Huawei is the second-largest smartphone seller in the world. Over the last few years, it has made huge advancements in 5G technology that imposed a threat of tech-superiority to the US. Fearing Huawei's progress in the US market, Washington accused the company, last year, of spying on American citizens. However, Huawei refused the claim and assured the US and other western allies that it's ready to sign a no-spy deal with the US to make its equipment meet no-spy and no-backdoor standard.
Yet, this offer got a very cold response as the US put Huawei in their Entity List last week, meaning the American suppliers have to get permission from the Government authorities before supplying equipment to Huawei. Following the pattern, Google has now come forward and announced that it's going to cut off Huawei's license which means Huawei users will not receive further updates for their Google apps.
Details about Google cutting-off Huawei's license
As reported by Reuters, the Chinese tech giant will no longer receive updates and support for Google's priority apps such as YouTube, Gmail, and Chrome.
However, the Android's open source version will still be available to Huawei. However, the company will not be able to update its existing operating system.
A relief for existing Huawei users is that they can still use their Google apps or download them from Google Playstore. They will not see a sudden disappearance of any Google service or app. But, these services will not be available in Huawei's future handsets.
What Google has to say about canceling the license?
Google said in a statement on Monday that it is complying with the orders of Government and reviewing the implications of this decision. They further said, "For assistance of users of our services, Google Play Protect and Google Play Store will continue to function on existing Huawei handsets."
What's Huawei's response to this ban?
Huawei sent a statement to Ars Technica in response to Google's decision.
The company says that it will continue to offer after-sale services and security updates to all existing smartphones and tablets that it has sold or are in stock globally. They further say that they will continue to provide the best experience for its users by building safe and sustainable software ecosystem.
Intel, Qualcomm, and Broadcom join this ban
Meanwhile, as reported by Bloomberg, other US companies have also started to join this ban. Companies including Qualcomm, Broadcom, and Intel have refused to supply chips to Huawei. Without intel chips in Huawei's laptops, they are pretty much dead. The actions of the tech giant over the past couple of months show that they saw this ban coming and that's why it has already stockpiled three months worth of Intel chips.
Adding to the drama, Huawei is going to launch Honor20 this Tuesday. At this time, seems that the launch will go ahead as scheduled.