Google Gets Nod To License Android For Huawei After US President Donald Trump Lifts Ban

Google can once again work with Chinese smartphone maker Huawei. The US President Donald Trump provided reprieve to Huawei, less than a month after blacklisting Huawei. It means that search giant Google can now work with Huawei and continue to sell its Android license to the smartphone maker. The move is also going to help its Honor, Huawei’s sub-brand aimed at online consumers.

“While it’s unclear whether that extends to the 5G network technology, it most certainly applies to Google and Android. “Under the terms of the previous ban (national security order), Google was barred from selling an Android license to Huawei,” the PC World reported on Saturday.

Huawei gets reprieve from US President Donald Trump

All major American tech companies were barred from working with the Chinese tech giant. This barred Google from selling an Android license to Huawei. The announcement meant that Huawei could use the base open-source code, but would not have access to the all-important Play Store and Google apps. A temporary licence was issued soon which allowed Google to support and update the Android OS currently running on existing Huawei devices.

While the 90 day reprieve meant that Huawei could update its older devices but future products seemed to have affected. Huawei has said that it was working on its own OS, which could be called Hong Meng OS. It has reportedly reached out to other Chinese brands such as OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi as partners.

Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business, has said that the company will stick with Android, if its available. However, in the event of lack of access to Android, Huawei said it will use its own operating system. Huawei shipped over 206 million smartphones last year to dethrone Apple as the second major brand. Nearly 50 percent of its smartphone sales were outside China in 2018. This raised concerns about its sustainability with the lack of Android license. The reprieve from Trump would mean that Huawei can once again focus on its goal of becoming largest smartphone brand in the world.

“We acknowledge the US President’s comments relating to Huawei yesterday and have no further comment at this time,” the Chinese company said in a statement.

Beyond aiding Huawei, Trump’s move will boost Google and other Huawei partners, according to TechCrunch. Huawei had earlier said that Google would lose millions of users if it turns away from Google’s Android OS.―BGR