Google begs for US Entity List exemption to let Huawei use its mobile services – report

As Huawei takes the initiative to create its own homegrown alternative to the Play Store, Google has reportedly pleaded with the White House to offer it an exemption to again work with the Chinese tech giant. Huawei's inclusion on the Trump administration's Entity List has had dramatic consequences for the company's handset …

[Kevin Johnston]

Conflicted

This has the potential to be a major impact for Android but the question is which direction will it go. It could be a loosening of the controls on android allowing more options available to phone makers or it could reach the point where Google drop it and it goes into a death spiral. Extreme views maybe but it would only take a couple of the big handset makers to adopt the Huawei approach to wipe out Google's profit from Android

[Ozan]

Re: Conflicted

Im thinking android turning full closed source

[Rich 2]

Oh wouldn't it be funny....

....if Huwu had second thoughts about this and told googlies that it no longer needed its services, and instead concentrated on its own app shop and version of Android? I bet it would be better off in the (not too) long run too!

[matt 83]

Re: Oh wouldn't it be funny....

Given lots of other people have already tried and failed I'd be really surprised if Huawei managed it (outside of China anyway).

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Oh wouldn't it be funny....

The "other people" probably didn't try hard enough. Huawei seem to be trying a bit more; 3000 people and 1bn spend is a lot of trying.

What's more, it doesn't really matter how many times other people try and fail, once one success is achieved the genie is out of the bottle and can't be put back. Once Google's effective monopoly on Android and the App ecosystem is broken, getting it back will be very likely impossible.

[conscience]

Re: Oh wouldn't it be funny....

I agree it would be better for Huawei if they did exactly that, it is a great opportunity for them to stop being in Google's pocket and it would be a good USP for anyone who doesn't care for Google's data slurping. I'm actually in the market for a new phone this year and I was looking at Huawei, so I hope they don't end up giving up their USP to be just another spyware-ridden Google Android clone.

[DrBed]

WinPhone revival at Huawei Mobile Services?

Now it will be fun.

Not that I prefer anything MS, but it could lead to even more schizophrenic situation then that is now.

"Google, no soup for you. Bad Google. MS nice." Orange One has spoken.

[Pascal Monett]

It's only a question of time anyway

Thanks to Trump, now China is on the verge of declaring its economic independence. It has access to all the blueprints, it has PhDs formed in the best Western universities, it has the economic need to grow, and now it is banned from growing in the West.

Well it'll grow in the East, and make products that Think Different, and expand the competition like Apple and Google have never seen before.

Hey, it's Capitalism, so the US should be overjoyed.

[BebopWeBop]

Re: It's only a question of time anyway

Good capitalism is geographically limited don't you know?

[Recaf]

AOSMS?

Google have been furiously arguing that APIs can't be copyrighted, so why don't Huawei spend some of that $1bn creating an API-compatible replica of GMS for non-Google phones that offers equivalent fictionally and can hook into equivalent Huawei/Amazon/other services?

Android Open Source Mobile Services, perhaps?

[jsa]

Re: AOSMS?

MicroG does a fairly good job of many aspects as-is and is under the same Apache licence as AOSP — would make a decent basis for any such clone API although the SafetyNet attestation could be messy.

[IGotOut]

No problem.

I'm sure Trump is currently in talks with Larry to allow the Oracle phone OS to be rolled out to China.

[martinusher]

I thought this would happen....

Although Google would be the last to admit it Android has been not so much designed from the ground up as evolved, its a typical 'first out of the box' product. Its also an established product, one that's got a lot of expertise invested in it, so while it would be comparatively easy for a company like Huawei to build a better moustrap they wouldn't do this unless there was somthing powerful that forced their hand -- like the US government. Since HMS is a second generation product, designed with all the experience with Andriod to work with its likely to be faster, smoother, easier to work with and easier to develop for than Andriod**. In other words it poses a huge threat to Andriod if it gets established.

This is pretty obvious to any developer but I doubt if any politicians or administrators would understand the subtleties.

(**...and no contentious Java API...now we all know what's likely to happen with this type of technology we know to avoid it!)

[big_D]

Sparse...

The number of "useful" apps for European users is relatively sparse in the Huawei App Gallery at the moment.

Neither of my banking apps are in there, no Audible/Amazon, no PocketCasts, no Signal, no Outlook. The only non-Huawei app I use that is in the Gallery at the moment is Telegram...

I like Huawei's phones, I disable most Google services anyway, so the current situation, with the exception of the PlayStore, is fine by me. But without the common apps, it is a little pointless. (Yes, I could side-load the Play Store and hope everything works.)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Sparse...

Download f-droid and install Aurora Store, no need to side load google filth ;)

[Snorlax]

To be honest...

...I find the lack of Google-related spyware on newer Huawei phones a great selling point.

It would appear that the world's biggest ad-slinger needs Huawei more than Huawei needs them. Funny old world eh?