92 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 63FEATURE
The bombshell comes just days after Donald Trump
signed an Executive Order barring US companies
from using telecommunications equipment made
by firms that “pose a national security risk”. While
the order didn’t single out Huawei, the Commerce
Department simultaneously added Huawei to its Entity
List, effectively banning the smartphone maker from
buying parts and components from US companies
without explicit government approval. Together, the
two moves make it extremely difficult for any US
company to do business with Huawei.
Hence Google’s quick decision. The company
assured Huawei users that updates would still be
supplied for 90 days and said in a statement that it
is merely “complying with the order and reviewing
the implications”, but the stakes couldn’t be higher.
When the dust clears, it might not be just Huawei
that’s forever changed: Google, Android, and the
entire smartphone landscape could be indelibly
altered as well.Many options, few answers
If Google pulls Huawei’s Android licence, that will
obviously have a huge impact on both current and
future Huawei handsets. While the contract doesn’t
affect the core OS, which is covered by the Android
Open Source Project and free for anyone to use,
Google charges for use of the Play Store and its
application suite (Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and so on)
for phones shipped to Europe.
Because basically all smartphone makers peddle
their wares in Europe, the loss of that licence is a