Huawei is one of the biggest smartphone manufacturing companies based in China. For years they have been suffering from a problem with the USA regarding their software security and the president of the USA Donald Trump had doubts that they were stealing data from people and sending it back to China making it a national threat. Even though there has always been a rivalry between China and The USA.
Two days earlier the US gave its final statement banning Huawei from the Android service meaning Huawei can no longer use any google apps and services like Google Play Store, Gmail, Hangout, etc. Since Google is a US-based company, they have to follow American laws. Thus, they had to ban Huawei from android all over the world even though only the US has a problem with them. This mainly means that Huawei Smartphones will no longer get any more Major Software updates (Android Q). Google has promised to give them security and software updates for 90 days, but after that, they are on their own. Moreover, Huawei now has to use AOSP (Android Open Source Project) which has its downsides like the security updates are very late and the major updates are also very delayed. Some good news is that Google Play Protect and the Google Play Store will continue to work on existing Huawei devices.
It is a big deal as one of the biggest Android competitors is out of business, it was one of the fastest-growing smartphone manufacturers in the world. Huawei has yet to issue a statement on this topic.
But the real question is that if you are using a Huawei or even an Honor smartphone as Honor is a sub-brand of Huawei What should you do?
Well if you are using their phone anywhere where Google services are used well you are out of luck as all those services will be revoked soon, even though Huawei is banned in the USA. But the decision of removing its Android license will affect everyone in the world.
I think we should wait for Huawei’s comment on this situation. Like there are still many questions left. One major question is what Operating System are they going to use. Huawei has been building its own OS with its own store. But it is very difficult as not many people are going to be attracted to it. Moreover, due to the ban, they won’t be able to get any of the US applications to their store like Netflix, WhatsApp, Instagram or any other US-based company. Not only Google but Huawei has also can’t do business with Microsoft, Intel, Nvidia as we all know Huawei has been making some pretty good competitive laptops for a while now. But I don’t think that they can make laptops anymore, with Windows without their partnership with Microsoft. Even their folding phone will now face problems as without android it will not be as capable as before.
The competition in the android market has been reduced drastically with Huawei out of the picture as it was one of the biggest and one of the most innovative contenders in the smartphone market.
Still, many questions have to be answered as these early speculations don’t put Huawei in a good position. Even though they have purchased a large chunk of hardware from all their partners in the US to produce hardware which will last approximately for 3 months. But once it is all over what will they do then?
One solution is that they could completely change their hardware manufacturers which would require a large amount of money, but in the long run, it is the safest bet. A recent report from Chinese media has come out saying Huawei is working on an in-house Operating system called as Hong Meng. The reports also claim that Huawei has already tested the Operating system and will replace android gradually on their smartphones. Let’s see what they have planned for their consumers.