05-30-2019 , 12:13 AM
Quote:Last week, US president Donald Trump signed an executive order with far-reaching implications, effectively declaring a national emergency. Everyone immediately suspected this decree to be primarily targeted towards China and Huawei, as there had been accusations beforehand. But the White House was quick to deny any such claims, stating the order wasn't targeted at any particular country or company. A week later, Alphabet, Google's parent company, terminated all business relations with Huawei. What a surprise. Read on to learn what this means for owners of Huawei cellphones and what the emergency is really about.
Why now?
The US and China have been engaged in a trade war for quite a while now, with import tariffs being the weapon of choice. Currently, new negotiations are on the horizon and both sides are tightening the thumb screws. This latest executive order bans US companies from using telecommunications equipment supplied by "foreign adversaries" to prevent espionage and sabotage. As cellphone networks in the US are in the process of transitioning to 5G, with Huawei being a major supplier, this decision carries a lot of weight. It authorizes the Department of Commerce to stop all trade relations it deems an unacceptable risk to the security of the country and its citizens, unless said parties have a license – issued by the Department of Commerce, naturally. Since the 5G cellphone network is still in its planning stages, other effects have presently become more visible. First bombshell: Alphabet was forced to cease all business activity with Huawei concerning cellphones (and tablets etc.), but it's not the only company that is affected.
Is Huawei banned from using Android?
The short answer is no. Alphabet does not own Android, even though the company is clearly calling the shots and supplying the most funds. Android is open source, meaning it's usable free of charge by anyone, including Huawei. However, the company no longer has access to services provided by Alphabet (obviously). This means Huawei will loose its early access to Android updates and will have to distribute these updates to their users themselves. While other cellphone manufacturers will continue to receive upcoming updates early, to allow for enough time to ensure compatibility with their custom user interfaces (launcher etc.), Huawei is now at the back of the line. Consequently, security and feature updates for Huawei's devices will likely be delayed by several months. And major version updates, e.g. from Android 9 to whatever the next version will be called, won't be made available to Huawei at all. Furthermore, all services owned by Alphabet (Google Play, Google Maps, Google Playstore and others) won't be shipped with future Huawei products. The services will continue to work with existing devices, though. It's not the end user that is targeted by these measures but the manufacturer.
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