It’s part of the fallout from the US government’s decision to add Huawei to a trade blacklist last Thursday.
The news: Google has suspended business with Huawei that requires the transfer of hardware, software, and technical services, except those publicly available via open-source licensing, Reuters reports.
What does that mean? Anyone who currently owns a Huawei handset will still be able to download app updates provided by Google. However, as it stands, future Huawei handsets will not include proprietary apps and services from Google—for example, YouTube, Maps, or Gmail.
The impact: Huawei is the second biggest smartphone maker in the world, and losing access to the Android operating system could jeopardize its smartphone business beyond China (where most Google mobile apps are banned anyway). Being blacklisted makes it very difficult for Huawei to do business with US firms, although it says it has prepared for this eventuality.
Chip supply chains: Arguably, a bigger problem for Huawei may be the loss of access to US-made chips. Chipmakers Intel, Qualcomm, Xilinx, and Broadcom have told their employees they won’t sell software and components to Huawei until further notice, Bloomberg reports.
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