Google’s parent company Alphabet, Inc, has discontinued business with Huawei in the wake of the Trump administration adding the Chinese smartphone maker to a blacklist of companies prevented from doing business in the U.S.
The business includes any operations that require the transfer of hardware, software and technical services except those publicly available via open source licensing.
The suspension of business was first reported by news agency Reuters.
The U.S. Commerce Department said it was considering scaling back the ban to “prevent the interruption of existing network operations and equipment.” It is unclear though when or whether such a scale-back would come.
Huawei continues to have access to the full, public version of the Android operating system. That open source license, known as the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), is available for free to anyone who wishes to use it. But Google will no longer provide Huawei with access to or support with its proprietary applications and services.
There are roughly 2.5 billion Android smartphones currently in use the world over, according to Google.
The ban is not expected to affect Huawei’s domestic Chinese business, experts say, as most Google mobile apps are already banned in China. But Huawei’s European business could be significantly impacted. Europe is Huawei’s second biggest market and Google applications are vital for smartphone makers who wish to operate in the West.
Photo by Karlis Dambrans via Flickr