Huawei Phones to Cease Receiving Google Security & Android Updates

Tyrx on 20/05/2019 - 06:08
Last edited 21/05/2019 - 01:44 by 1 other user

Huawei has been blacklisted for trade in the United States. The impact is that Google announced they will cease to provide Huawei phones with security & Android updates, and the phones will not be shipped with Google Play Services.

You might still be able to receive updates if Huawei launch their own OTA update system, but switching to that means that all your Google Play Services apps (including the play store) will likely cease to work. You could potentially side-load the play store, but it will be interesting to see if there are any certification issues with play Store access under such circumstances.

Mobile Google Huawei

Comments

    • [Deactivated] on 20/05/2019 - 19:07
      +12

      A bit different, that is prohibiting imports to the itw own country. This is prohibiting export to that country.

      It's like one man block himself from eating junk food and the other is the junk food company refusing to supply food to that one man.

      • wyrmy on 20/05/2019 - 19:33
        +2

        Kinda but not really. You are comparing an example with two parties involved, not three.
        The government is a third middle man acting as a gatekeeper between two parties.

        Internet companies - Chinese Government - business/consumers
        Huawei - US Government - business/consumers

        In two party scenarios there could be strategies or avenues to change the situation. Less so when you are at the mercy of a dictatorship.

      • Tyrx on 20/05/2019 - 19:42
        +7

        Not really. You're not allowed to operate within China unless you allow Chinese Communist Party members onto the company board and basically secede control to the state. China will complain about how this violates free trade, but they are the greatest hypocrites of all.

        • maxdba on 21/05/2019 - 11:15
          +2

          Not exactly. Google has been running its Ad business in China even after they quit the Chinese market. They have offices in Shanghai and still earn billion every year from China.

        • jkcat on 21/05/2019 - 18:02
          +1

          And yet US appoints its own compliance officers for ZTE should it wants to sell into or buy from US, due to breach of Iranian export restrictions imposed by US court. How does this do with free trade.

        • Mixhael on 22/05/2019 - 02:47

          The chimes government has always been hypocritical with its policies. They cry foul while doing the exact same thing.

  • field1985 on 20/05/2019 - 19:10
    +7

    Huawei will fork Android and create a 3rd platform, architecture and app store. They will overtake Android installs within a few years due to Asia/Europe dominance.

    There will be pain in the short term. But a 3rd mobile platform is good thing for competition in the medium-long term.

    It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

  • Wystri Warrick on 20/05/2019 - 19:52
    +3

    Bad news for China in the short term, bad news for the US in the long term.
    China is moving into the x86 sector thanks to VIA and AMD.
    In 2013 China unveils the world's fastest supercomputer made with Intel processors, in 2015 Obama stoped export of Intel Xeon processors to China, in 2016 China unveils the world's fastest supercomputer made with Chinese homegrown RISC processors that is 3x faster, in 2018 the US takes the crown.
    https://amp.tomshardware.com/news/china-beasts-us-fastest-su…

  • Ononono on 20/05/2019 - 20:36
    +14

    What a stupid move, US tech companies must be furious. In the short term Huawei will suffer, but for what future cost? China is just gonna go all out on developing its own chips and hardware. The only losers here are consumers

    • greatlamp on 20/05/2019 - 21:09
      +4

      China is already going all out developing chips and hardware, that is what Huawei is. It has grown very quickly by stealing designs of its competitors.

      US tech companies now have exclusive access to the US market- the largest market in the world. They are also a shoe in as preferred vendor for US allies, there is now 1 less competitor. They should be pleased with this result.

      This only hurts Google. The play store is just a platform. It would be very easy for someone else to replicate it. Alibaba could make their own in about a week, all they have to do is offer developers free listings

      They will benefit from a new platform to attract customers to their physical goods platform, and it builds the credibility of their brand.

      • Circly on 20/05/2019 - 21:22

        I wouldn't really want to use a chinese spyware OS though lol

        • berry580 on 23/05/2019 - 15:35
          +5

          But US spyware is ok?
          Welcome to our reality.

      • [Deactivated] on 20/05/2019 - 21:57
        -1

        Samsung is not us tech company

        • GuitarXXX on 23/05/2019 - 15:47

          Most of the stakes are controlled by America, though company sits in North Korea

  • Wystri Warrick on 20/05/2019 - 20:38
    +15

    Wish we could all just be friends :(.

  • scratchback on 20/05/2019 - 20:58
    -1

    Huawei bots r the most disgusting thing in the world, period.

  • scratchback on 20/05/2019 - 21:07

    Not only google, huawei is also using oracle database. Huawei’s days r numbered.

  • [Deactivated] on 20/05/2019 - 21:55

    This is just great. What am I gonna do with my $1200 paper weight?

  • bigbadboogieman on 20/05/2019 - 22:15
    +12

    What doesn't break you makes you stronger. If Huawei is able to navigate through this then they will end up as an even bigger monster.

  • blackmam8a24 on 20/05/2019 - 23:55
    +5

    Who else think this is a childish act by Trump administration? All this spy things is based on speculation and false information. Any devices and host can be compromised anytime by anyone. It's a suicidal move to try to spy on another country, I just can't think any logical reason one would do it. If China retaliate by banning US mobiles such as apple in China. It's the tech companies and consumers loosing out.

    Let's say Huawei goes out for US's sake, one could just rebrand it and sell the technologies to another companies. Is the US just gonna come up new laws and regulations to keep banning these companies?

    • Aneurism on 23/05/2019 - 17:57

      Imagine if the US government spy organizations have all this time been slipping backdoors into technology all this time to spy on their own people..but felt threatened by huawei equipment because they couldn't find a way to inject their vulnerabilities into the firmware or couldn't get the companies to comply ? What would they do ?..exactly what they are doing now.

  • muchape on 21/05/2019 - 00:40
    +3

    Whats the difference between the NSA/USA spying on everyone and China doing the same. What does Huawei do that is different from everyone else?

    • jayzee on 21/05/2019 - 00:54
      +24

      There is a real difference. NSA is spying on everyone has been confirmed by Edward Snowden, well Huawei spying on everyone is just mere speculation.

    • askme69 on 21/05/2019 - 08:28

      They are still Commies.

    • Scrooge McDuck on 21/05/2019 - 16:05
      +5

      The US is our big brother. China is our mother in law.

  • wallet72 on 21/05/2019 - 08:43
    +6

    so what is stopping Huawei from going to the WTO and getting this undone? I honestly don't know if it's possible, it just seems a bit unfair that a country can declare a company an enemy of the state without some burden of proof. In this case it's being sold as China vs America, but what happens when America takes a dislike to some other company?

    • FrugalDealHunter on 21/05/2019 - 08:56
      +8

      Lol WTO… Five eyes have banned Huawei. Canada arrested their managing director. Australia has banned Huawei from 5G.

      What's the WTO gonna do? These orgs are toothless tigers without any real power.

    • nomoneynoproblems on 21/05/2019 - 17:39
      +2

      Its the flagarant rules violation that got China in a trade war In The first place. That's like going to the police when you're a career criminal because someone blocked your driveway.

  • FrugalDealHunter on 21/05/2019 - 08:46
    +8

    Serves Huawei right. China strong arm companies to hand over their designs to operate in their market then funnel those designs to their state sponsored brands like Huawei who then undercut the market.

    • jkcat on 21/05/2019 - 17:47
      +5

      Yeah right as Aust Govt bans Huawei for so called security concerns despite of any concrete evidence. What's the difference? Every government does not reason when talking about self interests.

      • simonp86 on 21/05/2019 - 22:31
        +6

        Because the capability (as others have pointed out) is easily there and quite clearly so is the intent - from a (autocratic police-state no less) strategic adversary. Sad to see people who (I presume) live here have such a lack of engagement in our interests. If you Google (you get to do that here) you would see that FrugalDealHunter is correct. China does indeed 'strong arm' foreign companies wishing to enter their market (i.e. hand over your trade-secrets first) or insists on joint-ventures majority owned by domestic companies. Western companies with their short-term profits in view have a lot to answer for.

        At the slightest criticism, China uses its economic heft & trade position to threaten 'negative consequences' on us at the drop of a hat. It's a one-way street bound to create more distrust and fear. Meanwhile the Chinese government uses Wechat to unleash anti-Australian propaganda and seeks to recruit (sadly with some success) Chinese-Aussies as a fifth column: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/20/world/australia/australia…

        • Mixhael on 22/05/2019 - 02:52
          -1

          Wow didn't know about the Wechat recruitment China has been performing. Undermining our own population.

        • mychips on 23/05/2019 - 15:44

          Foreign ownership rules exist in China but it is being overhauled. Your comment is fair but it is more indicative of China in the past than present as they too move towards an IP based economy. Those foreign investment laws you speak of are from the 1970s and it served to benefit China when it was a developing nation but it is time for them to go since they are now an economic superpower.

          https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-15/china-new-foreign-inv…

          Historical context regarding those laws: They exist as it benefitted them to own some of the action rather than having a Western company profit off cheap labor and infrastructure in China and take those profits overseas. Instead, joint ownership would provide local enterprises with a level of development through joint ownership. This is the same thing China does in Africa where some African firms get joint ownership of projects or projects to allow locals to partake to transfer IP.

          China serves China much like Australia serves Australia. It isn't hard to understand that they serve their peoples' interest as much as it serves them as is the case of politics in most countries. I think Australia should follow our own interests itself rather than blindly follow the US as this trade war is only serving the US's interest to stay as the hegemonic superpower. This will not happen as China is growing in every metric possible and they both will have to learn to co-exist for the sake of world peace. We do not want a repeat of the cold war and a dangerous build up in the form of military tensions, racial conflict, and an arms race.

          As for China using its economic clout to pressure Australia, it is no different from USA using its economic clout to sanction countries that displease them. It is geopolitics and it sucks being on the receiving end but why are we being involved in the trade conflict between our military ally and largest trading partner. It is extremely dumb coming from our politicians wanting to get involved.

          • particle on 23/05/2019 - 19:02

            @mychips:

            As for China using its economic clout to pressure Australia, it is no different from USA using its economic clout to sanction countries that displease them. It is geopolitics and it sucks being on the receiving end but why are we being involved in the trade conflict between our military ally and largest trading partner. It is extremely dumb coming from our politicians wanting to get involved.

            Part of the problem is probably because the US is our military ally who shares defence technology and intelligence with us. Obviously the US would want to prevent that data from falling into a non-ally's hands, and they're trying to prevent it without waiting for it to happen first (like Tappy). Our alliance with the US must have clauses requiring Australia to take any US security concerns seriously, and vice versa.

            Australia could choose to not get involved and ignore the US' concerns with Huawei, but that would just result in us losing a big part of our military alliance with the US. Would the Australian govt benefit more by supporting a single foreign mobile phone/5g company, versus continuing to receive foreign defence tech and intelligence?

            • mychips on 23/05/2019 - 22:17
              +2

              @particle: Well, that's my exact point though. If Australia were to go against the US's interest, they would leverage everything against us too until they got their way (not give us military equipment hardware, supplies or support). China did the exact same thing in giving us the cold shoulder since we banned Huawei (stop imports, make it harder to do business). It's just slightly different and it's just how geopolitics works.

      • DBW on 23/05/2019 - 04:07

        Australia Gov bans Huawei quite proactively than another three from the Five-Eyes, isn't it just because they wanted to make the US satisfied?

    • mrvaluepack on 23/05/2019 - 18:34

      No one put a gun to their heads to do that, the corporations wanted market share and profits and, thats the price & risk they were willing to take.

      If you go into someone's house, you respect their house rules.

  • nahi11 on 21/05/2019 - 09:15
    +3

    It's not like they pass on the updates anyway lol

  • Homr on 21/05/2019 - 09:37
    -1

    Lucky I didn't get the P30 pro :D

    • [Deactivated] on 21/05/2019 - 09:56

      what if drops to $1,000 $800 or $500? yes it might get the latest update of Android but since phones only last 1-2 years these days, it's a pretty good bargain if they drop the price

      • Homr on 21/05/2019 - 10:08
        +3

        Exactly, if I bought the phone for $1200 and dropped $500 due to this issue, i'd be pissed, VERY PISSED. thank god I didn't buy P30 pro

        • [Deactivated] on 21/05/2019 - 10:15

          hang on, you calling Trump a God? I mean I know Xi is but Trump?

          Anyway, sit back my friend and enjoy the show, it's going to be a good one. I can't wait for next episode War of Trade (WoT). I predict Musk will ran out of money and turn to China. There's just not enough sex in this show though.

          • Homr on 21/05/2019 - 10:51
            +2

            @[Deactivated]: My stocks are tumbling cos of this trade war, so it's not a good show for me

            • jenkemjunkie on 23/05/2019 - 23:41

              @Homr: What stocks?

              • Homr on 24/05/2019 - 06:12

                @jenkemjunkie: IJR, VVLU, WDMF

                • jenkemjunkie on 24/05/2019 - 07:59

                  @Homr: Nice, all ETFs, you’ll be fine

                  • Homr on 24/05/2019 - 10:57

                    @jenkemjunkie: But all my other individual stocks are performing well. GXY, ECX, LLC, NXT, FLT

                    Where as my ETFs are going shit, i regret buying ETFS

  • mrhanky71 on 21/05/2019 - 09:59
    +7

    why cant china and US just get along lol

    • Mixhael on 22/05/2019 - 02:54
      +3

      There's only room for one superpower; China is gunning for the top and America doesn't want to give up its place.

      • payless69 on 22/05/2019 - 09:18
        -3

        China is way way ahead! Only thing the Yanks can do is corrupt them with junk like glossy Iphones. Too bad India is not falling for the US psycho tricks an they will soon outbreed the Chinese..

  • angelkulit025 on 21/05/2019 - 10:02

    i'll still buy it when it drops to 500 buckeroos!!!

  • wallet72 on 21/05/2019 - 10:30
    +4

    US government has given Huawei an 90 day 'licence' so companies can trade with them as usual.

    Back down beginning…

  • FrugalDealHunter on 21/05/2019 - 10:38

    Are Huawei laptops, TVs and smartwatches also impacted?

    • wallet72 on 21/05/2019 - 13:56

      yup they sure are.

    • humbala on 21/05/2019 - 13:57
      +7

      “But in the space of a year, the P20 has depreciated by a huge 81%.

      “Whilst the P30, which was only released last month, has depreciated by 46% already.”

      Sound BS to me. send me link of where you can get a p20 81% off and P30 46% off

      • idonotknowwhy on 21/05/2019 - 19:53

        Sound BS to me. send me link of where you can get a p20 81% off and P30 46% off

        Agreed! Post a deal, I'd love this!

      • Name on 22/05/2019 - 19:34

        Typical news limited crap "journalism".

  • Bid Sniper on 21/05/2019 - 11:37

    Surpised hit consumer level. Huawei spying issue was a concern at enterprise level. Well if I had one of these phones Id put it on ebay / gumtree before its totally worthless.

    I hate Trump but agree with the ban. Western IP is stolen via Huawei spy hardware. Affecting western economies and innovation. Australian and NZ govewnt already banned Huawei infracture.

    • wallet72 on 21/05/2019 - 13:59
      +8

      I'm not disagreeing, but in this case there has been no proof of any wrongdoing by Huawei. There have been claims by the US government and their spokespeople, and pressure on other countries to go along with the US, but to this date no proof has been offered to back up the spying claims.

      A quote from Trump that puts this all in perspective (paraphrased): any agreement between US and China will not be 50/50, because of the way China has acted in the past. Kind of smells like a typical Trump negotiation tactic.

      • Bid Sniper on 21/05/2019 - 14:15
        +8

        Its a counting scandal with "spychips" found on server boards. This is before Trump and our own government has banned Huewei.

        https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/china-used-huawei-to…

        Anything Trump says is idiotic, but if you ignore that gasbag, based on logic

        1. Does China hack and spy on other countries - yes
        2. Does China steal IP - yes
        3. is Huewei Chinese government controlled - yes
        4. is Huewei a potential security risk at the national level - yes.

        So why run the risk?

        • wallet72 on 21/05/2019 - 14:24
          +14

          CIA, NSA and FBI hack other countries - so why deal with them?
          ASIO can listen to nearly all phone calls - so why deal with them?

          The spy chip scandal was not linked to Huawei, again there is no proof of any wrongdoing here. Actually the most ridiculous claim I heard was a US government official saying a smartphone with a 50x camera zoom could only be used for spying.

          Like alot of Ozbargainers I buy random nerd stuff from China - how is Xiaomi or TP-Link or any other companies any safer to deal with?

          • particle on 22/05/2019 - 03:40
            +2

            @wallet72: Perhaps people in Australia are mostly not concerned with the CIA/NSA/FBI because the US and Australia are long term allies in trade and war. Australians probably also feel safer about ASIO being able to listen in on calls than not to.

            • wallet72 on 22/05/2019 - 08:34
              +3

              @particle: yeah agree. It seems like it's less about facts and more about what we are told to believe - and if it comes from the government it must be true.

          • Bid Sniper on 23/05/2019 - 08:28

            @wallet72: I dont care on a personnel level because I'm not of any interest to any entities mentioned. This is not about spying on citizens.

            However what I'm concerned about is industrial IP and government data being stolen by the Chinese government and them making money off our IP. CIA, NSA, FBI, ASIO etc… can hack but will not steal IP that will weaken our businesses thus national economy.

            • wallet72 on 23/05/2019 - 10:07
              +2

              @Bid Sniper: really? The FBI were used to steal information from competitors and give to Boeing, that's one case.

              You have to remember that China doesn't have to steal much, companies all over the world send their IP to China (and other countries) to get developed and/or manufactured.

            • mychips on 23/05/2019 - 16:02

              @Bid Sniper: USA spies of virtually everyone for to maintain their advantage in trade and they play dirty to get their way.

              They have operated under rules written for their economic interests for many decades and their actions only serve themselves. Don't believe me? Just look at their trade war with the EU currently or their trade war with Japan in the 1980s which resulted in the Plaza Accord. The EU is their ally and they leveraged everything to destroy Japan in 80s and Japan hasn't recovered economically since.

              The main reason for this trade war is economic superiority and China is beating them in their own game as it stands which is why they're playing dirty. God knows why we're getting ourselves involved between them. We're an ant in a battle between two giants.

              • Bid Sniper on 23/05/2019 - 17:30

                @mychips: Totally believe that USA plays dirty, they literally wrote the book on terrorism. Is this ban politically motivated by idiot Trump as yet another diversion from his corrupt stupidity, absolutely.

                My point is that Huawei is a threat at a national level. China couldn't not care less about stealing out IP. At least with the US there some scope to pursue legally.

                Our government quietly made the decision before all this $#!tstorm, trust Trump to ruin things for everyone.

        • Aneurism on 23/05/2019 - 18:05

          You could pretty much say the same on all of those points about the US

      • Circly on 21/05/2019 - 15:23
        +1

        Negotiation 101. Anchor high and come down if required.

        Why start negotiating at 50/50 if that's what you wanted.

        • wallet72 on 21/05/2019 - 15:35

          100% agree, just a shame that on a global scale innocent companies and people get caught up

    • illuSion on 21/05/2019 - 15:34
      +4

      AU & NZ banned Huawei because they are Uncle Sam's puppets, there isn't really much technology for China to steal from AU and NZ, name one if you can. Banning Huawei network means we have to pay more for 5G network, corporations will just pass down the cost to consumers.

  • dbglt on 21/05/2019 - 12:55

    So does this mean no Android Q for any of the existing devices ?

  • Hawi on 21/05/2019 - 13:05

    Here's a very important statement from Huawei Aus:
    http://huaweihub.com.au/huawei-statement/
    Not sure how true it is, but sounds extremely promising for Australian customers.

    • Bid Sniper on 21/05/2019 - 14:17
      +1

      little substance, they're seriously screwed.

      • DBW on 23/05/2019 - 04:17

        Your comment seems quite subjective to me.

        • Bid Sniper on 23/05/2019 - 08:28
          +1

          There is no plan to work without Google, hence my statement.

          • DBW on 23/05/2019 - 11:38

            @Bid Sniper: AFAIK, if the ban continues, Huawei will not pack Google apps and service framework in newer models. However, contents that can be accessed as a public resource are not included. That means Huawei, in theory, should be able to add just one simple step during the system initialisation and give users an option to install those Google apps and the most importantly the framework. I don't know if you have ever done it yourself, but it really just takes a few minutes (3 mins, at most) to install all those components to make Google services running. Not to mention this was just one resolution I can think of as an outsider.

            • Aneurism on 23/05/2019 - 18:08

              @DBW: Until Google implement a secret kill switch to detect whether their services are running on a Huawei device on a version of android higher than Android Pie.

  • Gerry H on 21/05/2019 - 13:29
    +1

    will huawei phone massive price drop now? my parents still need phones and none of us use google apps.

  • TomGum on 21/05/2019 - 13:30

    “..in the space of a year, the P20 has depreciated by a huge 81%."
    “Whilst the P30, which was only released last month, has depreciated by 46% already.”

    Insane!!

    • Gerry H on 21/05/2019 - 13:51
      +4

      i dont see anywhere near such a price drop. where are u getting such deals? p30 is still selling for rrp.

    • wallet72 on 21/05/2019 - 15:36

      I don't see that on Ebay yet…

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