Following a move by the Trump administration in the US barring US companies from dealing with Huawei, Google has prevented the Chinese tech firm from accessing many critical pieces of the Android marketplace.
While the company will still have access to the the publicly available version of Android, they will not have access to more in depth tools developers tend to use. These restrictions will not apply to current Huawei phones, as a spokesman for Google said “Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices.”
In response to the announcement by Google, the Huawei mobile UK Twitter account posted a message from the company saying “Huawei will continue to provide security updates and after-sale services to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphone and tablet products, covering those that have been sold and are still in stock globally.”
Huawei had been aiming to be the top smartphone business by 2020, they currently sit at number two behind Samsung, but the recent loss in the US market might cost them their current spot. It seems possible that a lack of Google features on Huawei phones will make them less attractive to many smartphone buyers and cut into the companies market share and profits.
The decision by the Trump administration to ban the Chinese tech company from getting phone components from US sellers may not be as effective as Trump may have liked. The CEO of Huawei, Ren Zhengfei said the company would be “fine” without U.S. components, and that they “have already been preparing for this.” The company will still be able to deal with European companies, like Nokia and Ericsson, who can supply Huawei with needed parts, and who don’t see the Chinese firm as a large of a threat as the US does.
