The President of the USA, who thinks that the moon is part of Mars and wants a “Brexit wall” in Ireland, has put the boot into Huawei. The American businessman, just a few weeks after meeting Apple CEO Tim Cook, put Huawei on a list of “foreign adversaries” which pose “unacceptable risks”. We’re not sure what those risks are, but we’re pretty sure that Huawei are the only company on this list.
Anyways, Facebook has announced that they will stop its apps being pre-installed on Huawei phones. This includes Instagram and WhatsApp.
Now sure, you can install the apps after, but this is another bullet that Huawei has had to take recently.
However……
Google have actually come out to defend Huawei. According to The Financial Times, Google is telling the US government that the Huawei ban is actually bad for national security, and not good.
Word is that Google are asking that they are made exempt from the export ban. This, if the US government agreed, would mean that Huawei phones would continue to get the Android OS on new phones.
Google argue the ban will hurt their Android monopoly, with Huawei themselves currently stating that the ban is unconstitutional.
According to the newspaper, Google will argue that Huawei is currently dependent on the Android OS, and this dependence is a good thing for the US.
If nothing changes, there’s a risk of a “hybrid Android OS”, which could risk hack attempts. They argue that, if Huawei were forced to ship and Android fork without the Google apps (Google Play, Google Maps, YouTube, Gmail etc etc), it would make Huawei less dependent on the US company and the phones would be less secure.
Google wants to maintain that control. Huawei wants to be able to sell their phones. It’s up to the US legislative process to see what happens next.