Huawei Phones to Cease Receiving Google Security & Android Updates

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.

Comments

  • and on top of that, the Huawei website you visit to redeem special bonuses (like gift cards or headphones etc) is now down.

  • I predict Apple will experience 'delays' at Customs in China over the coming weeks, and 'difficulties' meeting every single law and regulation at its retail stores and parts suppliers in China. These problems will be 'unfortunate'.

    Trump has a point (to a certain extent) about trade with China. How many of us have marveled at Chinese companies ability to ship a gadget to us for $1 including air mail when sending a letter across town costs the same here? It's subsidized by the government and costs are pushed onto the receiving postal system.

    But Trump is naive in his belief that companies will close their Chinese factories and move back to the USA. They'll move to Vietnam, India, and Thailand instead. Apple already has an iPhone factory in India.

    • Apple is going to have a hard time in China for sure.

      • Trump never wins the Silicon Valley and he doesn't care.

  • +3

    Damn. Ive had my current model for over a year and its been the best bang for buck phone I have ever had. Oh well.

  • +7

    The US trying to influence other nations by using the phrase "security concerns" to protect their interests. Same shit happened with WMD's in Iraq and US oil companies (Halliburton, Chevron, Exxonmobil).

    All "could's & maybe's" but no solid evidence to back it up.

    Just finished watching the movie Vice and it feels and looks like the same thing is happening again…

    • +7

      What it shows is that US is a big bully and I hate bullies. Therefore I will support Huawei by getting P30 pro :)

  • +3

    Time to test my Westpac black buyer protection. P30 purchased a week ago.

  • +5

    Can I just pose a question that came up that made a lot of sense….say all the spying is real (you know everything is collecting information on you…..right?)….what would the Chinese government, or any government for that matter do with an average citizens information?

    If you worked for sensitive companies, R&D or government arms then sure, absolutely, security and privacy should be your number one concern but really? They really gonna take that dick pic and use it for them dastardly deeds huh. All these posts about "mah privacy".

    I'm just sad there will be less competition in the marketplace if this is permanent.

    • There'll actually be more competition long term. Without a doubt Huawei will develop their own operating system and app store.

  • +6

    Most claims against Huawei are unsubstantiated without a shed of proof.

    Purely political badgering.

    The US is just trying to smack down the competition as much as possible.

    • +4

      LIke seriously, if this was an american arms dealer, would there be sanctions?

      https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/21/turkey-has-2-weeks-to-cancel…

      When the US doesn't get a monopoly over a sector, they either tax the country, apply penalties, do media smear campaigns using their huge global media influence or quite frankly invade.

    • +4

      The only way anyone can say 'this software doesn't contain backdoors' is with Open Source software, and even there it requires dedicated people to scour the code. Otherwise no one can say whether Huawei's hardware has exploits waiting to be activated by a hostile government. We have no idea whether Cisco, Alcatel, Microsoft, etc kowtow to their respective governments too.

      If you don't have access to the source code then you cannot be sure.

  • interesting that this 'negotiation' tactic seems about to blow up…

    According to Reuters, Morgan Stanley analysts have warned that a collapse of the ongoing trade talks between China and the US, and longer lasting tariffs on trade between the two countries, would “mean that we might not be able to avert the tightening of financial conditions and a full-blown recession.”

  • Donald Duck is going to go down as the ONLY President to have intentionally brought about a World Recession…. Long live the President until I finish negotiating with Jon Snow to take this Mad King down as well.

    • sweet dreams, his strength causes a temporary domestic boom at the expense of the rest…

  • +1

    I will miss local AU Stock Dual Sim flagship phone.
    Samsung please bring in dual sim Note 9 in Australia.

    • +3

      LG has your back (and subsequently stabs you in the back through poor support and no OS updates)

  • emuriKKKan propaganda in effect.

    if we can't spy on you nobody else can!

    • +2

      I wouldn’t conflate KKK with geopolitics mate. China is a racist shithole of a country too if you think it really boils down to race…, You wouldn’t want them having global hegemony: butttt KKKhina amirite?

  • +1

    We buy the failure that is the Joint Strike Fighter (F-35A) from the US. National security anyone?

  • How "convenient" for Google that this happens right after they are ordered to pay out a class action lawsuit for shipping Huawei's dodgy hardware (the Nexus 6P).

  • -3

    In my opinion, to "most ordinary mobile users", the risks and uncertainty of owning or buying a Huawei phone without Google support (after the 90 days "grace" period, future Android patches/ security updates, access to Gmail, access to Google Play store, access to Google Maps, access to Youtube, access to Chrome, etc…) is simply too high a risk, worry, concern or trouble. It would be much easier and less hassle to just get another mobile phone from another company.

    With so much uncertainty, who is to say other companies (US and International) will not follow suit to blacklist Huawei (Windows, ebay, amazon, ARM, Dolby, Corning etc… ) If your mobile phone needs to be repaired (especially if it's under warranty), you would want the original Corning (US) Gorilla Glass Protection or Dolby (US) Audio speakers and certainly not some lower quality substitutes?

    Today it's Huawei (CHN), who would be next on Trump's blacklist? Lenovo (CHN), Oppo (CHN), etc… ?

    Has anyone with a Huawei phone approached their store where they bought their phone (JB Hifi/Harvey Norman/etc…) or if they are on a Telco plan (Optus/ Vodafone/ Telstra/ etc…) managed to get a refund or exchange to another non-Huawei phone?

    ACCC
    Under the Australian Consumer Law, consumers are entitled to a refund, replacement or repair under the consumer guarantees if a good is not of acceptable quality or fit for any purpose. These rights include software or security updates that are required for mobile devices to operate effectively.

    • +2

      I have. Jb hifi will refund after 90 day extension is over if the resolution is not in Huawei favor. I have it in writing.

      • would you mind sharing it? It would help others too. Thanks. I am yet to go to Jb HiFi but it would be helpful if I can show them something.

  • Not just their phones, their windows laptops, their products that use Intel chipsets etc etc.

    Absolutely effed.

  • +3

    We are the hungry little piglets who love sucking on the t*ties of our mother piggy (the US).

  • +9

    This all has the whiff of a new cold war. The USA and its allies have shown a willingness to boycott successful Chinese companies and stop cooperation between the USA and China, and now there are calls in China to boycott US aligned products too. Even if relationships are patched in the next few months both sides will be eyeing each other and thinking 'we can't trust you'.

    Vietnam will be the big winner out of all of this. A low wage, nominally Communist country that also enjoys good relations with the West, and has a rapidly growing manufacturing base. The last set of Bridgestone tires I purchased were made there, same with my Samsung phone, and the last few Asus motherboards were too.

    We're likely to see a push in China to create their own hardware and software to cut reliance on the West. China already produces a viable x86 clone (KaiXian and Zhaoxian) based on AMD technology (probably cloned by now). You can bet they'll be working to clone ARM CPUs. I wouldn't be surprised if there are calls to move China way from Windows.

    In the long term this will hurt trade and strengthen the Chinese tech giants by getting them to design their own tech.

    • +1

      This cold war started back in the Obama era where he had to call them out and get them to sign a treaty to basically get them to stop hacking US companies and agencies. Of course China reneged on that deal and Trump called them out again.

      I don't see how Chinese tech companies will get anywhere without western IP which is what their tech is relying on. Taiwan manufacturing is ahead of China and they don't even trust them enough to get their best stuff made there due to IP theft. Looks like their plans for China 2025 has hit a bump.

      • +1

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t9hBomvRlA

        They full heatedly admit the western countries building them up.

        It's like in school though, where people say the asian students don't have much imagination or creativity.

        This is called wishful thinking.

    • On the Vietnam note, lots of stuff already made there, we consult in related industries. However it will be another 10 or more years before Vietnam has sufficient manufacturing culture and the supply chain necessary to do it at a scale China does to be able to do enough volume efficiently. A large part of why it is easier for Western cultures to do business in China (lol, yes I know about the government barriers) is the fact that there are so many Chinese with reasonably good english. That is not a, 1 year thing…

  • +1

    Globalization? Now more like the opposite way.

  • +1

    I think many people's views on this are also skewed by which news articles they are reading.

    In this issue you have:
    Trumps perspective
    US public perspective
    HUAWEI users perspective
    Xijingping perspective
    Huawei's perspective
    US corporations perspective in, and outside of china.

    The US corporations couldn't give a rats arse, they want to keep their shareholders happy and make money and sell to the chinese.
    All the parts suppliers are conversing with huawei to find a way out of this (google huawei press conference)
    Huawei knows it's Google being forced by US law.

    At the end of the day, Trump want's his wall, trump wants his trade deal and he will kick and scream until he gets it.
    Chinese government says FU.
    The Chinese people say, wtf is gmail we don't care we use wechat.

  • +2

    US is basically afraid of a world not dominated by the US. 5g is the gateway to all things connected. Huawei is leaps and bounds ahead of any of its competitors. Neither Ericsson nor Nokia are in Huawei's league by any measure. Huawei basically created 5g. And this is in part thanks to the communist party's funding that propelled Huawei to where it is now. There is no evidence of said spying. The only thing the government has on Huawei is Chinese law that compels Chinese companies to aid in whatever request. This is no different to american laws that compel companies to do the same.

    Australian ban is effectively an economic move. TPG was set to leap to 5g using Huawei equipment. This basically decimates Telstra and NBN. How can you compare measly 100mbps best speeds to 15-20 gpbs on a mobile network. NBN becomes a relic. It was fortuitous that US asked 5 eyes to ban Huawei at the same time that Australia needed an excuse to protect its investments.

    The blacklisting is the offshoot of the government asking everyone to ban Huawei in its equipment. Germany didn't budge. UK didn't either. It was only NZ, AU, and US that banned Huawei. If they can't force everyone to do the same, America strong-armed companies to co-operate or face fines or blacklisting as well.

    • +3

      Huawei were selling cellular shit to Iran despite agreements and sanctions to not do so. Typical Chinese behaviour. That’s why this shit is popping off.

    • +2

      "The only thing the government has on Huawei is Chinese law that compels Chinese companies to aid in whatever request. This is no different to american laws that compel companies to do the same."

      Except china is communist gov
      and has full control all the big companies at the very top.

      China gov don't need to go through any judges or grand juries anytime they want any data they want from those companies…

      China gov : "give us data on x"
      Huawei : "yes sir, right away sir"

  • -4

    Australia's love of the Chinese government drives sales of Huawei phones here.

    People in China all know that Huawei is backed by the PLA, so it is amusing for them to see Australians embrace Huawei phones, while in China itself, people use other brands mostly.

    But each to their own….lol

    • +1

      Huawei has a tiny market here. Many Chinese people in China use Huawei mainly because it has the best usability.

  • +2

    Gotta love Donald’s “It’s my way or the Huawei” attitude.

  • Welp apparently Huawei are no allowed to work on wifi, usb or sd card standards. Rip.

  • I don't know if this is related. My Android Auto just stopped working with P20 Pro.. Im so upset right now!!

    • It's not related.. Existing devices will continue to have support.
      Go read the article from the OP it's 100% clear.

      Android updates will continue to roll out (unless Huawei pull the pin). They will be delayed by an extra 4 weeks, but they're already delayed by 3-6 months so you will barely notice the difference there.

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