Google has just confirmed that Huawei’s heavy-hitter 2019 flagship will not have access to Google apps.
Due to the trade tensions with the United States and China, as well as American security concerns, Donald Trump has put Huawei Technologies on the Entity List, the blacklist for companies that cannot trade with the U.S.
Because of this decision, companies like Google have increasingly pulled away from anything to do with Huawei. In a recent exclusive from Reuters, Google has now confirmed that Huawei’s Mate 30, its heavy-hitting latest flagship, will not have access to Google apps.
The Mate 30 Pro will be Huawei’s first flagship launch since being put on the Entity List by Trump back in May. A Google spokesman told Reuters that “the Mate 30 cannot be sold with licensed Google apps and services due to the U.S. ban on sales to Huawei.”
Such licensed Google apps and services include some of the most popular apps in the world such as YouTube, Google Maps, Drive, Chrome, and Gmail.
The Mate 30 line-up is confirmed to be shown off on September 19 and will hit shelves soon after that. The Mate 30 phones have screens, cameras, processing powers, and batteries all similar to products hailing from Samsung and Apple.
Android has stated previously that devices created before the bans will still run Google services.
For Huawei users' questions regarding our steps to comply w/ the recent US government actions: We assure you while we are complying with all US gov't requirements, services like Google Play & security from Google Play Protect will keep functioning on your existing Huawei device.
— Android (@Android) May 20, 2019
To add a flair of confusion to this news, it’s reported that the Mate 30 devices will still run Android OS.
“Huawei will continue to use the Android OS and ecosystem if the U.S. government allows us to do so,” Otherwise, we will continue to develop our own operating system and ecosystem.”
Android’s operating system is open-source, this means that any manufacturer can offer it up. However, companies need an agreement with Google if they want to offer apps that you’re so used to seeing when you boot up an Android-powered phone.
At the time of writing Huawei ‘IS’ allowed to use Android OS on future phones, however this could change. Huawei is prepared for this eventuality, claiming it is creating its own OS called HarmonyOS.
You can read more on HarmonyOS here.
There aren’t any prices given yet for the Mate 30 range but the Huawei Mate 20 Pro costed around $1,150 at launch.
