Chinese electronics giant Huawei
currently holds the distinction of being the second-largest smartphone
manufacturer in the whole world. Its devices can be found on sale in a wide
variety of global markets. But that also makes it a big target in the ongoing
trade conflict between the US and China. One tactic being used by President
Donald Trump is to label Huawei as a security threat exploitable by the
Communist Chinese government, thus discouraging America and its allies from
buying smartphones and tech devices from them. As a result, American tech firms
are forced to cut development deals with Huawei.
Case in point according to CNN, social media giant Facebook has
made an announcement that pursuant to the US government putting Huawei on a
product blacklist, they have rescinded permission to allow pre-installation of
their mobile app on the Chinese company’s smartphones. In a statement released
Friday, June 14, Facebook said it will stop providing software to Huawei for
preinstalling mobile app versions of Facebook and its related social media
platforms such as Instagram and WhatsApp. To be clear, thus applies only to
smartphones that Huawei has yet to distribute to its markets. Existing phones
already with owners will not have their preinstalled FB removed. Users can
still use and update them without further hassle.
Joining in with the companies in
having to part ways with Huawei regarding pre-installed software is Google,
which of course co-developed the Android mobile OS line that the Chinese
company and many others use. This loss of support means that future Huawei
phones will also stop having pre-installed Gmail and other apps in the Google
umbrella, including Google Play which is the most common source platform for
downloading Android apps. Like with Facebook, already existing smartphones with
the pre-installed Google suite will not be affected.
The American position espoused by
President Trump has been that Huawei devices have software and hardware
backdoors that secretly feed user and public info directly to the government of
China, in a widespread case of electronic eavesdropping. It does not help that Huawei
Tech Ltd. was founded in 1987 by a former engineering officer of the People’s
Liberation Army, which is pointed out by detractors as not helping the
manufacturer’s protests that it has no links to the Chinese military and
leadership. This delicate position that Huawei is in has forced wireless
carriers around the world to cancel launching the company’s latest smartphones
and devices.
In light of being cut off from
the Google Android ecosystem, Huawei has begun looking into developing its own
Android-based MOS, but remains in its position of desiring continuous
operational relationships with stateside tech outfits.
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