Posts by Avon B7 110 publicly visible posts • joined 25 Apr 2023
I thought that with an executive order, a huge marker pen and national security as an excuse, anything was possible.
The US Nvidia playbook would probably be to ban Apple from making iPhones in China, wait for solid economic reasons from Apple to show Trump it was a really bad idea and then for Trump to lift the ban in exchange for Apple giving the US a whopping slice of its revenues.
The Art of the Deal! LOL
Jensen Huang (just last week):
"we should also acknowledge that Huawei is one of the most formidable technology companies the world has ever seen.
...
We compete with this company, they're formidable, they're agile, they move incredibly fast."
Trump fired the bullets back in 2019. Multiple bullets, and now they are all coming back at him and the US semiconductor industry.
What is worse is that they are coming back with a vengeance.
Huawei not only 'de-Americanised' at lightning speed, but they laid out a roadmap to self-sufficiency that covered the entire software and hardware chip stack. Every single area has been covered and they are now bearing some of the fruits.
MetaERP was the first (gargantuan) software project, described as swapping out the engine of a jet in mid-flight. Slower burning projects (in comparison to MetaERP at least) were released and had their development accelerated. HarmonyOS (for everything), EulerOS plus the entire Ascend stack. Last month Huawei even laid out its Ascend roadmap for the next three years as a direct competitor to all things Nvidia.
It's achieving all this by demanding more of local talent and Chinese companies, many of which are going to end up being direct competitors to US companies.
The utter stupidity of Trump/Biden & China Hawks across three administrations will go down in history as one of the biggest collective strategic goofs in history.
Yeah. That whole paragraph isn't even factually correct as Huawei (as per the likes of Strand Consult - which is anti-Huawei) even state that Huawei is still very much present in the 'West' and even the Pentagon is getting waivers every year as it is unable to comply with US law on keeping Huawei out of its supply chain.
As you say, the closest anyone got to 'Huawei's kit' was actually viewing the source code!
Has any third party seen Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung telecom's source code?
And everyone selling that line of national security always (and without exception) ignores the fact that Huawei offered to licence its entire 5G stack to a US company or consortium.
The offer was turned down because, as we all know (and always knew), competition wasn't the issue. The plan was the destruction of Huawei and numerous members of the US administration went on record as saying just that.
We will ignore for the moment that the US is trying to push 'clean' networks which is more than laughable seeing as they've been caught with their very dirty fingers in all sorts of network pies!
Ironically Huawei was a particularly juicy pie which we know about thanks to Snowden (Operation Shotgiant).
Of course the Huawei of then is not the Huawei of now and the US has very much lost the plot by making 'national security' a commercial grab by letting Nvidia sell to China for a cut of revenues.
Jensen tried his best. The semiconductor industry of America also tried during the first Trump presidency but the man is out of his depth and surrounded by Hawks.
Huawei is slowly building a full stack chip design and fab infrastructure on a massive scale.
Nvidia is nervous. Intel is basically swimming in its own quicksand and both ASML and TSMC can only wonder how their businesses might be impacted sooner or later.
Unable to bring a decent case against Huawei (in spite of its best efforts - including a sting operation by the FBI), the US decided to re-open previously settled civil cases.
The Meng case was scandalous in itself with key Canadian officials suddenly suffering 'memory loss' and the US trying to prevent keys slides from Meng's famous PowerPoint presentation from being revealed during the extradition process. Slides that made it clear the HSBC was aware of its dealings.
Ah, those Iran sanctions! Unilaterally imposed and with basically no one supporting them.
HSBC previously got slapped with a fine but Huawei must be destroyed! LOL.
Laughable in the extreme. Even way back in 2010/11, when the original US legal attack included a company that just happened to have the word 'Huawei' in its name but was totally unrelated to Huawei!
Real Keystone Cops stuff.
Yes. You are right. Many people gloss over this but Huawei offered its entire 5G stack to the US (or a US consortium) under licence. The whole thing. Just so the US could compete on the world stage (after getting caught with its 5G pants down).
The US would have had access to literally everything (source code included of course).
The offer was refused but it was confirmation that (and we already knew this) 'national security' had nothing to do with anything.
Just like with tariffs in this second term, 'national security' is just an excuse.
In 2017 the Trump administration stepped in to strong-arm AT&T out of a carrier deal with Huawei in the US.
It was clear once more that 'national security' wasn't the issue. The US simply makes things up as they need.
How could Huawei (supposedly under the obligated influence of the Chinese government by law) be a 'threat' with a smartphone, while other Chinese brands (subject to the exact same Chinese laws) like One Plus or Xiaomi not be considered a threat?
The truth is this is about protectionism, hegemony and influence. They managed to get Meng under house arrest in Canada for a few years as a 'bargaining chip' on trade issues (so much for national security) and Trump tweeted exactly that.
The US accuses China of being 'authoritarian' ('bad') only because China can challenge US hegemony and yet they have zero issues with Saudi Arabia.
Now, the BIS has issued very unprofessional and sloppy 'guidance' on the use of Huawei's Ascend AI solutions - anywhere in the world - 'threatening' criminal and administrative actions against anyone using those chips because they 'LIKELY' use a small amount of US origin technology. Likely?
They list three Ascend chips on the official page but spell one of them incorrectly! And they were live updating the page as they corrected the wording! For the world to see.
These are the last flailing efforts of an administration that hasn't been able to see or come to terms with the damage its own foreign policy disaster.
Today, Oval Office interviews are a circus populated by clowns representing government.
Yesterday's shameful efforts to 'ambush' the South African President just the latest in a line that is set to continue.
Huawei ban 2019 - Approx $11B US semiconductor revenues lost. Annually.
That's over $50B lost to date.
Huawei moved away from Qualcomm chips. Then the licence was revoked. Millions in revenues to Qualcomm lost. Annually.
This year Microsoft's licence to sell Windows to Huawei expired. Millions in revenues to Microsoft lost. Annually.
Huawei lost access to its ERP software. Millions in revenues to Oracle lost. Annually.
Nvidia. By now we know the story.
Away from the US. External pressure on the Netherlands to stop ASML shipping technology to China. Millions in revenues to ASML lost. Annually.
Cutting China/Huawei off from those companies (and many more) provoked the obvious:
China accelerated its plans for semiconductor self sufficiency.
Huawei invested in every single step of the chip design and manufacturing process by taking those billions (that used to go to the US) and ploughing them into Chinese companies instead.
Huawei created its own MetaERP solution. A gargantuan software initiative.
Huawei moved into the automotive/self driving sector where the BYD/Huawei pinch movement will hurt Tesla tremendously.
Huawei developed, deployed and continually improves HarmonyOS. This week it landed on the first 'desktop' machines.
Architecturally (and in spite of not being mature) it is probably far ahead of anything else out there and covers IoT through to desktops (and everything in between).
In China, HarmonyOS usage has already surpassed iOS and Apple is having a rough ride there with iPhone sales.
Huawei handset sales are on the rise.
Huawei developed Nearlink.
Huawei 'de-Americanised' over 13,000 components and 4,000 circuit boards. In record time.
In AI, Huawei is now shipping the Cloud Matrix 384 (all optical, zero copper) solution. Ascend D and Ascend 920 will be ready before year end.
There are rumours of a Huawei EUV lithography solution entering testing this year.
It's cloud business is growing.
All this in just five years.
In dollar terms, Nvidia might be the biggest individual loser but in every other metric (including foreign policy) that award goes to the US administration that not only set the ball rolling but then doubled down on absurd decisions that would be better employed in the previous century.
It pulled the plug on US semiconductor interests and accelerated efforts to speed them down the drain. All without having the faintest idea of the damage it was doing - to itself.
Who would like to guess where China will be in five years from now?
Donnie didn't learn first time around and he won't learn second time around either.
Weaponising technology (just like weaponising the dollar, or even tariffs for that matter) only serves to make your assets toxic.
Instead of buying billions worth of US made semiconductor related products, Huawei and most everyone else in China is making their own. De-americanising.
Trump is now threatening anyone outside of US sovereign soil to follow orders (or I suppose it's an 'or else!') Extraterritorial overreach of the highest order.
But they got wise to those threats. Virtually nobody 'obeyed' the sanctions on Russia.
China looks to be far further ahead with its semiconductor self-sufficiency plans than anyone thought possible.
If rumours are to be believed Huawei alone is on the cusp of developing its own full chip manufacturing stack. From software like EDA tools to chemical processes like photoresist, lithography, packaging, precision optics etc. The whole thing.
AI will just be another example of the US failing abysmally with policy and accelerating Chinese progress while alienating allies and anyone who would rather remain neutral.
Whoever follows Trump in three years, heed this warning. You're gonna need a bigger mop!
Cleaning this mess up will take decades.
... The Pentagon has sought waivers on the restrictions as it claims it basically wouldn't have a supply chain if Huawei had to be completely removed from the products it uses.
It has always been laughable that the same country with a track record of nefarious behavior in communications as long as your arm can go out to the world and preach for 'clean' networks.
How do they keep a straight face when saying those words?
US senators have spoken of destroying and choking Huawei. The latest comment (just the other week) was of castrating Huawei (ouch!). All without a shred of evidence.
They want us all sucking on 'Trump's Tiny White Balls' (for scaredketchup followers) but some are sure to choke.
If Huawei does actually manage to not only design and manufacture a viable EUV solution, but mass produce chips with it in 2026, expect Trump to go from orange to a whiter shade of pale in the blink of an eye.
Rumours since 2020 have consistently pointed to Huawei moving in this direction, through strategic investments, partnerships with universities and startups. The only doubt was a timeline.
Even last year there were rumours of a new site coming online and some described the place as one huge EUV solution. That rumour wasn't given much credibility but....
Lovely!
"HPE asserts Washington has a “stated aim of reducing the use of Chinese technology in critical infrastructure globally.”
We can't have sovereign states deciding for themselves! Uncle Sam can decide for them and if they don't play to the US tune, they are then deemed 'nasty' states and need 'seeing to'.
Just look at the threats to the BRICS nations this week should they dare to undermine the dollar.
China has been in critical infrastructure for years and nothing has happened.
The real issue here is not critical infrastructure. It is China moving past the US in technology and influence and that is already happening.
Absolutely, and this is already underway. Huawei alone was pumping 11 billion US dollars, annually, into US semi conductor interests. At the same time it wasn't developing its own solutions.
Those revenues from Huawei were part of the pie that was feeding future R&D projects. That has now gone (over 50 billion dollars so far) and as if that weren't enough, now Huawei (and the rest of China) is pumping money into replicating currently US dominated areas (and having success).
The upshot is lost revenues and seeing new competitors spew out of China to take even more revenues away. Also the need to plough government funds into chip production (something the US criticised China for for years in spite of being a completely normal process).
Having weaponised technology, no sane person would run solely with US options if alternatives exist. That day will (has) come thanks to US policy.
Openly saying they want to destroy a company opens up a can of worms of a different nature but those words mostly come from bumbling old senators or hawks blinded by their hate of China.
And if they don't exist, some will try to create them, which is precisely why the EU processor initiative was born. To give just one example.
A lot of pieces to the puzzle remain but they are all on their way. HarmonyOS NEXT (and EulerOS) are just two, and will be developed at lightning speed by modern standards simply because the US forced them to go it alone.
Bankrolled? You mean like the Chips Act in the US?
No. Huawei does get some subsidies. It does get some loans. It does get stimulus packages.
They even produced a video a couple of years ago debunking a lot of the 'government support' claims.
Basically, it works like any other business in any other country. The US included.
What has happened in terms of 'government support' of late is that the major carriers have opted for Huawei ICT gear in detriment to foreign gear. Hardly surprising given what has happened with some governments around the world.
In any event, that help amounts to money - not knowhow.
What Huawei has pulled off (in record time) is effectively the impossible. It has weathered a government onslaught designed to destroy it. It has doubled down on R&D. It has successfully moved into new business areas. It has gained in self sufficiency. It has de-Americanised thousands of boards and components. In its own words it is 'business as usual' (albeit a new 'usual').
I think one of the key factors here is the use of 'mobile services' from gatekeepers hooking into apps to make them unusable on other platforms.
One solution could be requiring gatekeepers to get their tentacles out of apps.
Another would be for them to provide services support on other platforms. In essence to make a solution like GBox but certified and supplied by Google.
I can already run Huawei Mobile Services on my Android phone for some Huawei functionality (including Huawei ID and making my phone a trusted device). The problem is that it isn't full support.
In gatekeeper terms, this is a huge barrier to platform hopping.
Imagine a world where an iPhone user could pick up a Samsung phone and have an Apple supported 'Apple Mobile Services' platform run on it through an Apple ID and access to Apple services.
Currently GMS is banned from Huawei devices which is a purely unilateral political move.
Legislation - requiring - availability would leave Google with two options: pull out of a market or breach sanctions. In such a case a licence would quickly be issued for Google to certify use on Huawei phones.
From then on, users would be able to choose their preferred platforms (hardware and software) and mix and match as needed.
First half was a little off point on the facts and what lies behind them.
The US, seeing Huawei (and China) about to overtake it on technology (especially 5G and its industrial ramifications) set its sights on choking China and destroying Huawei. Both 'choke' and 'destroy' were the words used.
Huawei suddenly found itself having to react to seemingly insurmountable problems across the board.
Like Gromit on that train, laying the tracks in front of him at lightning speed to avoid it derailing.
They have pulled off the impossible. In five very short years they have done what it took Apple and Google took fifteen to achieve and gone beyond even that.
They wrote their own ERP system, MetaERP. That alone was a gargantuan undertaking. And even 'gargantuan' is an understatement.
They de-Americanized over 14,000 components and set about getting HarmonyOS and EulerOS into the hands of consumers and industry players.
They entered the automobile sector and have done the impossible there too. The GOD network putting them on the map with their self-driving goals.
They have pumped up their cloud business and not lost sight of their ICT infrastructure business either.
In 2018 they announced their AI plans and although they took the biggest hit in terms of advancement, new products are coming to market.
They have just opened a gigantic R&D Centre for semiconductor research and are still one of the world's top patent filers.
HarmonyOS specifically, is more than what has gone before. You only have to sit through the three hour HDC keynote to see where they want to go with it. Pay special attention to the references to siloes because it seems that companies like Apple are implementing ideas from HarmonyOS at each WWDC. The question is whether they are punching holes in those siloes (kludging it) or reworking the foundation of iOS. HarmonyOS was designed to be distributed. iOS was not. Apple has begun implementing years old Huawei features in recent years.
Apple cannot touch Huawei in terms of ecosystem. HomeKit was going nowhere and needed Thread/Matter to even remain relevant.
Now, cars play a part in that ecosystem with car to home TV video conferencing as well as car to car video conferencing.
Nearlink is a reality along with devices starting to support it.
All in five years. I would never bet against them because they simply have no option but to continue. They have to make it work.
The work on applied research and every single aspect of chip manufacturing will move as fast as it can. There are unknowns here but, like I said, I wouldn't rule out progress. Huawei has a habit of throwing thousands of scientists at hard problems and often gets results (polar codes for example). This time it isn't just Huawei and its investments in other companies. It is hundreds of universities and startups looking to solve the same problems.
ASML is now speaking its mind and pushing the Dutch government to cater to its own needs. Top Korean politicians have made similar comments.
With BRICS+ and Africa and South America there and open for business along with Asia itself I say things even look positive.
The US chose to weaponise technology. You only get to do that once and that ship sailed five years ago.
That article had a few very concerning flaws and was basically a hit job.
I posted in the comments under the article pointing some out, especially that HarmonyOS was multi kernel, and as such, was many things to many devices. Only phones and tablets had anything to do with Android. Watches, routers, TVs were running pure HarmonyOS.
Also, there were considerable changes made (with regards to Android) on phones and tablets. The entire networking stack was re-written for example to enable Huawei's ultra fast device connection capabilities and improve stability.
As an aside, some reports say connection speeds are even faster now on HarmonyOS NEXT with file transfer speeds up to twice as fast as iOS.
It seems that TSMC has made statement and denied the initial claims made by The Information.
So who knows what the true situation is. I suppose somewhere between true and false might be the best place to look.
Personally I find it difficult to believe the story 'as is' but there is a mature 'grey' market through which to get certain products. I just don't see a chip design getting through the screening process.
On the other hand Tech Insights is in the business of looking deep into finished products so I find it difficult brush them off as unreliable.
We'll have to wait a little longer but if the Commerce Department thinks it's Fish On! they will definitely make a song and dance of it.
Looking forward to seeing a TSMC executive put on house arrest and waiting extradition! LOL /s
Neither HarmonyOS NEXT nor HarmonyOS for PCs have been released yet.
HarmonyOS NEXT is available to registered developers and is in Beta. Release is scheduled for Q4. At first, a limited range of devices will be supported with a wider roll out to older devices coming later. Just like with every HarmonyOS release.
Well, if you were along for the ride since 2019 when HarmonyOS was first officially presented there was a lot to tout in terms of utility, and since then all the pieces have been developing and falling into place.
It's not fully there yet but obviously they are trying hard and yes, there is an email service and client. As for a familiar browser, that depends on what you mean by familiar. Huawei Browser is certainly familiar to people in China and that's a huge market. There is a native office suite too.
Utility-wise, it is a pretty good stab at just that with the idea of distributed services, distributed file systems, distributed authentication etc. The idea being that a device can pool its hardware features as services to other devices, seamlessly, quickly and in a stable fashion. Perfect for IoT.
For HarmonyOS NEXT, Huawei said it needed 5,000 native key apps to cover 90% of key user needs at launch. Today it announced that 10,000 are ready and will cover 99.9% of their requirements.
This year HarmonyOS overtook iOS in China.
Huawei also said this week that it has developed HarmonyOS to its current state in what took Apple and Google 17 years to achieve.
There is still a lot of work (and polish) to be done but it seems to be shaping up nicely. Even going places where Apple and Google still haven't: Car integration at a deep level.
The kernel has the highest security certifications of any consumer device kernel if I'm not mistaken but I haven't dug into that.
The Eclipse/Open Atom collaboration, IIRC, pertains to 'OpenHarmony' (the open source version of HarmonyOS) which forms the base of many different operating systems (many for specialised use cases). For example Eclipse Foundation is working on OniroOS which uses OpenHarmony.
HarmonyOS from the outset was a multi-kernel system.
Only phones and tablets had anything to do Android/Linux so the rest was 'its own'. Routers, wearables, TVs...
Major HarmonyOS changes were still present in the Android based systems. I believe the entire network stack was taken from 'pure' HarmonyOS in order to improve connectivity, speed of connection and stability. And IIRC one of the current Android file system options was also created at Huawei.
Now the Android/Linux part is being phased out on Chinese phones and tablets with HarmonyOS NEXT.
"Should Huawei fail to make much headway into its own cutting-edge chipmaking tools, it could mean China will continue to lag behind Western rivals, with one study predicting China will make just two percent of the world's advanced chips in 2024, compared to the US's 28 percent"
Last time I checked (a few years ago) those 'cutting edge' chips made up 2% of total world output. The other 98% is what made the world go round.
I wouldn't bet against Huawei now that they've been forced to do it themselves.
No. Source code is quite literally everything. You have had to go back 20 years to dig this up. Two decades ago isn't representative of today.
That's why the US has had to re-open previously settled civil cases against Huawei. Despite sting operations, raids and other efforts, it drew a blank.
Anyway if you dig too deeply in CISCO code aren't you more likely to come across NSA code? Wink, wink. Or is that ancient history too?
With China it's probably better to avoid saying what they can't do because in 2019 people said they would take a decade or more to hit 7nm and they got there last year. Just two years after hitting 14nm. This year supposedly they will do 5nm.
Tjen people said that quality was low and so they can't produce in volume. Mate 60 etc. Obviously that was totally wrong and the Pura series is set to increase volume over the Mate 60.
Tjat the Pura series uses a variant of last year's chip is no surprise. It's always been that way. Even when using Qualcomm chips.
I think it's important to try and imagine what isn't completely visible right now. The common sense stuff.
Huawei committed to smartphones. Qualcomm reported last year that it would see no further 'material revenue' from Huawei. Obviously they felt they had a viable roadmap. We just don't know what it is right now, but the simple fact that these situations are known, leads one to believe that they have enough in the pipe to be competitive. It is just a question of waiting it out and the chances of that being years away are slim so my guess is we'll see regular advances in all areas of achieving self sufficiency.
The charges were unjust. The information the US says was hidden was actually contained on a slide within the now infamous PPT which basically formed the essence of the accusation. The thing is, that slide was deliberately excluded from the extradition request and the US was pushing hard to keep it out of the proceedings.
Not only that. The US admitted that HSBC employees were very well informed of the situation just that they weren't considered 'senior' enough.
Of course, HSBC had already signed off on a plea deal from its side even though the other time it got caught it only received a fine while for Meng they were pushing for a prison sentence.
And not only that. There was a shocking and sudden lack of memory on show from Canadian officials when valid doubts were raised on how things were done on the night of her detention.
Actually there is the open source version of HarmonyOS which is already being worked on as the base of numerous projects (I wonder if the Oniro Project/Platform is still moving forward), including industrial and consumer IoT. Huawei's HiSilicon division is continuing to roll out IoT silicon along with audio/video/surveillance chipsets.
And HarmonyOS is the 'consumer' facing OS if you like. On the enterprise side they also have EulerOS.
Two Honor phones. One prior to the Honor spin off. The other post spin off so both have GMS. The post spin off phone has HMS too.
A 'pure' HarmonyOS tablet plus numerous wearables, routers, earbuds, headphones etc running HarmonyOS.
The iOS side of things is iPhone/iPad (the wife)m
The major move away is HarmonyOS NEXT. That is what the article is partly about.
That version completely removes the Android compatibility layer. Hence the push for native apps. It should arrive later this year.
Even current HarmonyOS systems with Android compatibility have seen one major upgrade. The entire networking stack was rebuilt to allow for a more robust and fast connection of devices.
HarmonyOS is a mult-kernel system but a HarmonyOS kernel is coming at some point.
LiteOS kernel was the base of some HarmonyOS devices. Especially the early ones although it was used on other devices prior to that. In fact, the security elements of HarmonyOS were first tested within LiteOS.
I'm using EMUI/Android, Android, iOS and HarmonyOS at the moment in Europe.
For HarmonyOS to take root here Huawei needs bring more ecosystem devices over and showcase them. Especially things like its door locks, family storage solutions and TVs. And get HarmonyOS on its partnered cars over here too. And have NearLink glue the wireless part together.
Away from pure HarmonyOS phones, it needs to really beef up HMS cloud options for GMS and iOS based phones.
Although no one wants to admit it, MagicOS seems to be HarmonyOS in sheep's clothing so there is definitely a wedge there as Honor phones also run GMS (at least at the moment).
It's very doable but will require commitment and lots of marketing and that should start with branding and starting to call out the accusations and ask for proof.
98% of the world's chip needs are on older, more mature nodes. It's important to remember that.
For 'local' chip production in the EU and the US, non-EU/US companies are key.
Competition is great but it is very unlikely to lead to lower prices if the players involved each have a smaller market to sell to.
Unable to compete on a world stage, the US (Trump) decided to try and destroy the playing field.
The UK was 'ordered' to stop using Huawei gear by the US. When it pushed back (economic and technological reasons) the US decided to try and cripple Huawei through other means (extraterritorial sanctions), forcing the UK to conclude that Huawei would be incapable of satisfying its hardware requirements going forward.
The Dutch were pressured to apply export restrictions on ASML.
Now an entirely new industry is being built out to quite literally replace each and every US element in the chip design and fabrication process.
That will mean a power shift of epic proportions as China moves to using local producers. China is one of the world's top chip consumer markets.
That's competition that the US clearly won't like but China already has the Digital Silk Road and BRICS+ to play to, plus its gigantic internal market.
If I were a sovereign state company suffering from unilaterally imposed extraterritorial sanctions I would be redesigning my products to eradicate all technologies that make them susceptible to foreign influence.
Huawei is well on the way to doing that, along with hundreds of Chinese companies.
At some point they will have the means to offer companies like ASML technological solutions which enable it to replace US technologies which currently have no alternatives.
That would mean more competition.
US companies need revenues to invest in R&D. Cutting them off from China reduces those revenues.
Not allowing certain US scientists and engineers to work for Chinese companies (sanctions again) puts top US talent in China out of a job while providing solutions for local and non-US talent to push through. They are also receiving far higher saleries.
Making chips in the US makes them more expensive which isn't good for competition.
South Korea is also pushing back against the notion of sanctions as a solution. Just as have Wennink (ASML), Huang (Nvidia) and many others (ironically including representatives of over a 1,000 US companies). Japan is probably not happy either.
The Pentagon actually stepped in to temporarily halt one of Trump's executive orders against Huawei under 'national security' issues as they saw it as damaging to US interests. It was temporary but just goes to show how high the risks are.
Shooting themselves in the head. Truth be told.
If all Chinese companies are supposedly puppets for the CCP, it never made any sense to single out Huawei's handset business in the US. That was protection ism pure and simple.
Tim Cook had a few visits to the White House and 'private' conversations with Trump. I wonder what went down there. Huawei taking an everincreasing chunk out of the world's handset pie will definitely have cropped up.
Then there was China as a technological rival, fast approaching and potentially knocking a hole in US hegemony. And there again Huawei was a national champion.
To top things off the US was caught short on ICT advances and the promise of 5G. Again, Huawei was leading that charge.
The collective intelligence of US powers (perhaps the equivalent of half a peanut) then sprang into action with literally no thought for the future.
Unable to keep a mental record of his thought process, Trump began tweeting his every move to the world. William Barr basically stood in front of the US administration and Huawei should be destroyed and the rest is history.
They opened up the 'national security' umbrella and quite literally put everything they could under it.
It would take them decades to move forward on chip manufacturing. The opposite has been true. They took just two years to hit 7nm and what really spooked the US was that it had no 7nm capacity of its own. Worse was that if China were to shift ALL of its production capacity to 7mm, it would produce more than Samsung and TSMC - combined. Now the rumours are for China to hit 5nm, this year.
Well done Trump! (and Biden).
Trying to strong arm ASML (via the Dutch government) into walking back on signed maintenance contracts would possibly lead China to use its anti-sanctions legislation which would put ASML and the Dutch government into a very, very delicate situation.
I think they have never used it before.
The EU has similar legislation but only used it once (against US sanctions no less).
Sanctions (imposed unilaterally and without consultation) were always an executive overreach and bound to fail from the get go.
It is just a question of time before they rebound on US semi-conductor interests with a vengeance.
The financial consequences were also there from day one through lost revenues and new Chinese competitors being spawned across the semiconductor board.
Trump's sole consideration was 'not on my watch', so it will be hugely ironic if he wins another term during which Huawei progresses beyond the impact of his very own original sanctions and makes advances on technology while avoiding US technology interests completely in the process.
Nothing new is happening here with regards to chip fabrication developments . Huawei began investing in chip self sufficiency in 2019 through its Hubble investment arm, investing in over 40 strategic chip making/design companies. It has expanded on those efforts ever since and now the Chinese government has upped its game (which already had grand goals).
It also saw the start of a 'de-Americanisation' program, which by last year, had seen them re-design over 14,000 components and boards. It is very likely that many non-US interests are also on a mission to do the same to free themselves of the shackles of unilaterally imposed sanctions after the fact. Just like these rumoured efforts being applied to ASML.
Huawei completed its gigantic MetaERP initiative too.
R&D hasn't suffered (the opposite is true) and in ICT they remain stronger than Nokia and Ericsson - combined. They successfully diverged into the automotive sector and their cloud and storage intentions are clear - and growing. The Digital Silk Road will surely provide them with almost unlimited access to developing markets and the Global South already represents 80% of the world's population. BRICS+ will be an issue for the G7.
They are cooking up a huge ration of Humble Pie for the US to gorge on.
By then though, the Hawks will be long gone or incapable of remembering why they did what they did. Their names (Trump, Pence, Barr, Biden, Yellen, Cotton, Pompeo etc...) will be remembered though, for a short-sightedness that will be the fodder of think-tanks long into the future.
And then there is HarmonyOS and EulerOS too.
It was madness when it all started and it is madness today. The only difference is that China is five years closer to reaching its goals.
It's far from hacky. It's a simple option which the user can choose. The warnings are there.
Is it the best solution? No.
A native app would be the best solution but not offering to do the searching for the user wouldn't make much sense either.
If the app isn't available natively, why not link to the non-native version and save the user the effort?
What point would it serve leaving the user in the dark?
The key here is informing the user that the app can be reached but only from outside the AppGallery. As long as that requirement is fulfilled (and it is) everything is clear.
The move to HarmonyOSNEXT will mean only native apps will run (Android app compatibility will be lost) so the option won't be present at some point during the year on those systems.
Business is business. If it doesn't make economic sense to support a third system you are correct in not offering that option.
However, Huawei is promoting (and in some cases offering financial incentives) the idea of supporting Chinese app developers outside China and 'rest of the world' developers in China, with support structures like localisation.
But at the end of the day if your particular solution doesn't work out as 'doable' because of the resources required, that is understandable.
AppGallery is an app store.
It can offer to install apps from outside the AppGallery but it notifies you of the fact.
In the case of Spotify, which isn't available natively on AppGallery, it tells you that it is from AppParks. A third party source.
You are free from there to do as you see fit. Spotify requiring GMS can hardly be deemed a problem of AppGallery and HarmonyOS NEXT will not even give you the convenience option of installing and then requiring something like Gbox
What is irritating about AppGallery is that if you are running both GMS and HMS natively it will offer to update native apps that it didn't originally install.
For example my banking app is available natively on both AppGallery and Play Store. It was originally installed by Play Store but if an update reaches AppGallery first, it will offer to update it. I can ignore that of course.
I think app stores should only update the apps that were originally installed by them.
My house has all three (iOS, HarmonyOS and Android).
Two mesh systems, four watches/wearables, a tablet, a lamp and a router all running HarmonyOS.
What Huawei needs to do outside China, from an ecosystem perspective, is soup-up the experience for HMS and AppGallery on non-Huawei phones, especially the Cloud side.
That would effectively add HarmonyOS functionality to GMS phones and kill two birds with one stone.
Obviously Honor would be the perfect candidate for such a route.
Then it could open up the thousands of devices from third parties running HarmonyOS capable firmware to the world market.
You'd have to define both 'Linux' and 'competitor' before making that particular claim.
Huawei is creating solutions for its own needs and reducing dependencies.
The road map has been clear from the original announcement in 2019.
A multi-kernel system for all manner of devices (from a few KB of memory through to much higher resources) with the eventual goal of one 'harmonised' kernel.
That meant a 'pure' self-developed kernel was already running on some devices from the get go.
For phones and tablets (and for app compatibility reasons) the Android/Linux combo was used (infused with a lot of HarmonyOS code - especially the network stack).
In China, HarmonyOS NEXT will transition away from that.
OpenHarmony was released as an open source version not long after the initial release and a few projects used it to form the base of new OS efforts.
HarmonyOS CONNECT is also available for things like IoT and appliances (together with a range of IoT chipset solutions).
Outside China Huawei ships both the EMUI and HarmonyOS AOSP based systems plus pure HarmonyOS systems . EMUI for Phones. AOSP HarmonyOS for tablets and pure HarmonyOS on wearables, TVs, routers, mesh systems etc.
To the end user it's all 'HarmonyOS' which is a very simple and effective branding scenario. All high memory systems have the core sharing and 'super device' functionality.
Taking that as an overview, one could say that it is already a credible Linux competitor.
The claimed efficiency gains over Linux will need to be tested. As will the security aspects but the pure HarmonyOS kernel has passed the highest security certifications already and seems relatively mature.
There have been some recent New Year claims that may or may not border on wackiness but it seems that TechInsights released a report saying that HarmonyOS could overtake iOS in China this year.
One remarkable achievement about the revenues this year when compared to 2019, is that the comparison doesn't take into account the massive chunk of revenues that came from Honor in 2019.
When that factor is compensated for these results look even better.
The article mentions HarmonyOS which is one of Huawei's pillars going forward but its other OS (EulerOS) is equally important in enterprise.
It's not so much that observers have predicted HarmonyOS will shed Android compatibility as Huawei announced this move (HarmonyOS NEXT) at HDC during the summer. At least for China. Outside China, Android compatibility will remain for the foreseeable future.
At a recent event Richard Yu promised 'disruptive' technologies for 2024 so we'll see what pops up.
Again. No evidence. No comment from most of those involved save for the usual anonymous sources, and of course, Bloomberg had to pop up.
Tenders are rife with claims of foul play with battles for influence and persuasion. Nothing new was presented here.
Weird. I only ever press return at the end of a paragraph.
Obviously, the word wrap is precisely why I don't press return at the end of every line.
Chrome. 118.5.0.993.80
MagicOS. 7.1.0.260
Microsoft SwiftKey. 9.10.23.20
Recently but only sometimes, the insertion point will vanish from the posting frame making text navigation a real pain but without any unnecessary hitting of the return key.
Another site that requires registration but if that is the story I think it is, it is a non-story.
All modern facial recognition technologies can distinguish ethnicity. In some cases it is listed as a tent-pole feature.
It goes much deeper than that too. Huawei uses it all over the place. Not too long ago it was reported that it can be used in farming for things like pig face recognition.
Please post Huawei's official response to the allegations, because I imagine that is all they are, right?
That is definitely wacky, somewhat embarrassing, cringeworthy and I hope not representative of Thai women.
All the woman I've known from the country have been great, humble and very respectful.
It's from 2022 (the technology was unveiled in 2021) but the 'digital employees' are actually being used in the financial sector and Huawei claims the market for applications of digital people avatars (and avatars of pets) will be worth over $500 billion by 2030.
I have seen the original Huawei presentation which was impressive if the short conversation was free running. The problem is the answers in conversation seemed 'scripted' and she understood the Chinese Huawei presenter's non perfect English without a hiccup.
Obviously this is still WiP and AFAIK only being used in finance/insurance marketing at the moment. Everything needs to start somewhere but maybe Sarah shouldn't have been given a few digital beers before having that conversation
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