PARIS, May 20, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Hundreds of millions of smartphone users
will be affected by Google’s decision to sever its Android operating system
ties with Chinese handset maker Huawei.
The decision, in the midst of a US trade war with China, means that Huawei
users will start losing access to Google’s proprietary services such as Gmail
and Maps, and be shut out of future upgrades to Android on their phones.
The move by the California internet giant on the software front was
compounded by news that US chipmakers have stopped supplying Huawei, hitting
the hardware of its phones.
– Many customers affected –
Huawei sold nearly 203 million phones last year, up from 150 million in
2017, according to data tracking firm Gartner, overtaking Apple to threaten
Samsung atop the global charts.
For the first quarter of 2019, before its recent run-in with President
Donald Trump’s administration, Huawei sold 59 million handhelds, IDC
calculated.
Those users risk losing access to important upgrades to Android released
by Google in future, although for now Huawei said it would continue to
provide security updates.
The Chinese company will only be able to access software patches and
distribute them from Android’s open source project, not proprietary
information retained by Google, meaning that apps on Huawei phones could
become unusable.
– No easy fix for Huawei –
To get around the Google ban, Huawei would ultimately have to build its
own operating system, as Apple has for its iPhones. That cannot be done in a
hurry.
Microsoft offers a salutary example. Between 2010 and 2017, the US company
tried to entice users to buy phones built on its own Windows mobile operating
system. But the phones never took off and the company pulled the plug on the
OS.
Huawei does have a big advantage over Microsoft, given the bigger scale of
its mobile market penetration.
Software developers might feel compelled to offer a Huawei-specific
version of their apps. Or the Chinese manufacturer could start a new branch
of the Android family based on the open source version available now.
But that will all take time.
– Risks for Google too –
The widespread mobile usage of Maps, Gmail and Google’s other services has
helped the US company build a market-leading position with Android alongside
its crushing dominance in desktop browsing.
But in cutting off Huawei, Google risks being deprived of the revenue-
generating data of all those phone owners around the world.
And other Chinese smartphone makers, such as Xiaomi, Oppo and OnePlus,
will be watching closely.
Should Huawei build its own system, it’s conceivable that those companies
might join it, in a bid to end their own vulnerability to future actions by
the US government or companies.