There is no rest for Huawei. The United States Government has tightened its restrictions on the Asian company, making the operations of the Huawei P40 mother even more complicated. Protecting itself on its suspicions that the firm collaborates with the Chinese Communist Party, the Trump administration has imposed new restrictions that further complicate things for the Chinese company and that would affect not only future smartphones but also old ones (previous the veto). This is the situation at the moment.
A complicated scenario
Relations between Huawei and the US, far from improving, only get more complicated as the months go by. Although last year the company got the big scare with its inclusion in Trump’s blacklist , it seemed that with the passage of time it had managed to weather the storm moderately, with the granting of an extension by the North American government, a store of more and more numerous apps and the search for certain tricks when it comes to selling their new phones (those before the veto decree could continue to use Google services, remember) and marketing with US companies.
However, now things are getting much more complicated for the Asian company. The temporary license to which the firm was holding on like a burning nail has ended its term, with the refusal by the US to renew it. Moreover, maintaining its theory that Huawei actively collaborates with the Chinese Communist Party (PCG) and with the aim of protecting the country’s national security and privacy, it has decided to toughen its measures, expanding its restrictions.
How? Well, expanding the list of US companies affiliated with Huawei that will not be able to do business with the company. From 114, there have been 152 companies that will have to individually request permission from the US Department of Commerce to carry out any type of business with the Chinese company. In this way, an attempt is made to make Huawei’s attempts to avoid export controls to obtain electronic components even more difficult, something that has already resulted in the cancellation of production of its famous and powerful Kirin processors . In case you didn’t know, those are created by TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), which uses American equipment and technologies for their manufacture and has had to renounce it – it is not licensed by the US -, forcing Huawei to Look for an alternative in another manufacturer for your next and expected Mate 40.
Can it affect old Huawei phones?
The new restrictions are not limited to adding a certain number of companies to the list of firms that cannot do business with Huawei. The Bureau of Industry and Security of the Department of Commerce has included in its veto “products produced at home and abroad from US technology and software .”
This could imply, as indicated in Gizmodo, that Huawei does not receive support from Google for future software updates, affecting users of phones who now enjoy their services – all those launched prior to May 16, 2019. Yes, The company could find a way to partially solve this situation – until now it has been able to show that it knows how to turn this around – but it would end up without the certification support of certain APIs of the Mountain View company as important as SafetyNet Attestation (which is responsible for validating a phone and ensuring that the equipment is not compromised, being essential for making payments with the mobile, for example) for which it is much more difficult to find a solution.
Until now, the Asian company has managed to demonstrate its enormous drive and strength, managing to remove all the stones that it has encountered along the way (it is still one of the top 5 brands in Spain), but the new slope that is ahead of it seems to be a whim harder than ever.