President Donald Trump Orders Huawei Blacklisting
It has not been a good week for Chinese tech giant Huawei. Last week, the US Commerce Department, under the orders of President Donald Trump blacklisted the company. This effectively halted Huawei’s ability to buy American-made parts and components.
Shortly after, Google has revoked Huawei’s Android license. Current Huawei smartphone owners with Google apps will continue to be able to use and download app updates provided by Google, a Google spokesperson said. However, the smartphones will immediately lose access to updates to Google’s Android operating system.
Upcoming and future versions of Huawei smartphones that run on Android will also lose access to popular services. This even including the Google Play Store, Gmail and YouTube apps.
For their part, the company has been preparing their own operating system in case of a ban.
How are Hardware Providers Responding?
Aside from Google, chipmakers such as Intel, Qualcomm Inc, Xilinx Inc and Broadcom Inc will be halting critical software supply and components to the Chinese company until further notice.
This of course, cuts both ways as the Chinese company is also a massive customer to US suppliers. The company purchased $20 billion worth of hardware from US companies last year. Banning them entirely could cost $11 billion in revenue.
The hit against Huawei is just part of US President Donald Trump’s trade war with China. More recently, the US government has proceeded with the $200 billion tariff hike on Chinese-made goods.
