Huawei ‘loses’ access to Play Store after Google cuts Android license

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – US tech giant Google has dealt a major blow to Huawei by blocking the top Chinese telecommunications firm from using critical apps and services like Gmail and YouTube on its range of smartphones, according to media reports.

In a move apparently in a reaction to the US government’s new restrictions, Google's parent company Alphabet has cut off some business with Huawei that “requires the transfer of hardware, software and technical services except those publicly available via open source licensing”.

https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1130309670491512832

Last week, the Trump administration added Huawei to its 'Entity List', meaning US companies can't do business with Huawei without explicit government approval.

A report from Reuters claims Google has ceased providing Huawei with hardware and software products, except those covered by open source licenses.

For Huawei’s consumer business, Google’s move means future Huawei handsets will not be able to access updates to the Android, the world’s most used mobile operating system, and will lose the ability to use or access the Google Play Store, Gmail, Chrome, and YouTube.

Just like other major smartphone makers including Samsung and LG, Huawei relies on the Google-developed Android operating system to power its mobile devices.

https://twitter.com/Android/status/1130313848332988421

Huawei will instead be restricted to using a public version of the operating system called Android Open Source Project, which does not include standard Google apps like Gmail, Google Maps, Google Photos and YouTube.

It appears to be a critical blow to the smartphone business of Huawei, which was now only behind Samsung when it comes to global smartphone sales, with 59.1 million shipments in the first quarter of 2019.