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Google Android Technology

Google freezes out Huawei in escalating US trade spat

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By John Glenday, Reporter

May 20, 2019 | 3 min read

Google has blocked rival Huawei from utilising the latest updates to its Android operating system, freezing out the Chinese smartphone maker from some apps.

Google freezes out Huawei in escalating US trade spat

Existing Huawei users will not be impacted by the decision / Google

The decision was prompted by the addition of Huawei to an ‘entity list’ of blacklisted companies by the US government, meaning American companies cannot trade with Huawei or hand over technology without first obtaining a license.

Existing Huawei users will not be impacted by the decision as they will still be able to update apps and access security fixes through the Google Play store but the next iteration of Android, due out later this year, could be a different story.

In a worst-case scenario, this could see future Huawei devices lose access to popular apps and services such as YouTube, Maps and Google Assistant although it could fall back on an open source version of the popular smartphone software.

Huawei has yet to comment publicly on the move but has been increasingly developing its own components to reduce reliance on third parties.

Huawei is at the centre of a developing trade war between the US and China amid fears in the west that its technology could be used as a trojan horse to route sensitive data back to Beijing.

This animosity has seen the Chinese government formally back a Huawei lawsuit seeking to overturn the US decision, arguing that it violates the American constitution by singling out a specific company for punitive action without trial.

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