US Blacklisting Forces Google To Suspend Some Business With Huawei


05/20/2019



According to media reports quoting industry and company sources, those business that require transferring of hardware, software and technical services from Huawei has been suspended by Alphabet Inc's Google. The suspended business however excludes those services that are publicly available through open source licensing. Analysts say that this is the blow to the Chinese technology firm that was intended by the U.S. government by blacklisting the company.
 
App updates provided by Google would however be available those users who currently hold Huawei smartphones that has Google apps and such users would be able to download that updates of the apps according to a spokesperson of Google as reported in the media earlier.
 
"We are complying with the order and reviewing the implications," the Google spokesperson said.
 
"For users of our services, Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices," the spokesperson said, without providing any further details.
 
The smartphone business of Huawei across the world apart from China could be hit because of the US blacklisting as the smartphone running technology of Google cannot be used in new smartphones by Huawei with immediate effect along with access to any further updates to Google's Android operating system unless Google secures a license for the same from the US government. Access to popular services, including the Google Play Store and Gmail and YouTube apps would also not be available in the future versions of Huawei smartphones using Android.
 
"Huawei will only be able to use the public version of Android and will not be able to get access to proprietary apps and services from Google," the source was quoted in the media as saying.
 
Huawei was added to a trade blacklist by the Trump administration on Thursday that immediately imposed restrictions on the Chinese company to do business with US companies.
 
However indications of some relief was given for Huawei on Friday after the US Commerce Department said consideration of scaling back some of the restrictions on Huawei was being made by it so as to "prevent the interruption of existing network operations and equipment". However that statement did not make clear whether Huaqwei would have access to mobile software form companies such as Google.
 
The global supply chain of Huawei is still assessing the extent of the impact of the U.S. government's blacklist and its nature it not known yet. The ability of Huawei to continue with its operations minus chips manufactured in the US is being questioned by industry experts.
 
According to reports, Google is still discussing internally the specifics of the particular services that would be impacted by the blacklisting of Huawei.  And according to reports quoting spokesman from Huawei, the impact of the blacklist is also being studied by Huawei attorneys.
 
According to a report published by Bloomberg on Sunday, a deciosn of not supplying critical software and components to Huawei has been made by chipmakers including Intel Corp, Qualcomm Inc, Xilinx Inc and Broadcom Inc and this has been internally communicated to the employees of the company.
 
(Source:www.straitstimes.com)