Speed Philippines – July 2019

COVER STORY

74 JULY 2019

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER
THE ‘SNAP’?
Thanos... I mean, Trump
‘snapped’, and suddenly, Huawei’s
universe changed. Four days
after the Executive Order, Google
announced that it will cut off
future Huawei phones from
future Android updates.
Moreover, Google apps such
as Gmail, YouTube, and the
Google PlayStore will no
longer be available for future
Huawei handsets.

The Chinese company stated
that it would prefer to continue
working with Android, although
they have been preparing their
own operating system—just in
case things don’t pan out. What
could be more troublesome for
the company is its exclusion
from Google Play. While Huawei
stated that it is likewise prepared
to offer incentives to developers
so that they’d develop their apps
for the Huawei OS, there is no
guarantee that those apps would
flourish. A smartphone, no matter
how good it is, does not exist on
its own. A smartphone is only as
good as its apps—a hard truth
that Nokia and Microsoft found
out to its misfortune. Despite
having phones that could go toe
to toe with the popular phone
brands, their app environment
simply didn’t measure up to those
found in Google Play.

Facebook, for example, has
stated that its app would no
longer be pre-installed on new
Huawei phones. Sure, users
can still download the app after
purchasing the phone, but that’s
another step for the user, who
might not necessarily know what
he needs to do. Also, if the Google
Play ban becomes permanent,
getting the Facebook APK can
be troublesome, not to mention
rife with danger from trojans and
other nasty surprises.

CAN U.S. COMPANIES

DEFY THE

HUAWEI BAN?

While there have been

some high-profile

companies quickly

announcing their split

with Huawei, the Chinese

company still has some

partners – like Microsoft

• that have yet to issue an
  official statement
  at press time.

The reason is likely

simple: these companies

just want to wait until

the dust settles and

everything is clear

and final.

However, if the U.S.

government insists

on it, most companies

simply cannot afford to

defy the ban. There are

too many penalties that

they can incur, too many

limitations that they will

face themselves if they

choose to say no. If the

violations are deemed

too brazen, they can

even be charged with

criminal penalties.