Just a month after the US government restricted Chinese tech companies including Huawei to trade with the US firms, President Trump in a recent meeting with Chinese President has said that he will allow US firms to do business and sell high-tech equipment to Huawei Technologies Co.
Though it was not clear from the initial reports that whether this reinstatement will also be applicable to software companies like Google but now a new report from PC World has affirmed that “while Trump didn’t specifically mention Google, Qualcomm, or Intel in the announcement, it is a common understanding that “complex and highly scientific” products created by U.S. tech companies do include Google’s Android and Play Store services. As Trump states;
“What we’ve done in Silicon Valley is incredible and nobody has been able to compete with it, and I’ve agreed to allow them to continue to sell that product (to Huawei).”
As the statement implies, how can we neglect one of the leading tech giants of Silicon Valley — Google (under Alphabet Inc.) to not be added in its incredible list. This means that Google will be allowed to give Huawei access to its proprietary apps and services but it will be entirely dependent on Google and Huawei whether they want to continue business with each other or not. Though the “no” is highly unlikely.
See Also: 5 reasons why halting Android license for Huawei is Google’s own loss
It is worth mentioning here that Google had banned Huawei to use the Android branding on its devices and provide services like the Google Play Store, YouTube, Google Search, Chrome, etc. out-of-the-box. However, the ban hadn’t technically taken effect due to a 90-day relief offered by the US administration in order to conclude on-going business deals.
Last but not least, it’s still not clear whether this reinstatement extends to the 5G network technology that Huawei is developing. Also, the new plans of Trump administration don’t change anything about Huawei’s ability to sell its phones in the United States. Even Huawei also wants to open this debate at the end of all agreements, probably at the time of negotiations over tariffs.
