Last week, the United States added Huawei to its ‘Entity List’, and because of that move, the US-based companies can’t do business with Huawei without explicit government approval. Now, as per the reports, Google has already stopped its business with Huawei.
According to Reuters, Google has stopped providing Huawei with hardware and software products, except those covered by open source licenses. This means that future Huawei smartphones won’t have access to Google services such as Play Store, Gmail, etc.
So, Huawei can still use Android itself but most proprietary services will be inaccessible — including the Google Play Store, Gmail, and anything else that requires the Play Services Framework. A source of Reuters adds that “the details of the specific services were still being discussed internally at Google.”
Also, this move could also prevent Huawei from updating its existing smartphones as the updates can’t be re-certified for Play Store access, risking the security of its smartphones. While security updates are part of AOSP and are still available to Huawei, Android’s system WebView is updated through the Play Store, which is a core part of Google’s Android services.
If this is true, then it would be a critical blow to Huawei’s smartphone business, which has been growing rapidly. The company could theoretically partner with non-American companies to provide alternatives but the lack of Play Store would be a major drawback.
Since past few years, the China-based company has been preparing a contingency plan by developing its own technology in case the company gets blocked from using Android. As per the company, some of this technology is already being used in products sold in China.
While this move to ban Huawei by US will impact its smartphone business in the international markets, the impact is expected to be minimal in the Chinese market. Most Google mobile apps are banned in China, where alternatives are offered by domestic competitors such as Tencent and Baidu.
