to be felt than previously thought: Huawei has apparently been granted a permanent license over key ARM technology from a few months ago, after it saw potential trouble ahead.
This would allow it to keep using these key chip designs for the foreseeable future in its phones, laptops and infrastructure equipment.
What about other brands? What does this mean for the wider smartphone world?
While these sanctions don’t currently affect other brands, the message being sent is clear: global politics can have dramatic implications for the manufacturing and marketing of consumer devices that have become indispensable for billions of people.
While there’s currently no issue with brands headquartered in other parts of the world, a similar sanction could see other smartphone manufacturers forced into a costly rethink.
A few years ago Samsung seriously threatened a breakaway move from Google’s Android operating system, as it felt the search giant had too much control over the operating system on its Galaxy smartphones.
It worked to develop the Tizen OS, which is still used on devices like Samsung’s Galaxy smartwatches, triggering negotiations with Google about allowing more freedom for manufacturers.
(It’s worth noting that while Samsung did release smartphones based on Tizen, they were budget models, and didn’t come anywhere close to the success of its Galaxy phone range).
The big beneficiary here could be Apple – President Trump has long advocated for the brand to move its operations from China to the US, and exempted Apple from the trade tariffs imposed on China so that the brand wouldn’t have to raise its prices.
Huawei has been a thorn in Apple’s side of late, with the rise of the Chinese brand seeing it usurp its Cupertino-based rival in the worldwide rankings and become a serious competitor in the premium smartphone space – and Trump clearly wants to see the US tech giant do more of its business back home.
However, moving its operations from China would be incredibly costly for Apple, and it would still need to source many components from Asia to build future iPhones, so it’s unclear what the effect would be, both on the company and the US economy.
The loss of Huawei as a major player in the global smartphone market could also have a wider impact on the smartphones other vendors are pushing out. The Chinese brand’s aggressive development of new technological capabilities has forced rivals to significantly improve their devices and push out new advancements of their own, and any diminution of its influence would likely slow the rate of development.
Huawei’s smartphone camera prowess has arguably kickstarted a race to offer cameras that deliver ever-better sharpness, color and overall image quality in the last two years – the quality of the pictures it’s possible to take on a premium phone has improved dramatically as the brand’s P series has relentlessly pushed the boundaries of what’s possible.
The company is also in a race with Samsung to bring out the first widely available foldable phone – and the Huawei Mate X’s mere existence surely forced the South Korean brand to speed up its development of a bending handset, meaning consumers will get access to the technology earlier (although Samsung probably would have rather waited to deliver the Galaxy Fold…).
Will this cause an all over to Huawei?
Maybe there’s going to be an alternate solution from Huawei concerning this issue and ICT Catalogue can confirm since it’s trying build its own operating system just in case US tensions disrupt use of Google’s Android.
There is a glimmer of hope for Huawei’s continued use of Android and the capabilities that offers.
The recent ban lifting means there’s a real chance that negotiations can be entered into with the US government, allowing the brand to prove itself ‘safe’ and move out from the middle of the trade war between China and the US. This is far from certain, but things certainly look a lot less bleak for the brand.
Google has also confirmed that it’s ‘reviewing’ the situation, and the implications of the US sanctions – it doesn’t want to limit the reach of its Android ecosystem, and US brands like Qualcomm are going to be severely impacted by the Huawei restrictions, so will likely lobby to have this decision re-examined.
However, if Google is forced to cut Huawei off from future Android security updates and access to the Play Store, then it could not only make things difficult for Huawei, but may cause consumers to view any Chinese brand with suspicion – and given the proliferation and technological prowess of the latest phones coming out of that country, that would also have a huge impact on the industry. Huawei Ban: The Global Fallout Explained
So while this move seems to only affect Huawei right now, it’s going to have a knock-on effect for the entire industry, and will most likely have implications for the next smartphone you buy – and it could also mean the rise of a new mobile operating system, and potentially a serious challenger to Android.