Illustration by Alex Castro
Following the US crackdown on Chinese technology companies, Google has cut off Huawei’s Android license, dealing a huge blow to the besieged phonemaker. Reuters first reported the news, and The Verge subsequently confirmed Google’s suspension of business with Huawei with a source familiar with the matter.
Reached for comment, a Google spokesperson said only “We are complying with the order and reviewing the implications.” The order, in this case, appears to be the US Commerce Department’s recent decision to place Huawei on the “Entity List,” which as Reuters reports is a list of companies that are unable to buy technology from US companies without government approval.
Speaking to Reuters, a Google spokesperson confirmed that “Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices.” So while existing Huawei phones around the world won’t be immediately impacted by the decision, the future of updates for those phones as well as any new phones Huawei would produce remains in question.
Huawei is now restricted to using the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), cutting the company off from critical Google apps and services that consumers outside of China expect on Android devices. That also means Huawei will only be able to push security updates for Android once they’re made available in AOSP, assuming the company uses its own update system. It’s not clear yet how this will affect the full range of Android integrations that Huawei depends on, but we will update this story when we receive additional clarification about the impacts of Google’s decision.
Huawei has been under increasing pressure from President Trump and the US government over fears that its equipment could be used by the Chinese government to spy on American networks. These fears have been under construction for a long time; In 2018, US intelligence agencies warned against using Huawei and ZTE devices, and US politicians have described Huawei as “effectively an arm of the Chinese government.”
Huawei maintains that it is not possible for the Chinese government to poison its equipment with backdoors, and it has remained optimistic about the future of its business. But this latest setback from Google poses a grave risk to the future of Huawei’s core mobile business. The company was already preparing its own operating systems in the event of being banned from using Android and Windows, but given US fears about foreign interference, a home-grown OS is likely to face even more scrutiny than Google’s software.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/19/18631558/google-huawei-android-suspension
Intel, Qualcomm, and other chipmakers reportedly join Google in Huawei ban
Huawei has been stockpiling chips to prepare for this eventuality
Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge
Huawei’s bad weekend is turning worse as the company’s American suppliers are all falling in line with a US government edict banning them from doing business with the company. Bloomberg now reports that Intel, Qualcomm, and Broadcom, three of the world’s leading chip designers and suppliers, are cutting off their dealings with Huawei, effective immediately. Nikkei reports that German chipmaker Infineon Technologies has also suspended shipments to Huawei, as have US memory chip makers Micron Technology and Western Digital.
The chip suspensions follow the earlier news of Google abruptly rescinding Huawei’s Android license and halting its access to Google Play Services and the Play Store, effectively dumping it out of the Android smartphone market and forcing the Chinese company to develop its own version atop the barebone open-source edition of Android.
According to Bloomberg’s sources, employees across the major US chipmakers have been informed that their companies will freeze their supply deals with Huawei until further notice. Intel provides Huawei with server chips and the processors for its laptop line, while Qualcomm figures less prominently in providing modems and other processors. Huawei’s actually quite well insulated from the Qualcomm impact, as it builds its own mobile processors and modems. Another Bloomberg report suggests Huawei has also been preparing for this eventuality by stockpiling chips from US suppliers to last it at least three months, which should be enough time to tell if the current measure is a scare tactic or a permanent imposition from the US government.
Nikkei’s sources suggest that Europe might be falling into line as well. “Infineon decided to adopt a more cautious measure and stopped the shipment. But it will hold meetings this week to discuss [the situation] and make assessments,” said one source speaking to Nikkei. European chipmaker ST Microelectronics is reportedly discussing its continued shipments to Huawei this week as well.
Huawei has been developing in-house alternatives to Android and Windows, specifically to try and address a situation such as the present one. Microsoft hasn’t yet commented on whether it will continue to provide the Windows operating system for Huawei laptops, but odds are that it too will respect the US government’s orders.
The effort by the US government to sideline Huawei has been going for a long time, and the company was last year unceremoniously rebuffed in its effort to enter the US phone market. The current escalation is part of an increasingly hostile trade dispute between the Trump administration and the Chinese government, with the former trying to force a renegotiation of the trading relationship between the two.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/19/18632075/intel-qualcomm-huawei-ban-us-chipmakers-report