The Huawei Ban — How the Trade War is Hurting Tech
Last week, the U.S Government blacklisted Huawei from doing business with U.S. companies as a product of the escalating trade war with China. Huawei is a consumer electronics giant, most notably prevalent in the smartphone industry. It’s the fastest growing smartphone vendor, having already taken the title of second largest by market share from Apple and quickly closing in on the number one spot, occupied by Samsung. Huawei’s devices rely on U.S. companies for hardware (Qualcomm, Intel, Corning, etc.) as well as software (Android). The biggest headline to come from this ban, of course, is that Google, in compliance with the new executive order, has pulled their Android license from Huawei. After 90 days, Huawei phones will stuck with their current software version, unable to receive updates or interact with Google services.
What does this mean for Huawei? The hardware isn’t much of an issue; Huawei is fully capable of building its own parts despite the higher cost compared to buying components from the U.S.. Replacing Android, though, isn’t so easy. Assuming the ban continues, Huawei will have to move to their own operating system. Rather than being able to just tweak the existing OS, Huawei will need to take on the task of building an OS from the ground up. This in itself is not an impossible task, and it seems that Huawei has already developed a “Project…
