Huawei, the world’s second-largest smartphone maker, has lost access to the Android operating system after the Trump administration added them to a list of companies that American firms cannot trade with unless they have a special licence.
Google said it was “complying with the order and reviewing the implications”, while Huawei has indicated that it will still provide security updates to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphone owners.
These new US trade restrictions were placed on the Chinese tech giant last week over cyber-security fears, however, it may also have a lot to do with the simmering trade war between the two countries.
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What does this mean for Huawei Device Owners?
Existing Huawei smartphone users will be able to update apps and security fixes via Google Play services until the launch of the next version of Android later this year which will not be available on Huawei devices along with apps such as YouTube and Maps.
However, Huawei can still use the open source version of An and has indicated that they may use their own OS in future phones. Given Google are keen to promote their own smartphone (Pixel) this may not be a bad long term strategic option. However, this will impact the firms market share at least temporarily in the west and any hopes of being the no one smartphone provided in 2020 have probably expired along with the Android licence.
