Huawei could lose its grip on the No. 2 ranking in worldwide cellphone sales after Google announced it would comply with U. S. government restrictions…
Huawei could lose its grip on the No. 2 ranking in worldwide cellphone sales after Google announced it would comply with U. S. government restrictions meant to punish the Chinese tech powerhouse.
Google said basic services would still function on the Android operating system used in Huawei’s smartphones. Google also said existing smartphone owners would not lose access to its Google Play app store or security features.
But unless the U. S. Commerce Department grants exceptions, a ban announced last week on all purchases of U. S. technology would badly hurt Huawei, analyst say.
Washington claims Huawei poses a national security threat. Its placement on the so-called Entity List by the Trump administration last week is widely seen as intended to persuade resistant U. S. allies in Europe to exclude Huawei equipment from their next-generation wireless networks, known as 5G.
“This is major crisis for Huawei. Instead of being the world’s largest handset manufacturer this year, it will struggle to stay two, but probably fall behind,” analyst Roger Entner said. “How competitive is a smartphone without the most well-known and popular apps?”
Huawei will likely use its own, stripped-down version of Android, whose basic code is provided free of charge by Google. But it’s not yet clear what other Google software and services – such as maps, Gmail or search – it will be able to use.
Entner, founder of Recon Analytics, said Google itself won’t have a large direct impact, “as consumers will shift to other Android devices. The biggest concern is not to be caught in the crossfire of two governments.”
Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen said 48% of Huawei’s phone shipments last year were outside of China and the company will need to scramble not to lose market share.
