US Tech Giants Google, Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom Break Up With Huawei

Google has reportedly suspended all businesses with the
world’s second-biggest smartphone maker, Huawei, and revoked its
Android license effective immediately—a move that will have a
drastic impact on Huawei devices across the globe.

Revoking Android license means Huawei future smartphones will no
longer have access to Android updates and apps like Gmail or the
Play Store, as well as Google technical support beyond services
that are publicly available via open source licensing, Reuters^[1] report.

Why? That’s because last week, U.S. President Donald Trump
signed an executive order declaring a national emergency banning
foreign companies—over surveillance fear—from doing
telecommunication business in the United States without the
government’s approval.

About the executive order, White House Press Secretary Sarah
Sanders said in a statement^[2]
that President Trump “has made it clear that this Administration
will do what it takes to keep America safe and prosperous, and to
protect America from foreign adversaries who are actively and
increasingly creating and exploiting vulnerabilities in information
and communications technology infrastructure and services in the
United States.”

The Trump administration added Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and
some 68 affiliates to its so-called “Entity List”—a list of
companies that American firms like Qualcomm, Intel, and Google
cannot trade with unless they have an approval from the U.S.
government.

As a result of which, not just Google, but also three of the
world’s leading chip makers—Intel, Qualcomm, and Broadcom—are also
reportedly cutting off their trades with Huawei, effective
immediately.

However, that doesn’t mean that the current Huawei smartphone
users will be cut off entirely from Google services.

In a statement via Android’s official Twitter account, the
company says current Huawei smartphones will continue having access
to services like Google Play and security from Google Play Protect.
However, they won’t receive any future OS updates, like the
upcoming Android Q.

“For Huawei users’ questions regarding our steps to comply w/
the recent U.S. government actions: We assure you while we are
complying with all U.S. gov’t requirements, services like Google
Play & security from Google Play Protect will keep functioning on
your existing Huawei device,” Google’s Android account tweeted^[3].

However, future Huawei devices will continue to have access to
the Android operating system version available through the Android
Open Source Project (AOSP), which is available for free to
anyone.

It seems like Huawei has been prepared for “worst-case
scenarios,” specifically for the event of being banned from using
Android, and has already been working on its own operating system,
Huawei executive Richard Yu said in an interview with Die Welt.
^[4]