24hChina (n.d.). Chinese List: Top 10 App Stores in . Retrieved, May 4, 2020, from: ://www.24hchina.com/chinese-app-store-list/

Chinese App Store List: Top 10 App Stores in China

Almost every one has a today, so app stores have become important, as we need them to discover and download all kinds of useful or cool mobile apps.

In China, the situation with stores is a little different from most other countries. In countries such as the United States, there’re only two dominant app stores: the Apple App Store for iOS devices (iPhone, iPad) and the Play Store for android devices.

Apple’s App Store Has a Chinese Version for China

In China, for people using iOS devices, Apple’s App Store is still the go-to place and it has a Chinese version specific for China. However, some apps, for example, almost all VPN apps, are not available in Apple’s Chinese App Store after China’s recent VPN crackdown.

Google’s Play Store Is Blocked in China

However, when it comes to Android app stores in China, things are quite different. The Store is blocked in China, so it won’t be able to accessed directly from China. You can’t access it on your mobile phone or visit Google Play Store’s website in China.

How to Access the Google Play Store in China

If you want to visit the Google Play Store from China, you can use a VPN. Make sure to choose some VPNs that are still functioning in China, Below are some VPNs that we recommend for visiting Google’s Play Store in China:

There Are Many Chinese Android App Stores in China

As a result of the blocking of the Google Play Store, Android users in China have to use different sources for app downloads. There’re a number of alternative Android app stores in China. Those stores are maintained by giant Internet companies (such as Tencent), hardware manufacturers (such as , and Vivo), as well as telecom companies (such as ).

When a customer in China buys a new Android phone, the new phone usually comes with a pre- installed app store, severing as the default one for that phone. For example, if you buy a Xiaomi phone in China, your phone will have Xiaomi’s MIUI App Store pre-installed. Almost all Chinese app stores will display the Chinese language (as most mobile phone purchased in China uses Chinese as its default language).

Top 10 Chinese App Stores

Below is a list of the top 10 Chinese app stores for Android devices:

1. Tencent MyApp App Store

Chinese Name: 腾讯应用宝 Website: https://android.myapp.com/

Tencent MyApp is currently the most popular Chinese app store. It’s provided by China’s Internet giant Tencent. Tencent is the owner of some very popular Chinese such as WeChat and QQ. Tenent MyApp currently has 270 million monthly active users and it’s the No. 1 Chinese app store at this moment.

2. App Store

Chinese Name: OPPO软件商店 Website: https://store.oppomobile.com/

Oppo is a Chinese consumer electronics and mobile communications company with popular products such as and Blu-ray players. In recent years Oppo’s app store has grown in popularity. With about 125 million active users per month, The Oppo app store currently is the second largest Chinese app store in China.

3. Huawei App Store

Chinese Name: 华为应用市场 Website: http://app.hicloud.com/

Huawei is a big Chinese company manufacturing telecommunications equipment and consumer electronics. In recent years Huawei’s mobile phones has become one of the best-selling phones world- wide. And the Huawei App Store has also been growing in popularity. With around 122 million monthly active users, the Huawei app store in currently one of the top 3 app stores in China.

4. 360 Mobile

Chinese Name: 360手机助手 Website: http://zhushou.360.cn/

360 Mobile Assistant is an Chinese app store from Qihoo 360, a Chinese company with products including antivirus software and a popular web browser used by many China Internet users. For many years 360 Mobile Assistant had been staying at the second place for the top Chinese app stores until it was passed by the Oppo app store and the Huawei app store. Still being one of the top Chinese app stores, 360 Mobile Assistant currently has around 102 million active monthly users.

5. Xiaomi App Store

Chinese Name: 小米应用商店 Website: http://app.xiaomi.com/

Xiaomi is a very popular Chinese company with products including smartphones, mobile apps, laptops and related consumer electronics. Xiaomi’s mobile phones ship with its own Android firmware, called MIUI, which is based on Google’s Android , and the Xiaomi app store is the default app store shipped with every Xiaomi phones sold in China. As one of the top Chinese app stores, the Xiaomi app store currently has about 87 million monthly active users.

6. Mobile Assistant

Chinese Name: 百度手机助手 Website: http://as.baidu.com/ Baidu is the largest search engine in China. As Google left the Chinese market in 2010 and has been completed blocked in China, Baidu is now the dominate please for people to do online searches. Baidu also has other products. For example, it’s been active in the field of AI. Baidu has its own Chinese app store, called Baidu Mobile Assistant. This Chinese app store currently has about 81 million monthly active users.

7. VIVO App Store

Chinese Name: VIVO应用商店 Website: https://dev.vivo.com.cn/distribute/appStore

VIVO is a Chinese company that makes smartphones, phone accessories, software, and provides online services. VIVO’s parent company is BBK Electronics, which is also the parent company for other popular mobile phones such as OPPO and OnePlus. The VIVO app store is shipped with every VIVO phones sold in China. As one of the top Chinese app stores, the VIVO app store currently has about 69 million monthly active users.

8. PP Assistant

Chinese Name: PP助手 Website: https://www.25pp.com/

PP Assistant is a Chinese app store from the Chinese tech giant Alibaba. In addition to listing apps for Android, PP Assistant also has two app stores for iOS, one for jailbroken iOS devices and the other one non-jailbroken iOS devices. As one of the top 10 Chinese app stores, the PP Assistant app store currently has about 25 million monthly active users.

9. China Mobile MM Store

Chinese Name: 中国移动MM应用商场 Website: http://mm.10086.cn/store

China Mobile is a state-owned Chinese telecom company that provides mobile voice and multimedia services across mainland China. China Mobile has its own Chinese app store, called the China Mobile MM Store. As one of the top 10 Chinese app stores, it currently has about 25 million monthly active users.

10. Anzhi Market

Chinese Name: 安智市场 Website: http://www.anzhi.com/applist.html

Anzhi Market is a China app store that has been around for many years. It has an active community that allow members to discuss and rate Android apps. As one of the top 10 Chinese app stores, Anzhi Market currently has about 25 million monthly active users.

Other Chinese App Stores:

In addition to the top 10 Chinese app stores listed above, there are some other ones that worth mentioning:

• Sogou Mobile Assistant (搜狗手机助手): Website

• HiMarket (安卓市场): Website

• Wandoujia (豌豆荚): Website

• Coolpad (酷派应用商店): Website

• Le Store (乐商店): Website

• App Store ( 三星应用商店 ): Website

• Wo Store (中国联通沃商店 ): Website

• ZTE App Store (中兴应用商店): Website

• China Telecom 189 Store (中国电信天翼空间): Website

• AppChina (应用汇): Website

Conclusion:

In China, for iOS (iPhone, iPad) users, Apple’s App Store (Chinese version) is still the Number One app store. However, for Android users, the situation in China is different from other countries. The Google Play Store is blocked in China. You can use a VPN to unblock it, for example, ExpressVPN, NordVPN etc, or you can use alternative Chinese app stores. There are many different China app stores for Android users. We have a listed the top 10 China app stores in this article. Hope you can find the list useful!

Amadeo, R. (2019, May 21). Huawei’s US ban: A look at the hardware (and software) supply problems. Retrieved, May 4, 2020, from: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/05/huaweis-us-ban-a- look-at-the-hardware-and-software-supply-problems/

Huawei’s US ban: A look at the hardware (and software) supply problems

Huawei's hardware independence is actually pretty good! The software, though...

President Trump's Huawei ban is in full effect, and companies from all over the country are announcing they will no longer be doing business with Huawei. Google, , Broadcom, and are all cutting ties with Huawei, and once this new 90-day exemption is up, really every US company would no longer be allowed to supply Huawei with technology or services. Trump's executive order is very broad, prohibiting "any acquisition, importation, transfer, installation, dealing in, or use of any information and communications technology or service" by any foreign company the US government deems a threat, in this case, Huawei.

With Huawei cut off from US technology, exactly how hard will it be for the company to continue to make smartphones? For an idea of how much Huawei would need to change, let's do a parts audit on the company's latest flagship , the Pro. We'll see where each component comes from and what other options exist out there in the ecosystem. Between spec sheets, teardowns from iFixit, and EE Times, we can whip together a pretty good list of components and their countries of .

The Power of HiSilicon Huawei The is the heart of any smartphone, supplying most of your basic three-letter computer components like the CPU, GPU, LTE modem, GPS, and more. Huawei is better off than most companies in this area—it's one of the few companies (along with Samsung) that has its own chip-design division. Huawei's "HiSilicon" group designs SoCs for its smartphones, and the Huawei P30 Pro uses the HiSilicon Kirin 980 SoC. HiSilicon has its own LTE modem solution and is a leader in modems.

Trade War! USA v. China

• Huawei’s Google app loophole: Just keep re-releasing old devices

• Huawei expects a 20% drop in phone sales, thanks to lack of Google apps

• Congress gives small ISPs $1 billion to rip out Huawei, ZTE network gear

• Trump, China sign new trade deal staving off impending tech tariffs

• Huawei sues FCC to stop ban on Huawei gear in US-funded networks Most Android manufacturers rely on Qualcomm—a US company—for its Snapdragon SoCs with integrated LTE modems. Qualcomm has a near monopoly on the high-end smartphone market, thanks not only to reliably producing yearly SoC upgrades, but also by aggressively investing in and patenting cellular technologies. Qualcomm was one of the first companies to bring LTE to market, and it has been leading the charge toward 5G, too. Qualcomm has no doubt been patenting everything it can find along the way.

Qualcomm has been sued and fined for anti-competitive patent licensing, and it seems committed to creating a legal headache for any company that doesn't use its products. Apple and Qualcomm were feuding over Apple's use of Intel modems in its , and when the two companies settled, Intel quit the 5G modem business that same day. Samsung has its own line of processors but usually doesn't ship them in the US, instead using Qualcomm chips.

Huawei's Kirin 980 is based on the ARM architecture, which Huawei licenses from ARM Holdings PLC. ARM's headquarters is in England, but it now has a Japanese parent company, Softbank. Huawei is a fabless chip designer, meaning the company doesn't own a semiconductor foundry, so it must get its chip designs manufactured somewhere. Kirin chips are usually made at TSMC, (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited), which, wouldn't you know it, is headquartered in Taiwan. The running theme of this article is "Samsung would also be an option"—and for chip fabrication, Samsung would also be an option. Samsung (which is based in South Korea) produces Qualcomm's flagship chips and is actually one of the leading silicon manufacturers on Earth. We're doing good so far!

The rise of BOE and Chinese displays

Huawei sources its displays from just about everybody, with Anandtech reporting various P30 variants using displays from the usual suspects: Samsung Display (South Korea) and LG Display (also South Korea), along with BOE Technology Group Co, a Chinese company. BOE is a real up-and-comer in the display market, and according to Bloomberg, it will blow past LG to become the number two supplier of OLED displays by the end of the year. If you haven't been paying attention to BOE, you should start.

Like Huawei, BOE has the blessing and financial backing of the Chinese Government, which helps explain its sudden and meteoric rise—Korea owns the OLED market, and BOE is China's answer. With the might of China behind it, BOE has started to go after Samsung Display's biggest customers and is trying to woo Apple to become a supplier for future iPhone displays. BOE even has the gall to start courting as a customer, hoping the company will dump its usual OLED supplier—uh—Samsung Display, in favor of BOE. Good luck with that.

Samsung has tried to stay ahead of this new Chinese rival with superior technology, mainly via the development of flexible displays for new-age foldable smartphones like the Galaxy Fold. Samsung invested six years of research and $130 million to develop bendable OLEDs that (sort of) work, so surely this will give Samsung some breathing room against its Chinese rival, right? Sadly for Samsung, South Korean prosecutors say Samsung's flexible display technology was stolen by one of its suppliers and sold to an unnamed display firm in China. After the Galaxy Fold, the next big just so happens to be from China, and it's the . The supplier of the Mate X's flexible OLED display is BOE. No doubt BOE's technology was completely self-developed.

Under the P30 Pro's display is an in-screen fingerprint reader, an optical reader made by Goodix, a Chinese company. Goodix also supplies OnePlus with its optical fingerprint readers. Before the US ban, Qualcomm would have been another option, with its ultrasonic fingerprint reader that debuted in the Galaxy S10. If you're keeping score, we still haven't run into a US supplier.

The all come from the Land of the Rising Sun, specifically Sony, which is the leading supplier for smartphones. Huawei uses Sony sensors for all four of its cameras: the 40MP main camera, the 20MP wide-angle lens, the time-of-flight camera, and even the 5x "SuperZoom" lens. You'll find Sony cameras in most high-end smartphones, including Apple and Google devices. Samsung Semiconductor is another option for camera modules, and some devices, like the Galaxy S10, dual source Samsung and Sony sensors.

Of course, if you look on the back of the Huawei P30 Pro, the German camera brand Leica gets all the credit for the camera. With the CMOS sensors from Sony, that only leaves the lenses and maybe the software as Leica contributions.

Huawei's "SuperZoom" camera enables a 5x optical zoom on a smartphone, thanks to an innovative periscope design. While the sensor at the end of the periscope is from Sony, the actual periscope component was built by Sunny Optical Technology—a Chinese company—with IP from Corephotonics in Israel.

A grab bag of chips Enlarge / The P30 Pro chips. EE Times

The P30 Pro motherboard—which is a neat triple-stacked design like the iPhone X—comes from Unimicron Technology Corporation in China. In iFixit's teardown of the P30 Pro, the RAM came from SK Hynix—the "SK" stands for "South Korea"—and we run into our first problem: the flash storage, which was supplied by US-based Micron. It's not unusual for companies to use multiple suppliers for some chips, though, especially widely manufactured components like flash memory or displays. If we look at the P30 Pro teardown in EE Times, the flash memory changes from Micron to Toshiba, a Japanese company, but the RAM changes from SK Hynix to Micron! Either way it looks like Huawei has non-US sources for both components. Samsung Semiconductor (South Korea) would be an option for flash storage and RAM, too.

There are a few miscellaneous chips from US companies in the P30. The EE Times teardown spotted a SMPS (switched-mode power supply) chip from Broadcom, and a six-axis accelerometer and gyro was spotted from Invensense, which has a headquarters in the US, but a Japanese parent company, TDK. Invensense is the name in motion control chips, powering motion in the Nintendo Wii, the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Hololens, and a million other things.

The giant list of LTE band support you see in a smartphone spec sheet is supported by a variety of LTE antennas, and in the P30 Pro there is a mid-to-high band Front End Module (FEM) from Qorvo and a Low Band FEM from Skyworks, both of which Huawei will have a tough time acquiring due to their US origins. Qualcomm, the undisputed champion of LTE, will also sell you RF modules, as will Broadcom.

The NFC comes from NXP, which is headquartered in the . NXP co-invented NFC along with Sony and has been the biggest name in NFC ever since. All the usual players are chasing NXP, including Broadcom, Samsung, and Qualcomm. Qualcomm actually tried to buy NXP once, but Chinese regulators shut the deal down.

Huawei's own chip company, HiSilicon, is in the mix, too. The audio chip is built by HiSilicon, along with the RF transceiver for , , and connections, and various power-management chips. iFixit's battery in the Huawei P30 Pro is from Huizhou Desay Battery Co., Ltd, named after a Chinese city. Other options include Samsung SDI, infamous for the explosive Galaxy Note 7 batteries and LG Chem, both from South Korea. Amperex Technology Ltd (ATL) was another Note 7 battery supplier, but the Chinese company was given a clean bill of health—by Samsung—in the Note 7 battery investigation.

Software is a problem, and I don’t just mean Android

As far as Google Android goes, Huawei will miss out on everything in the middle and right columns. Ron Amadeo

Like we saw with ZTE, a lot of companies would struggle if they were cut off from US suppliers. ZTE's supply situation was so bad, the company had to completely shut down when the Trump administration cut it off from US suppliers. On the hardware side of things, ZTE was dependent on Qualcomm, which is also the case with most other OEMs. Huawei is not like most other OEMs and seems to have given itself multiple hardware options when it comes to most components. Having an in-house chip division really makes all the difference.

ZTE also couldn't cut it without Google's version of Android, and Huawei is currently facing down the same problem. Future devices will be cut off from the Google Play Store, , and a ton of other killer Google apps. Huawei will stop getting advanced access to future versions of Android, which will hurt its security patches, OS update speed, and general software competitiveness. Huawei is used to operating without the Google Play Store, though—this is a normal occurrence in China, where Google doesn't do much business and has no presence in the Android devices sold there. There is no Play Store in China, leaving a fragmented mess of app stores.

As one of the most popular hardware manufacturers in China, Huawei has one of the most popular app stores in China. The company has done some saber-rattling over the years about building its own operating system without Android, but it seems much more sensible to just fork Android, doesn't it? Huawei already operates this way in China, and it would just be extending its China model to the rest of the world.

Even if Huawei does get its hardware supply problems solved and comes up with a viable OS and an app store solution, I think the real problem for Huawei might be apps. Remember the executive order prohibits "any acquisition, importation, transfer, installation, dealing in, or use of any information and communications technology or service," and it is very broad and could be interpreted to mean that US citizens and companies aren't allowed to supply Huawei with smartphone apps, especially with descriptors like "installation" and "service" in the president's order. Huawei could solve everything and roll out an app store, but it might be illegal to submit apps to the Huawei app store.

The top Play Store apps, minus most Google apps, with the US apps crossed out. Google / Ron Amadeo

The problem for Huawei is that most of your favorite apps probably come from the US. Of course there is Google, which would mean no , Calendar, , , YouTube, or Photos. is a US company, too, so then Huawei would get no regular Facebook app, Messenger, Whatsapp, or Instagram. Microsoft is out, too, which means no Office, Skype, or OneDrive. We could probably build a top-20 app store list with the other US companies, like Snapchat, Netflix, Hulu, , , Roku, Soundcloud, Pandora, Amazon, , , Tinder, eBay, Shazam, and Venmo.

Gamers would be missing out on apps from , Twitch, Valve, Blizzard, Epic, EA, and King. You're probably better off listing apps that aren't from US companies. In which case and Mojang are from Sweden, Gameloft is French, and Tiktok is Chinese. That's the most I could come up with from top app lists.

Buying a Huawei phone would also mean living with the continual fear that the hot new app would not be available on your device, just because of the country of origin. A phone with no US apps, if that is the way the order will be interpreted, would be a tough sell.

Hardware seems doable, an OS seems less doable, but wow, the app problem...

Huawei's parts audit is looking surprisingly good in the hardware department. The company has a diverse set of suppliers, and it seems to have plenty of non-US hardware options. Really the difference is HiSilicon, because without its own SoC division, the company would probably be reliant on the US' products.

Remember: we just focused on the P30 Pro, both because it is Huawei's big flagship and because there is a plethora of information available about it. We probably couldn't do the same thing for a cheaper, less well-known device. This is also just focusing on Huawei's smartphone business; it's network equipment and laptop businesses are an entirely different matter.

For the software, it's possible Huawei could survive on forked Android. It would definitely put the company at a disadvantage, but it would be better than trying to start from scratch with zero apps, zero developers, and an unfamiliar development environment. The biggest problem would be the distribution of apps if the executive order is interpreted to cover apps. Blocking US app developers from submitting to a Huawei app store would be an absolutely devastating blow for the company. The lack of an app ecosystem would give a Huawei OS (Android-based or otherwise) basically zero chance of succeeding in the market.

Hopefully we don't have to actually see what the endgame looks like for Huawei here. As was the case for ZTE, there's a possibility the US and China come together, negotiate, and end this trade war brinkmanship. For now, the 90-day exemption provides some level of sanity, allowing Google and Huawei to provide security updates to existing users. No one knows what Huawei's status will be at the end of 90 days.

Artashyan, A. (2020, February 6). Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo formed united App Store. Retrieved, May 11, 2020, from: https://www.gizchina.com/2020/02/06/huawei-xiaomi-oppo-and-vivo- formed-united-app-store/

HUAWEI, XIAOMI, OPPO AND VIVO FORMED UNITED APP STORE

ARGAM ARTASHYAN FEBRUARY 6, 2020

As Reuters reports, China’s Xiaomi, Huawei, OPPO and VIVO are working together to create a platform that allows developers outside China to upload their applications to this app store.

Analysts have said that the move aims to challenge Google’s dominance of the Play Market. People familiar with the matter said the platform, called the Global Developer Services Alliance (GDSA), is designed to make it easier for developers of games, music, movies and other applications to market their applications overseas.

It should to come in March this year. But because of the coronavirus epidemic, it may go live later. The platform will initially cover nine ‘regions’ including India, Indonesia, and Russia.

Interestingly, when asked to comment, all four companies didn’t say anything.

According to Sensor Tower analyst Katie Williams, in 2019 Google received about $8.8 billion in revenue from Google Play.

WILL THIS APP STORE SUCCEED?

Nicole Peng, an analyst at Canalys said: ‘By forming this alliance each company will be looking to leverage the others’ advantages in different regions, with Xiaomi’s strong user base in India, Vivo and Oppo in Southeast Asia, and Huawei in Europe.’

IDC data show that in the fourth quarter of 2019, these four companies accounted for 40.1% of global smartphone shipments.

IDC smartphone analyst Will Wong thinks because of low hardware sales, Chinese handset makers are trying to grab a bigger share of software and services. ‘App store, pre-loading apps, advertisements, and gaming are areas that could generate new revenue,’ he said.

By the way, Huawei has developed its own , Harmony OS, as an alternative to Android.

Analysts said that GDSA may be able to attract application developers by providing higher exposure. . In addition, the new platform may also provide better monetary incentives. Williams said: ‘By making it simple for developers to increase their reach across multiple app stores, Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi stand to attract more developers and, ultimately, more apps.’

But Nicole Peng also pointed out that managing this alliance can be a challenge. ‘The execution is difficult as its hard to say which company is pulling more weight and investing more in it. We haven’t seen the alliance model work well in the past.’

Baidu (2020a, March 4). Google bye bye! Even if the United States lifts the Huawei ban, it will no longer use Google services! Retrieved, May 4, 2020, from: https://baijia- hao.baidu.com/s?id=1660168381898365161&wfr=spider&for=pc

Google bye bye! Even if the United States lifts the Huawei ban, it will no longer use Googleservices!

Technology is ahead Release time: 03-0402:25Top 100 creators, high-quality creators Lead: Google is no longer wrong, and began to apply to Trump for "summation"! Huawei brought another surprise!

Not long ago, Google’s legal director of Android and Play Tristan Ostrowski said that due to US government restrictions, new models released by Huawei after May 16, 2019, cannot be pre-loaded and tested to load Google’s applications and services ( Including Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Play Store, etc.). The models before May 16, 2019 still have a cooperative relationship with Huawei. And Google is clear that Google will continue to cooperate with Huawei to comply with government regulations to provide security updates and updates to Google applications and services on existing devices, and to continue to cooperate with Huawei to the extent permitted.

From the statements made by Google executives, the termination of Huawei’s GMS service was not intended by the United States government but was a compulsory measure by the US government. Google did not make any mistakes, and eventually became unhappy with Huawei. Indeed, since May 16, 2019, the United States officially added Huawei to the "Entity List", which means that Google will not be able to provide Huawei with GMS services and subsequent updates of the Android system. Although Google had considered it at the time, Google's attitude towards Huawei was always "dispensable" and Google finally failed. Without Google’s support for Huawei, Huawei’s mobile phones have suffered a severe setback in overseas markets, with a market share of up to 40% and a loss of tens of billions of dollars, which has a great impact on Huawei.

This is the result that the US Trump administration is willing to see. As long as it can kill Huawei, the US government and those outsiders who are not optimistic about Huawei should be very happy to see it. However, Huawei's tenaciousness exceeds the imagination of the United States and Google. It not only exposed the self-developed Hongmeng system, but also made Huawei's HMS service ecological construction wind and water, and it has to invest tens of billions to encourage developers. Based on Huawei Provided framework development software. So to what extent has Huawei's HMS service been officially launched?

As the saying goes, "There must be a brave man under reward". As of March 2020, Huawei APPGralley has become the third largest app store in the world after Google Play and Apple App Store. APPGralley has entered more than 170 countries and regions around the world, with more than 600 million users and 400 million monthly active users. More than 1.3 million global developers have joined the Huawei application ecosystem, and more than 55,000 applications have access to HMS Core. And well-known social apps like Twitter and Facebook in the United States also announced that they will join the Huawei HMS service ecosystem!

Not only that, the world’s third largest geographic information system GIS software manufacturer SuperMap also gave Huawei full support, and Turkish telecommunications operator Turkcell has signed a contract with Huawei to plan to sell 1 million Huawei smartphones equipped with HMS ecology . If the interruption of Huawei’s GMS service is a compulsory measure of the Trump administration in the United States that Google has to comply with, then in this context, Huawei is forced to become Google’s biggest competitor and gain the support of many foreign regions and countries. It's gone.

To be honest, Huawei's self-developed HMS service is not without foundation. First of all, Huawei’s cumulative mobile phone sales in the global three years from 2017 to 2019 have reached more than 600 million units, and Huawei’s mobile phone global market share has reached 13%. The high market share will provide Huawei with the promotion of HMS services. Good user base.

Secondly, Huawei Cloud is a strong backing, and its synchronization, push and storage services are solid. Unlike Google, which started with a search engine business, Huawei has been relying heavily on related hardware and communications equipment businesses to create a full-stack Huawei cloud product system from chip to application. Considering that the synchronization, push and storage services of mobile services are highly dependent on cloud services, Huawei HMS services have a solid foundation in the above fields.

Finally, pay full attention to artificial intelligence technology, and give priority to the deployment of related service areas. Huawei has added a large number of AI-related products to the HMS service, including machine learning services and possibly related analysis services and online identity verification services. Not only that, the GDSA Alliance, which is actively preparing, is also gathering everyone to challenge Google. If Huawei can join the "Global Developer Services Alliance" GDSA, it will hopefully integrate the resources of domestic mobile phone manufacturers and further challenge Google's GMS ecosystem. It can be said that the cessation of Huawei’s GMS service is harmful to Google, but it does not benefit from it. Google, who doesn’t have a face in its face, began to apply to the Trump administration for “summation” with Huawei. If you can win the opportunity to Google Bailey without harm, it is not too late to make up for it. After all, Huawei surpasses 200 million mobile phones each year, and the Google GMS service brings huge advertising revenue. What's more, Google's influence in recent years has been very bad, and it has been repeatedly fined 4.34 billion euros by the EU's antitrust investigations.

However, Huawei brought another surprise news, Huawei search will be available soon. According to the latest news from the media, Huawei Search has been tested and launched overseas, and it is expected that it will soon land on the Huawei App Store AppGallery to support Huawei and devices. And Huawei also has its own Huawei browser, with a complete search function. This time, Huawei’s online search application is more certain that Huawei does not want to rely on American technology anymore, but will unswervingly follow its own path and promote the construction of Huawei’s HMS service ecosystem to complete the construction of an ecosystem based on Hongmeng system plus HMS service.

It seems that Huawei's overseas executive Fred Wangfei once said that even if the so-called Huawei ban is lifted in the United States in the future, Huawei will not use Google's related services. It is not simply to say goodbye to Google! Operating system is not difficult to research and develop, the difficulty is the establishment of ecology, Microsoft and many giants in the world have been in the mobile operating system. Google's overconfidence has enabled Huawei to rise up in the trend. In the future global mobile market, Huawei will also have its own place. I wonder if you think Huawei is still willing to cooperate with Google? Talk about your views!

Baidu (2020b, April 1). Chairman of Huawei: If Huawei is banned, we can also ban the use of US mobile phones in the country. Retrieved, May 8, 2020, from: https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1662743897485727691&wfr=spider&for=pc

Chairman of Huawei: If Huawei is banned, we can also ban the use of US mobile phones in the country

Cell phone Release time: 04-0112:42Premium creator As we all know, the domestic technology giant Huawei has become a hot topic in the past year, including various achievements made by Huawei in various aspects. First of all, in the field of smartphones, Google began to cut off GMS services in the second half of last year and opened overseas. The sales of Huawei mobile phones are greatly restricted, and shipments have been declining. However, at the beginning of 2020, Huawei announced that its global mobile phone shipments in 2019 exceeded 240 million units, which has surpassed Apple and became the second in the world. Google cut off the supply of GMS, but mobile phone shipments can still surpass Apple, so this is the reason why Huawei mobile phones are attracted attention.

In addition to mobile phone sales exceeding Apple, Huawei mobile phones have attracted many people's attention, Hongmeng system has made Huawei mobile phones continue to become a hot topic of concern. The goal of Hongmeng OS is to replace the Android system. At present, the monthly active volume of HMS mobile services exceeds 300 million, with 1.5 million developers. HMS and corresponding application stores have built Huawei mobile phones sold abroad. In short, Google’s supply cutoff does not prevent Huawei’s mobile phones from becoming more powerful, but instead allows Huawei to commercialize a large number of new technologies in a short period of time.

In addition to mobile phones, some core technologies of computers have also been affected. For example, AMD and Intel have broken cores, and Microsoft has broken cores. Huawei computers can only use domestic-made deep systems, and the chips are suspected to have been purchased in large quantities and reserved. Thankfully, AMD, Intel, and Microsoft have resumed chip and system supply.

Of course, the biggest factor that makes Huawei the focus of global attention is 5G. 5G is the most powerful, but it has no effect at all, because Huawei's communication technology is the most advanced in the world, with the largest number of patents and 5G technology. It is reported that in many orders for 5G equipment, Huawei accounts for more than 50% in China, and the share of 5G orders from abroad also exceeds Ericsson and . Huawei's 5G equipment has good technology, low price and high quality, so it is very popular. Huawei also plays an important role in the customization of communication technology standards.

It is worth mentioning that Huawei's hardware equipment is still constantly restricted by various countries. Recently, Huawei's rotating chairman responded to "restrict the chip supply chain." He said that if Huawei is banned, then the US company's 5G chips, 5G chip base stations, Terminal devices such as smartphones will also be banned in China. Huawei can buy chips from Samsung, MTK and Spreadtrum to produce mobile phones.

Xu Zhijun is right. If Huawei has restrictions on chips, then Qualcomm chips and Apple mobile phones can hardly stay in the country. So what do you think of Huawei's response to Xu Zhijun?

Baidu (2020c, April 4). The United States may escalate restrictions on Huawei. Retrieved, May 11, 2020, from: https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1662997844656982554&wfr=spider&for=pc

The United States may escalate restrictions on Huawei

People's Daily Overseas Release time: 04-0407:54Overseas website official account Source: CCTV

According to a Reuters report, recently, various departments of the US government plan to impose new restrictions on Huawei. Foreign companies that use US chip manufacturing equipment must obtain U.S. licenses before supplying certain chips to Huawei.

This new rule will target low-tech products based on US technology, manufactured overseas, and shipped to Huawei. Under this rule, even if the chip is not developed and designed by the United States, as long as only one U.S. device is used in a certain part of the foreign production line, the chip produced must first be approved by the U.S. government.

Huawei and many experts and scholars believe that the US suppression of Huawei has exceeded the normal dimensions of trade and technological struggle. The new restrictive measures will not only damage the global industrial chain, but also hurt American companies and ultimately harm others.

Expert: New US restrictions on Huawei will cause global

In an interview with the media, Wei Shaojun, director of the Department of Micro and Nanoelectronics at Tsinghua University, said that if this restriction is really implemented in the United States, it will inevitably lead to global chaos.

First, as the most thoroughly globalized semiconductor industry, chip products include the joint efforts of many countries and regions. Restricting the sale of any chip products that use American technology to Huawei means that many participants in the value chain are deprived of the right to receive returns from Huawei, which will inevitably lead to public anger.

Secondly, if a country uses the power of the government to kill an enterprise in another country, it obviously gives the government of the country where the enterprise is located a reason for countermeasures, arguing for reason and ultimately harming others. Thirdly, globalization has already intertwined the interests of all parties, and the struggle between the two countries will only hurt both sides and make marriage for others. Once the United States implements this restriction measure, the consequences may not be foreseeable today, nor will it be controlled by the future United States.

Zhang Guoqing, an American scholar and an expert on international issues at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the new US restrictions will not only affect the global industrial chain, weaken the confidence of other companies, but will also fundamentally shake the US’s international status in the long run. China has the ability to carry out countermeasures. Apple or other chip companies may be affected, but China will not actively use these methods, nor will it harm innocent people.

Liu Chunsheng, associate professor at the School of International Economics and Trade, Central University of Finance and Economics, believes that the new US restrictions will prompt Huawei’s suppliers to choose one of the United States or Huawei. This will undoubtedly increase the cost of negotiation or trade and will damage the entire global industrial chain. Fair competition and technological innovation.

Insiders in the US: Restrictions on Huawei will harm US self-interest

The US suppression of Huawei has been criticized and questioned by the United States and abroad. Many people in the U.S. industry also hold a negative attitude toward new restrictions that may be introduced by the United States.

The US "Wired" magazine cited the comments of Elsa Carnia, a researcher at the new US Security Center, on March 31, stating that restrictions on Huawei will promote China's technological independence.

Neil Thomas, a senior researcher at the Paulson Institute in Chicago, also said that the new US restrictions will further prompt Huawei to turn to China's semiconductor supply chain.

US trade lawyer Doug Jacobson believes that the new restrictions will have a greater negative impact on US companies than Huawei, because Huawei will develop its own supply chain.

In fact, as early as early March, a report issued by the Boston Consulting Group sponsored by the American Semiconductor Industry Association showed that restricting trade with China in the semiconductor field or even directly "decoupling" will permanently damage the US semiconductor industry and eventually lead to its loss The global competitive advantage and leading position have a significant negative impact on the United States.

Report released by the Boston Consulting Group on March 9

△ According to the report, the United States began restricting the sale of certain technical products to Huawei in May 2019. In the following three quarters, the median income of the top US semiconductor companies fell by 4% to 9%.

China will never ignore the US's technology bullying

For some time now, some people in the United States seem to have been committed to curbing China's development and constantly stumbling upon Chinese high-tech enterprises. Following the inclusion of Huawei on the "Entity List" in May last year, the United States has used one trick after another, not only slandering and rumours, but also accused Huawei and other companies of being "controlled by the government" "paralyzing the network" "5G equipment may be Used for espionage, buckling companies with "stealing secrets" and "threatening national security", threatening domestic companies internally, and lobbying foreign countries to intimidate other countries.

Regarding the possible new restrictions imposed by the United States, Huawei’s rotating chairman Xu Zhijun responded on March 31: "The Chinese government will not let Huawei slaughter or ignore Huawei. I believe the Chinese government will also take some countermeasures. Why can't the US company's 5G chips, base stations and smartphones that contain 5G chips, and various smart terminals be used in China for the same network security reasons?"

Xu Zhijun said that once the Pandora's box is opened, it may be a devastating chain damage to the global industrial ecology, and it may be more than a Huawei enterprise that is destroyed. It is difficult for any player in the global industry chain to be alone.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying also said on the 2nd that Huawei’s rotating chairman Xu Zhijun’s rhetorical question was very powerful and reasonable. The position of the Chinese government is consistent. We firmly oppose the use of national power by the United States to suppress certain Chinese enterprises for unjustifiable charges. The Chinese government will never sit idly by with regard to this type of technological bullying by the US.

(Part of the content comes from "Economic Daily" and "Science and Technology Daily")

BBC (2020, January 16). A quick guide to the US-China trade war. Retrieved, May 17, 2020, from: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45899310

A quick guide to the US-China trade war • 16 January 2020 • The world's two largest economies have been locked in a bitter trade battle.

The dispute has seen the US and China impose tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of one another's goods.

US President Donald Trump has long accused China of unfair trading practices and intellectual property theft.

In China, there is a perception that America is trying to curb its rise as a global economic power. . The US-China trade war in charts . US-China trade war: 'We're all paying for this' Negotiations are ongoing but have proven difficult. In January, the two sides signed a preliminary deal but some of the thorniest issues remain unresolved.

Uncertainties around the trade war have hurt businesses and weighed on the global economy.

What tariffs have been imposed?

Mr Trump's tariffs policy aims to encourage consumers to buy American products by making imported goods more expensive.

The US has imposed tariffs on more than $360bn (£268bn) of Chinese goods, and China has retaliated with tariffs on more than $110bn of US products. Washington delivered three rounds of tariffs in 2018, and a fourth one in September last year. The most recent round targeted Chinese imports, from meat to musical instruments, with a 15% duty.

Beijing hit back with tariffs ranging from 5% to 25% on US goods.

What's next?

Under the so-called "phase one" deal signed in January, China pledged to boost US imports by $200bn above 2017 levels and strengthen intellectual property rules. . Trump escalates trade war with fresh tariff hikes . US delays some tariffs on Chinese imports

The US agreed to halve some of the new tariffs it had imposed on China.

The White House said it will tackle additional issues in a second, "phase two" deal but analysts said they didn't expect anything concrete anytime soon.

BingePost (2020, April 1). China will take countermeasures if Washington imposes chip ban on Huawei: executive. Retrieved, May 4, 2020, from: https://bingepost.com/china-will-take- countermeasures-if-washington-imposes-chip-ban-on-huawei-executive/82047/

China will take countermeasures if Washington imposes chip ban on Huawei: executive By Team BingePost - April 1, 2020 If the US authorities arbitrarily adjustments the foundations of the market, the Chinese language authorities won’t stay idle and simply watch Huawei placed on the chopping board, as it would haven’t any different selection however to take related countermeasures towards US corporations, a Huawei government instructed the International Instances on Tuesday.

“Why China couldn’t ban US produced 5G chips, smartphones and different sensible terminals containing 5G chips in China market primarily based on the identical cybersecurity causes?”requested Huawei Rotating Chairman Eric Xu.

Even when the US bans TSMC from supplying Huawei, the Chinese language expertise firm nonetheless has many different decisions for chip provide – corresponding to firms from South Korea, the island of Taiwan, and corporations within the Chinese language mainland like Samsung, MediaTek, and Unisoc, Xu added.

The feedback, which have been made throughout the launch of Huawei’s annual monetary report on Tuesday, additionally come because the US is mulling new restrictions on the Chinese language expertise large.

After placing Huawei on a commerce blacklist in Could final yr, Washington is reportedly transferring forward with new restrictions to chop off Chinese language telecom tools supplier Huawei’s provide chain by requiring international firms that use US tools to acquire a license earlier than delivery their chipsets to the Chinese language firm.

A supply in a Reuters report was quoted as saying the rule change is aimed toward curbing gross sales of chips to Huawei by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, which can be the most important producer of chips for Huawei’s chipset set unit HiSilicon. Dismissing the US’ intensified crackdown, the Chinese language expertise large Huawei posted robust annual income development of 19.1 % year-on-year in 2019. Income stood at 858.5 billion yuan ($120.7 billion), whereas web revenue rose 5.6 % year-on-year to 62.7 billion yuan.

Furthermore, regardless of lagging abroad gross sales underneath the specter of a US ban, its shopper companies continued to develop, with world shipments reaching development of 16.eight % year-on- year for 2019, securing its place because the world’s second-largest handset producer with a complete of 240 million cellphone gross sales.

“Within the face of the crackdown and mounting strain from totally different sides, Huawei has maintained its regular development charge over the previous yr, ” Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Beijing-based Info Consumption Alliance, instructed the International Instances on Tuesday, noting that the efficiency confirmed the agency’s technological energy.

The annual report confirmed that the US affect on it was apparent – as greater than 59 % of its 2019 income comes from home gross sales, with a rise of 36.2 % development year-on-year, whereas abroad income noticed a slower development, Jiang Junmu, chief author at telecom {industry} information web site c114.com.cn, instructed the International Instances on Tuesday.

After being included on the US Entity Listing since Could 16 final yr, Huawei has stepped up its analysis and improvement efforts to “plug holes” and is dedicated to restructuring the provision chain. The proportion of abroad gross sales has additionally dropped, with an estimated lack of about $10 billion, the Huawei government disclosed.

“Huawei was capable of reverse the unfavorable state of affairs primarily with its heavy funding in analysis and improvement over the previous yr,” Jiang stated, noting that these technological improvements gave Huawei merchandise and options in addition to industry-leading capabilities, permitting abroad operators to proceed to decide on it even underneath the strain of the US authorities.

Huawei invested 15.three % of its 2019 income – or 131.7 billion yuan – into R&D, up from its R&D enter of 101.5 billion yuan in 2018. Its complete R&D spending over the previous decade exceeded 600 billion yuan.

Having gotten over a tricky 2019, the agency remains to be going through one other tough yr forward in 2020, each underneath the US crackdown and the surprising blow of the COVID-19 pandemic. “2020 would be the hardest yr for Huawei, as we might be on the US Entity Listing for a complete yr, and {industry} gamers have additionally estimated that Huawei has used up its ‘reserves’ in preparation for a US ban, Xu stated, including that the COVID-19 outbreak is one other state of affairs that we hadn’t anticipated, which can deliver a couple of world financial recession and declining demand.

“We definitely cannot say how the COVID19 pandemic will evolve. If it will probably’t be effectively managed, it would result in a long-term problem and lift uncertainties about whether or not Huawei may serve the market,” Xu stated.

Transferring ahead, Huawei should be effectively ready for a potential “expertise decoupling” that could be compelled on it by hardliners within the US, shoring up Huawei’s competitiveness in high- end chipsets in addition to pivotal software program just like the Concord-OS for smartphones, an in depth follower of Huawei surnamed Li instructed the International Instances on Tuesday.

“In 2020, we’ll attempt to outlive, and hope we will publish an annual report subsequent yr,” Xu stated.

Black, N. (2017, July 3). How Apple’s iPhone has changed the mobile industry. Retrieved, April 6, 2020, from: https://www.itproportal.com/features/how-apples-iphone-has-changed-the-mobile- industry/

How Apple’s iPhone has changed the mobile industry By Nick Black July 03, 2017 The iPhone first launched 10 years ago and its impact has greatly affected global smartphone adoption.

It’s been 10 years since the iPhone first became available to the public. And since it was released back in June 2007, a lot has changed in the mobile industry. In fact, many of the changes in the industry were brought about, or at least influenced by, the iPhone.

For starters, the iPhone was the first hugely successful mass-market mobile to be operated completely by a touch screen without a stylus. Before the iPhone, ‘flip phones’, and phones with a split keyboard and screen, were the norm. The huge success and usability of the iPhone’s full size touch screen changed the industry in a matter of months. If you think about the phones we carry around in our back pockets today, almost all of them will boast full touch screen capabilities. It’s only now that ‘flip phones’ and ‘retro’ phones are coming back into the market with a wave of nostalgia – Samsung has been rumoured to be launching a new flip phone, the so-called Galaxy X, that comes with two screens. Since its rise to fame, the iPhone also helped to develop the App Store, which created a brand new source of revenue for both Apple and brand owners. The success of the iPhone reduced the dominance that handset manufacturers like Nokia and Blackberry previously had over the mass-market, and gave brand owners greater access to consumers. In recent years we have seen a huge growth in demand for mobile apps, and app makers’ total income from the App Store is now more than $60bn. Over the past few years, we’ve also seen NFC payments growing in popularity, as retailers update their IT infrastructure to support a faster payment tool. Back in July 2015, the launch of Apple Pay gave contactless payments a huge push and brought the ‘mobile wallet’ to the everyday consumer. In fact, the number of transations made by Apple Pay has risen by 450% in the last quarter, compared to the same period a year ago. This will most likely continue to grow as consumers and businesses alike move towards a ‘digital first’ payment model and slowly move away from traditional cash purchases. This comes down to the fact that electronic payments are more convenient for consumers, and are quicker, easier and more accuracte for retailers to process.

On top of these developments, we can’t forget the birth of the pioneering back in April 2015, which was also powered by the iPhone. When it was first announced to the public, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, called it ‘the most advanced timepiece ever created’ which is a massive statement in itself. But let’s not forget that the Apple Watch relies on being wirelessly connected to an iPhone 5 or a later version of the device – without it, the watch has limited functionality.

These are just a few examples of how the iPhone has conquered the mass market and brought about a wave of change in the mobile industry.

And looking to the future, it doesn’t seem like the iPhone is set to stop disrupting the market anytime soon. With the growth of new tech like Artificial Intelligence (AI), big data and machine learning, the opportunities for Apple to keep developing its devices are endless.

Two areas in particular that are quickly advancing are the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G. Mobile operators, networks and manufacturers are gearing up for the introduction of 5G networks, which will allow phone users to consume vast amounts of data, in addition to what has already been possible through 4G (which was created to predominantly enable video streaming). The launch of 5G will be a huge driving force behind IoT, as its larger bandwidth will enable everyday devices and computing systems to connect seamlessly with each other and transfer huge amounts of data quicker than ever before. The smartphone will be central to this, with apps controlling multiple elements of IoT connectivity, such as home heating or security systems – it’s likely that the iPhone will be the smartphone to lead the way for IoT through the ever-growing App Store.

In the near future, location tracking will become more important too. Although data security remains a key concern for many users – our latest report found that three quarters (74%) of consumers said they were most concerned about the security of their information stored on apps – location tracking and GPS has opened up a wealth of digital opportunities for iPhone users. Companies like Uber and Just Eat have developed hugely successful business models in a very short space of time, with this technology central to their service offerings. And as mobile technology continues to advance, this trend isn’t unlikely to slow down and we could well see other businesses across a range of sectors rising up and taking advantage of what’s on offer. It’s worth noting that the original iPhone didn’t even have any GPS location tracking capability, so this is quite a significant development that will most likely become even more advanced as consumers are able to utilise this functionality for hyper-localisation services. This could be in the form of promotional offers that are presented to customers through their iPhones when they’re in-store and approach items the retailer knows they’re interested in.

Over the last 10 years that the iPhone has been available, smartphones have continued to develop, getting more intelligent and innovative year after year. And as Apple continues to be a major player in the mobile phone market, it’s highly likely that we’ll see even greater developments over the next 10 years. It will be extremely exciting and interesting to see what else Apple can come up with to make our devices even smarter.

For more information, please visit our website.

Bohn, D. (2020, March 26). Outside China, Android isn’t Android without Google. Retrieved, May 11, 2020, from: https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/26/21194803/android-google-play-services-huawei- china

Outside China, Android isn’t Android without Google 22 Even third party apps are dependent on Google services By Dieter Bohn@backlon Mar 26, 2020, 7:00am EDT Share this story

The result, as Sam writes, is weird. But what struck me the most is how essential (GMS) are to the functioning of every modern Android phone outside of China. You might already expect that not having Gmail, Chrome, and the Play Store would be annoying — but the fact that so many non-Google apps don’t work was a bit of a shock. GMS and Google Play Services have slowly grown to become essential parts of how an Android phone works. They’re how the web engine gets updated, they’re increasingly how the operating system itself gets updated (via Project Mainline), and they protect against malware — even for apps you don’t load from the official Google Play Store. They also offer lots of services to developers, and that’s the part that’s easy to forget. Google’s services offer push notifications, location, casting, ad support, and much more. Huawei has been building out its own services and store to deal with life away from Google, but the situation right now is that the Mate 30 Pro doesn’t even ship with a viable maps app. Android may be open source, but an Android phone doesn’t really operate without Google — at least outside of China. None of this is especially shocking or even nefarious, it’s just something that isn’t in your face every day. Other operating systems like Windows and iOS are equally tied up with the company that makes them, which is a point so obvious that pointing it out in the first place seems silly. But with Android, it’s worth remembering. We’ll have lots of coverage of Huawei’s new P40 series today, so look forward to that. For what it’s worth, Huawei has said it would come back to the US if it could, but that seems unlikely in the near future. Also, thanks to everybody who emailed me today with their thoughts on the iPad — I’ll try to reply personally to everybody but it’ll take a bit.

Brown, . (2019, December 2). The contains no US parts, but US gov’t might still not be happy. Retrieved, June 16, 2020, from: https://www.androidauthority.com/huawei-mate-30-us- parts-1061948/

The Huawei Mate 30 contains no US parts, but US gov’t might still not be happy

Credit: Ryan-Thomas Shaw / Android Authority According to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, a teardown of the Huawei Mate 30 shows that the device contains no hardware that originated in the United States.

The Huawei ban explicitly states that Huawei can no longer conduct business with any US-based firms. This teardown suggests that Huawei is fully capable of developing smartphones without buying any US hardware.

However, the hardware isn’t everything. The Huawei Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro don’t have access to Google apps which is likely the biggest reason why the device still doesn’t have a full global release. Additionally, even though the smartphone’s hardware didn’t originate from the United States, many of the technologies included in the phone necessitate licenses with US-based companies in order to be sold. Huawei still doesn’t have a way around these issues.

Still, the fact that the company can produce a phone of the highest caliber without any US hardware is certainly notable.

Related: Huawei thinks it can still be number one without Google’s services

Interestingly, we have a separate report from Reuters that suggests the US government is mulling over increasing the scope of the Huawei ban. According to two anonymous sources, the Trump administration could expand the reach of the Entity List to prohibit Huawei from buying products even from foreign companies that are allied with the United States.

If true, this would put Huawei in an even trickier situation than it’s in right now. However, this news is very peculiar as it appeared the US government was pulling back the ban, not increasing its powers. For example, the US granted Microsoft a license to work with Huawei again, suggesting other companies — perhaps even Google — could be next. This news appears to dash those hopes. As of today, there are only a handful of countries where you can legitimately purchase a Huawei Mate 30 or Mate 30 Pro, and none of them allow Google apps to come pre-installed.

LIVING A GOOGLE-FREE LIFE WITH A HUAWEI PHONE Byford, S. (2020, March 25). Living a Google-Free Life With a Huawei Phone. Retrieved, May 11, 2020, from: https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/25/21193639/huawei-mate-30-google-apps-services- appgallery-p40-preview

A preview of what you can expect with the new P40 flagship By Sam Byford@345triangle Mar 25, 2020, 7:30am EDT Tomorrow Huawei will launch its latest flagship phones, the P40 series, at an event to be streamed online. There won’t be any people in the audience, of course, but even if there were, the atmosphere would be pretty weird. That’s because it’s impossible to separate Huawei’s consumer products from the political onslaught it’s faced in the past couple of years. Whether you believe that Huawei is a threat to national security in the West or not, the knock-on effects to its phone business are real. Google is barred from doing business with Huawei, meaning the Chinese giant is unable to obtain an Android license. And that means that until further notice, any new Huawei phone has to ship without Google apps and services. You don’t have to be the most hardcore Google fan in the world to see how this is likely a dealbreaker for most people. Heck, you don’t even have to be an Android user. Google’s services are so widespread and pervasive that if you really don’t use any of them on a regular basis, it’s probably because you’re actively avoiding them. And Huawei is charging very high prices for high-end smartphones that, at least officially, cannot run them at all. Partly out of personal curiosity and partly to put the P40 launch into better context, I decided to pick up Huawei’s most recent flagship phone, the Mate 30 Pro, and see if I could live with it for a while. (Huawei declined to provide a review unit upon its release.) The Mate 30 Pro is the company’s highest-end phone right now, running the same in-house Kirin 990 processor that will undoubtedly be in the P40. What’s it like inside Huawei’s walls today? This isn’t really the point of this story, but the first thing I will say about the Mate 30 Pro is that it is absolutely stunning. Honestly, I don’t think there was a better looking phone released last year. In photos, you might look at the notch and chin and write it off, but in person the phone looks bold, balanced, and futuristic. The aggressively curved “waterfall” display is as striking as it was on the Vivo Nex 3, and I haven’t had any problem with accidental touch input. The back panel of the phone is gorgeous, transitioning from a rough matte finish at the bottom to a glossier feel at the top, with an even shinier ring circling the camera modules. And that camera setup is as good as any you’ll find in a phone, with excellent low-light capabilities, a 3x telephoto, and a unique 40-megapixel ultrawide. Huawei’s integration of hardware and software is on another level to most other Android phone makers. Other than Google, very few are offering a comparable 3D face-unlock system, and Huawei is doing it with a smaller notch than the iPhone — let alone the 4’s giant forehead. The Mate 30 Pro also has a neat solution to the lack of space for volume buttons afforded by the waterfall display: you just double-tap the edge of the phone and a slider pops up along the side. I think I prefer Vivo’s capacitive virtual rocker, since it’s easier to use without looking at the screen, but Huawei’s approach works well enough too. Overall, I would say that if hypothetically there were ever an incredible piece of smartphone hardware that you might be willing to deal with a little software inconvenience for, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro would have as good a case as anything else on the planet. But let’s just say you’d really, really, have to want it. The Mate 30 Pro, and presumably the forthcoming P40 phones, use EMUI 10, which is based on . I have never been much of a fan of EMUI even when it had Google apps and services to back it up; of all the many extensive efforts Chinese phone makers have taken to turn Android into iOS, Huawei’s has often been among the most burdensome. The latest version, though, is actually pretty nice. While the vestiges of iOS cloning remain in certain elements like the over-designed share sheet, EMUI 10 is simple and clean and mostly gets out of your way. A smartphone UI isn’t much use without apps, of course, and here is where Huawei hits its first hurdle. Huawei has its own store called AppGallery, which it claims is the third largest in the world based on its more than 400 million monthly active users. The vast majority of those users will be in China, of course, where the Google Play Store has never been included alongside AppGallery. If you buy a Mate 30 Pro now anywhere in the world, though, AppGallery is what you get out of the box. APPGALLERY IS MISSING FACEBOOK, NETFLIX, AND TWITTER To be blunt, it is not great. I wouldn’t call it barren — there is support from major US companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and . You can’t get Chrome, of course, but Opera is there if you want something with desktop sync. But a huge amount of its content is aimed at China, with other big Western names like Facebook, Slack, Netflix, and Twitter missing, which puts the Mate 30 Pro in a more precarious app situation than even the diciest days of . Huawei has announced a $1 billion plan to help stock AppGallery’s shelves, but it has its work cut out. That said, AppGallery isn’t the only native way to get apps. Huawei offers a tool called Phone Clone as part of the Mate 30 Pro’s setup process, and it’s kind of neat. You’ll need to download Phone Clone from the Play Store on another Android phone with the apps you want to send over; then, the two phones pair and establish a fast local Wi-Fi connection. You can’t transfer core Google apps this way, but most other third-party software should work fine. In a matter of minutes, I had almost everything I was missing from AppGallery. My Japanese dictionary, NBA League Pass, Twitter, Pokémon Go, Instagram, Apple Music, The Athletic, Slack… all things that I use on my phone basically every day, and all things that I’d need to have access to on any phone I’d ever seriously consider buying. It even sent over a few random Google apps like YouTube Music and Lens. Phone Clone is the difference between the Mate 30 Pro being completely unusable and a somewhat viable option. But it’s not a panacea. For one thing, it’s obviously impractical to expect most people to keep around another phone to download Play Store apps and then transfer them whenever they need something new. You won’t get regular updates this way, either. Phone Clone also doesn’t solve the lack of Google services. You can bookmark in a browser, of course, and Huawei’s built-in email app works with Gmail accounts, but good luck working in Docs or doing anything across the ecosystem. In my personal situation, I wouldn’t be able to use this as a day-to-day work phone because our company operates on G Suite. There’s a subtler problem, though, which is that not every app will work properly even if you’re able to install it. This is because what Huawei is actually banned from using is Google Mobile Services (GMS), the suite of software and licensed by other Android OEMs. It’s not just the apps themselves, but often the cloud services that power them. For example, Uber uses GMS to determine your location and for its mapping data. Some other apps, like , work more or less normally but pop up an error message on boot saying Google Play services are required. The ubiquity of GMS is a big reason why alternative app stores have trouble taking off on Android phones, at least outside China. Since Android phone manufacturers have little choice but to license Google services because of the popularity of Google apps, third-party developers can use Google’s extensive tools to build their software safe in the knowledge it’ll be supported by virtually every Android phone. Take Amazon’s Appstore for Android, for example. Despite Amazon’s giant stature and the popularity of its Kindle tablets — the , not so much — many developers have held off from adding their apps to the store. Even though Amazon hardware runs a forked version of Android that should theoretically run almost any Play Store app natively, anyone who built their app with GMS would have to find or develop alternative back-end services to get it to run on a device without Google licensing. (Incidentally, the is worth installing on the Mate 30 Pro. It isn’t as well- stocked as the Play Store, but it’s still a better option than AppGallery for Western audiences — you can at least get things like Facebook and Twitter without resorting to Phone Clone, and the apps will receive updates.) RELATED Huawei P30 Pro review: zooming into the future Perhaps the starkest indicator of the problems facing Huawei in this regard is mapping. The Mate 30 Pro straight-up does not ship with a maps app that anyone outside China would be able to use. The best options in AppGallery, as far as I can tell, are both Russian-developed: there’s Yandex Maps, which conveniently seems to stop its coverage right at the boundary of my neighborhood, and the functional but pretty limited Maps.me, which is based on OpenStreetMap. I tried to use Yahoo Japan’s excellent Japanese map app through Phone Clone, but its reliance on GMS makes it completely unusable. It’s not impossible for advanced users to sideload GMS onto the Mate 30 Pro and install the Play Store. That is something that Huawei actually pointed to itself when the phone first shipped, though any mention of the option has since been removed from the company’s website and Google itself has taken steps to stop the practice. It wouldn’t be something I could recommend anyone attempt as a serious option, in any case, since there are security risks involved and you can’t rely on updates. The lack of the Play Store on the Mate 30 Pro isn’t necessarily as bad as it sounds, but it should suffice to say that until the situation changes, you really shouldn’t buy a Huawei phone if you need Google services. Huawei is working on plugging the GMS gap. The company is building out its own software platform and tools for developers, collectively called , and it’s announced a partnership with TomTom to produce its own mapping app, which can’t come soon enough. The question, as with every platform that has attempted to take on Google in the past decade-plus, is whether developers will consider it worth their time to adapt their work for the new store. And if nobody is buying Huawei phones, the answer will probably be no. The situation is unfortunate for Huawei, to say the least. The Mate 30 Pro would be one of the best phones I’d ever used if the software was there to back it up, but as it is, it’s impossible to recommend for use outside of China. It’s hard to imagine anyone’s phone hardware ever getting so mind- blowingly good that I’d consider spending north of $1,000 for something without a proper maps app. That’s what to watch for when the P40 series gets revealed tomorrow. My experience with the Mate 30 Pro leaves me in no doubt that Huawei’s next phones will be technically impressive, and I’m sure the company will spend a lot of time demonstrating as much. But if Huawei can’t convince people outside China that it’s been able to improve the software situation, the P40 phones might as well not exist.

Cervantes, E. (2020, January 12). 8 things iOS does better than Android. Retrieved, June 11, 2020, from: https://www.androidauthority.com/ios-vs-android-1068950/

8 things iOS does better than Android

Here at Android Authority we can name a plethora of reasons why Android beats Apple’s mobile operating system. Google’s alternative offers a more open platform, choice, value, versatility, and customization, to name a few things. But if Android is so much better, what is it that keeps iOS users hooked to iPhones and iPads?

While many argue it’s a branding and status thing, we believe reasons go beyond ignorance and vanity. We are tech lovers before anything else, and have to accept there are certain things iOS does better than Android. Let’s address these differences.

iOS is generally faster and smoother

Having used both platforms daily for years, I can say I have encountered way fewer hiccups and slow- downs using iOS. Performance is one of the things iOS does better than Android most of the time. This seems ridiculous considering iPhone internals. The iPhone 11 Pro Max is currently the most powerful Apple smartphone and it features a six-core CPU with 4GB of RAM. Those specifications would be considered mid-range at best in the current Android world.

Having used both platforms daily for years, I can say I have encountered way fewer hiccups and slow-downs using iOS.

Edgar Cervantes

The truth is we tend to get a little lost in the specs and often forget to look at what really matters. Performance doesn’t only come from powerful specs. There is more to processing power than cores and speed clocks. In fact, it has been proven Apple processors are better than Qualcomm’s. Our very own Gary Sims explains how in his extensive article.

In fact, Gary Sims has also recently tested the new Snapdragon 865 and put it against an iPhone 11 Pro Max’s Apple A13 chipset. Qualcomm’s newest chip beats the A13 in most tests, except the GPU one. This is a significant leap by Qualcomm, but we must also remember that Apple’s chip will be around six months old by the time the first Snapdragon 865 phones come to market.

Whether Apple processors are better or not, what matters most is iOS is optimized to work perfectly with the few devices Apple makes. Meanwhile, Android is dropped into a sea of smartphones, tablets, and other products. It’s up to OEMs to optimize the software for the hardware, and they sometimes do a poor job of it.

EDITOR'S PICK

Apple iPhone buying guide: Which iPhone is right for you? Apple’s closed ecosystem makes for a tighter integration, which is why iPhones don’t need super powerful specs to match the high-end Android phones. It’s all in the optimization between hardware and software. Since Apple controls production from beginning to end, they can make sure resources are used more efficiently.

Now, this is not to say all iOS devices can outperform all Android devices. Because there is a lot of choice in the Android universe, some phones are made with beastly internals and stunning performance. Generally, though, iOS devices are faster and smoother than most Android phones at comparable price ranges.

iOS is super simple to use

Sometimes it’s what we love about Android that makes it a less enticing platform to the general consumer. While Google and its partnered manufacturers have been getting better at making Android more intuitive, the truth is it can still be a bit confusing. Inconsistency between phone makers creates a learning curve, as most Android phones look and feel different from one another.

Apple fans love their operating system’s simplicity, and it is arguably one of the things iOS does better than Android. There isn’t much to iOS, and that’s part of the allure. Many iPhone lovers don’t want a phone they can mess around with and customize. They want a device that works well, is easy to use, and can take them to their content with the least amount of effort. This is what the “it just works” expression is all about.

Opinion: Dear Android and Apple fans: In 2020, can we permanently end the hate?

With iOS, you get home pages with rows and columns of icons, which you can organize as you wish, but there’s no app drawer to hide things — it’s all there in front of you. The settings are fairly straight forward, but the experience is always the same, no matter whether you’re using an iPhone 11, iPad Pro, or any other device in Apple’s lineup The user experience for iOS is intuitive enough that there is almost no learning curve. I have seen kids who have never used a smartphone figure out the basics in about 15 minutes. Similarly, if you have already owned an iOS device, you can switch to any other and automatically know exactly how it works.

Timely updates

Updating software is definitely one of the things iOS does better than Android. If your iOS device qualifies to get the latest update, it will get it as soon as it launches. This can be bad news for some older devices which can’t handle more resource-intensive iOS versions very well, but that is another topic, and something to worry about only if you have an older Apple device.

The updating process isn’t as seamless with Google’s Android. Google only gives direct updates to its own products, like the and Pixel 4 XL, and even those have been known to fail at getting updates efficiently.

Manufacturers like Samsung, Sony, , and all others have to get the update, work on it, optimize it for your device, and then send it out. In many instances carriers have to go through them too, which only assures you get updates late, sometimes months or years down the line… if ever.

The Apple ecosystem

This one is more of a tie because Google has gotten much better at integrating its services across devices in the past few years. Regardless, Apple products like iPhones, iPads, Apple TVs, Apple Watches, and Mac computers are tightly integrated with iCloud, iMessage, FaceTime, and other in- house services. While Google has its competing services, which work great too, they have more of a learning curve and don’t feel as closely connected to the Android experience.

Some of the apps required to access core Google services aren’t pre-installed, forcing users to go hunting for them in the Google Play Store. This may not seem like a huge deal to most of us tech- savvy users, but it can be a daunting task to some, or at the very least an annoyance. It may be a walled garden, but it’s a safe, familiar, and easy-to-navigate garden all the same. Speaking of app stores, the Apple App Store is significantly better curated and better policed than the Google Play Store. Developers looking to get their apps on the App Store have to go through a long and expensive list of checks and procedures, but the end result is a net increase in the overall quality of iOS apps. The Apple App Store is also generally cleaner, has less ads, and offers cool extra features like interviews, guides, better app lists, and more.

Security (for now)

This one isn’t as one-sided as it once was, with Google’s security updates becoming more consistent. Google has continued to secure the Google Play Store, as well as adding measures to make sure your phones and information stay safe. These include things like sand-boxing, two-step verification, Google Play Protect, more controlled app permissions, and more. These upgrades, along with more educated users, make for a much more robust Android security that begins to rival iOS.

Also read: How to protect your privacy when using Android

Whether iOS is better than Android in terms of security is now up for debate, but the general consensus still gives Apple the upper hand. iOS has more consistent updates for all devices, a closed ecosystem that is harder to penetrate, and a stricter app store. All of these factors combined make it harder for attackers to target iOS users.

Apple CarPlay

No matter how many times I give a chance, I keep going back to Apple CarPlay. Sometimes I carry an iPhone just to use CarPlay in my car!

Apple’s iOS-based alternative is much better organized with app icons neatly arranged. You can move these icons around to prioritize your favorite apps for easy access. The direct availability to apps also makes it easy to perform more actions within specific supported applications.

Android Auto’s interface can get a bit confusing, as its nature is to be random. Recommended actions are suggested and organized by Google’s magical algorithms, which means the list changes continuously, forcing you to read more and sometimes even scroll to find what you need. There is no muscle memory with Android Auto, which I believe makes it more distracting while driving. And though does a much better job than Siri, that feature is not enough to take me away from Apple’s in-vehicle solution. Apple CarPlay is better looking, simpler to use, and more functional.

Superior support

Apple AppleCare may be expensive, but it makes warranty and insurance claims for iOS devices an absolute breeze. If you’ve got a local Apple Store you can often walk out with a brand new device in less than an hour too.

Speaking of Apple Stores, love them or hate them, Apple’s retail locations have a signature look that many retailers have tried to copy. The open-plan design draws you in as soon as you walk by. Large numbers of staff are on hand to help you with any purchase or problem. They even have classes to teach you how to use Apple devices.

No company is perfect, but having an iOS phone or tablet sure beats the competition if you ever have a problem with it. You don’t need to go through carriers, look for weird customer service phone numbers, fill out online forms, send faxes, stay on hold for long periods of time only to talk to a robot, or wait weeks just to get your device fixed or replaced.

Resale value

This is not exactly one of the things iOS does better than Android, but it is a market advantage Apple has over most of its mobile competitors. iPhones, iPads, and other Apple products typically hold their value much better than Android products. This means you can sell them for more when it’s time to switch devices. And because Apple products are so popular, they usually sell much faster too.

iPhones, iPads, and other Apple products typically hold their value better than Android products.

Edgar Cervantes

Let’s put things into perspective with some real-world examples. The iPhone XS Max was launched in September 2018 for a starting price of $1,099. A used base iPhone XS Max is currently going for about $400-$500 on eBay. This means you can get up to about 45% of the phone’s original value. Meanwhile, the Note 9 was released on August 2018 for $1,000 (for the 128GB base version). This can be found used on eBay from $250 to about $350. That would be about 35% of the Note’s original value, at best.

Keep in mind this example is a best-case scenario for Android, because Samsung is another sought- after brand that tends to keep its value better than others in its class. The resale value favors Apple far more when you compare it to other smaller Android manufacturers.

Before you trash us in the comments, please remember we are by no means saying iOS is categorically better than Android. Google’s mobile OS has its advantages, we write about them nearly every single day here. However, we must keep everything in perspective and realize there are some things that iOS absolutely does better than Android. There is always room for improvement and Google could learn a thing or two from the Cupertino giant.

Cheng, L. (2020). Never mind the coronavirus, Trump’s America is still going full throttle in its attacks on Huawei. Retrieved, April 27, 2020, from: https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3079856/never-mind-coronavirus-trumps- america-still-going-full-throttle-its Never mind the coronavirus, Trump’s America is still going full throttle in its attacks on Huawei In a recent interview with Fox News, Mark Green, a Republican Congressman from Tennessee, claimed that Chinese President Xi Jinping told French President Emmanuel Macron that China would supply a billion face masks to France if his country agreed to adopt Huawei’s 5G technology. The French Embassy in the United States rebutted the claim in a tweet, saying it was a total falsehood, though not in so many words. China’s Huawei is currently the world’s largest supplier of telecom equipment and second largest manufacturer of mobile phones. If you are wondering why a US politician is dragging Huawei into an allegation against China at a time when most people are worried about the Covid-19 pandemic, the reason is that the company has become a lock-on target of the US government. Washington has in recent years regarded Huawei as one of the greatest national security threats. The US case against Huawei rests on its alleged risks to both individual privacy and national security: i nformation passing through the company’s equipment will be captured by so-called back doors and given to the Chinese Communist Party, the US alleges. Washington claims a Chinese law compels any Chinese firm to provide information to Beijing, but neglects to say the US itself has similar laws. After two years of repeated accusations, no concrete evidence against Huawei has been produced. In contrast, evidence of US surveillance on other countries is widely known, after former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle on US eavesdropping activities. In the US, Huawei equipment is mostly used by rural telecom service providers because of its affordability. But that will end after US President Donald Trump signed legislation in March to bar telecom carriers from using US subsidies to buy Huawei equipment. More importantly, Huawei will not be able to sell to telecom carriers in much bigger urban markets in the US regardless of how advanced its 5G technology is and how competitive its prices are.

But the US is still not satisfied after blocking Huawei in its own market. Instead, it is going full throttle in its attempts to get Huawei barred from markets of its allies, mostly in Europe, and to cripple the company’s ability to conduct business and produce telecom equipment and mobile devices. To achieve the first goal, the US government has launched a very high-profile and aggressive campaign against Huawei’s 5G technology. The high-powered anti-Huawei squad includes not only Trump himself, but also Vice-President Amazingly, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a nemesis of Trump’s, is in sync with these anti-Huawei crusaders, not least because their cause is framed as a struggle between democracy and autocracy, or a clash of civilisations. Unfortunately for the US, this international campaign has had little success so far because few of its allies have found its arguments convincing, despite its threats to cut intelligence-sharing ties. So far, only Australia, a member of the “Five Eyes” partnership, has complied with the US’ wishes. To achieve the second goal, the US government has imposed a ban on the sale of crucial US technologies – including semiconductors, chips and some of Google’s services – to Huawei. Back in May 2019, the US Commerce Department announced that it was adding Huawei on its “entity list”, meaning that the company and its subsidiaries cannot do business with US companies without US government approval. Leveraging on its leadership in certain technologies, the US is also preparing to further curb the supply of chips to Huawei, by imposing restrictions on foreign firms that use US chipmaking equipment in their supply chains.

The attacks on Huawei are not confined to technology. A court battle is being fought over Huawei chief financial officer , who was arrested in Vancouver in December 2018 on US charges of bank fraud and is opposing her extradition to the US. Furthermore, lawmakers from both political parties in the US are working to limit Huawei’s access to the US financial system. If you are surprised by the lengths the US has gone to hurt Huawei, consider two likely reasons for their actions. First, the US might be worried its ability to conduct global espionage will be significantly compromised if more countries use Huawei equipment. Second, the US is behind China in 5G technology, despite being a world leader in many other fields. The faster deployment of next-generation wireless technology in China than in the US has serious implications for the countries’ technological leadership (especially with regard to automation and artificial intelligence) and international competitiveness, as well as the military balance in the world. How can we be sure these reasons are not conspiracy theories? Consider two official US documents. Both the 2017 National Security Strategy and the 2018 National Defence Strategy reports identify China as one of the US’ key strategic adversaries, which seek to “shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model”. The Trump administration’s national security plan makes clear it will use all the tools of statecraft to protect US interests. The 2017 report says: “Economic tools – including sanctions, anti-money- laundering and anti-corruption measures, and enforcement actions – can be important parts of broader strategies to deter, coerce, and constrain adversaries.” From a broader perspective, the US attacks on Huawei are attempts to thwart China’s rise as a world power by means fair or foul.

Cherrayil, N. (2019, August 14). Huawei’s Harmony has potential to become ‘national OS’ of China. Retrieved, May 11, 2020, from: https://www.techradar.com/news/huaweis-harmony-has-potential-to- become-national-os-of-china

Huawei’s Harmony has potential to become ‘national OS’ of China Huawei’s in-house developed multi-device operating system – HarmonyOS – has the potential to become the ‘national OS’ of China, an industry expert said.

“Huawei has a big opportunity to scale the OS in China across multiple device categories and to build a robust developer community as the Chinese government is pushing for a ‘national OS’ in a bid to become less reliant on Google and Microsoft,” Neil Shah, Research Director for Devices and Ecosystems at Counterpoint Technology Market Research, told TechRadar Middle East. Chinese internet players such as Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent have developed OSs based on Android before but it did not take off.

If the government pushed other big Chinese brands such as Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi to develop not only smartphones but also other products such as TVs, he said then HarmonyOS can scale across and it will become more attractive for developers to develop apps.

Chinese brands hold more than 40% of the smartphone market share globally.

According to Counterpoint, Huawei had 15.8%, Xiaomi had 9%, Oppo had 8.1%, Vivo had 7.5%, Lenovo had 2.6% and had 1.3% as of second quarter this year.

Microkernel architecture is the future of OS Shah said that HarmonyOS is quite disruptive for the China market and by looking at the architecture; it is quite flexible as it is and it has also opened the platform for its competitors.

“Microkernel architecture is the future of OS and Huawei is the first major OS vendor to adopt it on a larger scale. Google is also planning for micro-kernel architecture in its in-development Fuchsia OS. Huawei has learned the shortcomings from the current OS architectures such as Android’s monolithic kernel and Apple’s fragmented OS approach to develop a distributed and flexible microkernel architecture,” he said.

The Chinese company said that the OS version 2.0 of its microkernel will be released next year while version 3.0 arrives in 2021.

When the time is right and Huawei has more developers developing apps for Harmony OS, Shah said that developers can take full advantage of the scalability of the microkernel architecture.

Huawei is the biggest player in China in terms of mobile devices and the internet of things devices.

Bigger scope for scale in China Shah said that launching smartphones in China with HarmonyOS has a bigger scope for scale as there is no Android’s Google Mobile Service in China and Huawei is using its cloud services.

“Huawei has in the next three to four years to build a robust OS in the China market and make sure it is mature enough to go on an offensive and make Honor to launch products running on HarmonyOS and flood the market with different products running on Harmony OS,” he said.

Samsung did a similar thing in the past. Samsung had used for low-end smartphones but did not take off but the Korean vendor uses it now for , TVs and other white goods.

Huawei already has a growing wearable, IoT and automotive business, all of which could be powered by Harmony OS.

So, Shah said that Huawei will have a similar strategy where Google does not have that much play. “Huawei does not want to upset Google but they should proliferate the Chinese market with HarmonyOS smartphones in the next three to four years,” he said.

Moreover, he said that there is also scope for Samsung and LG, whose market shares are less than 1% in China, to adopt HarmonyOS to grow its market share in China.

Huawei will face pressure from attracting developers In the next five years, he said that TVs, smartwatches, smartphones and tablets will see higher proliferation and then in-car infotainment and electric vehicles. China’s BYD is the biggest electric car manufacturer in the world and they may also form an alliance with Huawei.

In 2022, Harmony will come into AR, VR and other head-mounted devices.

The market has seen different platforms in (WatchOS, Tizen, OS, Android Wear & other proprietary OSs), smart TV (Android TV, , WebOS, Tizen and others), IoT segments (RTOS flavours, LiteOS, Linux, mbedOS and more).

So, Shah said an open-source and robust microkernel-based OS platform has the potential to drive enthusiasm in the non-smartphone space as well.

Even though most of the big developers on board are based in China, Shah said that Huawei will face pressure from attracting app developers from outside of China and they need to do it alone.

Huawei Mobile Services connects more than 910,000 global developers and 100m users outside of China.

If the Chinese brands take the open HarmonyOS route and build two or three mobile phones globally, Shah said then there is more scale for developers to develop apps for HarmonyOS rather than on Samsung or Apple play stores.

However, he said that the only challenge is that Apple and Google took almost a decade to strengthen its app stores in terms of security and launching it in different markets.

So, he said that Huawei will find it difficult to maintain the app store and in different countries, localization of apps, to get developers to optimise apps for HarmonyOS and integrate other monetisation options via Harmony SDKs at a scale which other OS providers were not able to do – for example, Microsoft with Windows Phone.

Google has reached a stage where it supports many languages but Shah hopes that Huawei will take at least five to six years to reach that level.

Eventually, he said that other Chinese players will have to adopt HarmonyOS as it will give them some leverage over Google as well.

Opportunity to boost its services business The meat of the Android platform is the GMS while every OEMs have their cloud services and app stores apart from the third-party app stores.

Most of the people in China use a handful of apps as it is restricted. Half of the people spent their time on WeChat and others on Baidu and Alibaba for searching and shopping, apart from gaming.

So, if anyone wants GMS, they can download the APK file and sideload it. “Anyone can sideload it and Google will earn revenue if someone watches a video on Harmony OS. The only issue is that Google will not have that much control it had on Android and cannot collect a lot of user data as it is not linked to the Google ID,” he said.

Samsung’s Tizen is a competitor to Android but some of the Goggle apps work on Samsung TVs.

In the end, Shah said that Google, Microsoft and Facebook don’t bother about the platform as long as they make revenue out of it.

With Harmony OS, he said that Huawei has an opportunity to boost its services business – Huawei Cloud, HiLink, Music, Video and others.

Cutress, I. (2019, September 23). Huawei CEO Richard Yu Q&A: “Politicians are Playing Games. Retrieved, April 27th, 2020, from: https://www.anandtech.com/show/14896/huawei-ceo-richard-yu- qa-politicians-are-playing-games

Huawei CEO Richard Yu Q&A: “Politicians are Playing Games”

As the world’s second largest smartphone manufacturer, the growth of Huawei over the last decade has been immense. Last year the company overtook Apple with smartphone unit sales, despite not being in the US market, by offering some of the best hardware and user experiences in a very competitive market. However, being placed on the US Entity List earlier this year has put a dent in that momentum, especially when it comes to talking about flagship smartphones. Huawei launched its new Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro smartphones this week, without Google Play Store apps, with CEO Richard Yu committing over $1B to enhance the Huawei app ecosystem. After the launch event, Richard sat down with a group of press and took some questions.

Fighting With One Arm Tied Behind Its Back

In recent years, it’s hard to underestimate the effect that Huawei has had on the smartphone industry. The company has two major annual releases: the Mate series brings the latest in chip technology to market, while the P series offset by six months takes the Mate design and puts best-in-class photography inside. Each iteration comes with enhancements to the core elements of the Huawei ethos: design, performance, and user experience. Huawei is everywhere, except the US.

The New Huawei Mate 30 Pro

Being based in China, many individuals and users are sceptical about Huawei. The company says that it is 99% owned by its workforce – supposedly around 40% of its 190,000 employees have the equivalent of non-voting shares as part of a trade union, which translates into employee support and end-of-year bonuses, although these trade shares have zero voting power in a traditional sense - management takes the big decisions. Because the shares are technically owned by the union, they are non-transferable, and individuals cannot trade them - when employees leave the company, Huawei/the union buys back those shares for redistribution. Some people cite that Ren Zhengei, one of its founders, was a senior member of China’s ruling Communist Party, and that being in China means having to comply with its data laws and share information with the government. Huawei insists it is not controlled or even directed by the state, just that it complies with all local laws, no matter what the country.

Despite playing almost everywhere in the world in smartphones and telecommunications, this scepticism has kept Huawei smartphones out of the US market. The US government, even under the previous administration, saw Huawei as a threat, and its attempt to enter the market in a big way in Q1 2017 was scuppered. Despite not playing in the consumer market in the US, Huawei has a lot of business with American companies. Huawei uses the Google Android operating system in its smartphones, and has been a leading partner in Android ecosystem development for a decade. Huawei uses for its PC business. Huawei also has had extensive research facilities in the US under the Futurewei name, and deals with a good number of smaller companies. In Huawei’s own words, ‘we bring a lot of profit to US companies’.

All this came to a head earlier this year, when the current administration due to its tariff war with China, placed 80 companies including Huawei on an Entity List, barring any US company (or any company with product development in the US) to work with Huawei without a licence. Almost immediately Google and Microsoft had to cut off all contact with Huawei, and companies with extensive facilities in the US, such as Arm, had to re-examine its product portfolio to see what could and couldn’t be shared with Huawei. More than 100 companies have submitted requests for licences to work with Huawei, however none of those submissions have been approved at this time, despite six months after the initial ban.

This has put Huawei, and some US companies, in a bit of a pickle. Despite being as vertically integrated as possible, Huawei relies on several high-profile US companies and US operations in order to produce its products. By being unable to even communicate with Google on official terms places Huawei on the sidelines – open source only, with no way to licence Google services. With no way to work with companies like Microsoft on bug fixes or OS optimization, Huawei’s products could potentially stagnate, and US companies lose out on not only revenue but a strong technically minded powerhouse that has the ability to help improve both sides of the equation. To that end, Huawei has put its resources into overdrive: where it has been reliant on US companies in the past, Huawei is moving to become self-reliant, ultimately removing its connections from the US technology industry, probably to the detriment of the US.

As a result, Huawei has been proactive in announcing initiatives such as HarmonyOS (Hongmeng OS), a unified microkernel platform to cover everything from microcontrollers to televisions. Huawei is putting $1B into its own version of the Play Store, known as the App Gallery, to encourage developers to port their apps under Huawei’s APIs and SDKs. The sweetener there is that where Apple and Google take a 30% cut of all sales, Huawei will only take a 15% cut. Huawei is also expanding its AI efforts to more products, as well as the cloud.

Unfortunately, HarmonyOS is ultimately not ready for prime-time in smartphones. Huawei’s representatives have been cagey about whether it is suitable for such devices, but in reality it just isn’t ready for that sort of scale. As a result, for its smartphones, Huawei is turning to the open-source version of Google Android, known as AOSP (Android Open Source Project). At this level, Huawei does not need to interact with Google, but it does not get access to certain Google Services, like the Play Store, because it can’t license them due to the US issue.

Roll forward to September 19th, and Huawei announces its first major product that is feeling the impact of this ban: the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro smartphones. The worldwide launch for the devices occurred in Germany, where the company has launched the Mate series for the last few years. Huawei CEO of the Consumer Business Group, Richard Yu, spoke for 88 minutes about the new hardware and the innovative user experience that the devices offer, and then two minutes about not having Google apps as well as the Huawei app ecosystem.

The key element here is the use of GMS, or Google Mobile Services. The GMS library forms a key part of certain Android apps, such as Maps, Docs, Gmail, Search, YouTube, Play Store, Drive, and Photos. Huawei no-longer has access to GMS, and so instead suggests to users that most of these features can be accessed through the web. By contrast, Huawei has its own mobile services, or HMS, and it is this library that the company is encouraging software developers to use, by dangling a high user install base, a higher percentage return, and Huawei’s investment.

It was on these topics and more to which Huawei’s CEO, Richard Yu, was grilled on by the press for around 45 minutes after the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro presentations. We were one of about two dozen press sat in a side room after the main event. This was, we were told, Richard Yu’s only press session as part of the launch.

As always with our interview transcriptions, the transcription has been tidied for readability and some questions may be rearranged to assist with topic consistency. Where possible, we have noted the journalist and publication that asked the question.

Q: Can you explain clearly which operating system will work on?

A: This is Android 10. We use the Android Open Source Platform - consumer can download the apps they need from many app stores.

Q: Why Wasn’t HarmonyOS used?

A: This year we are still using AOSP. We want to support Google and our partnership with them. We want to continue to partner with US companies like Google. If we cannot work with these companies because of the US ban, then we will create our own solutions. HarmonyOS is ready for deployment in certain areas, but we have postponed it at this time because we still want to work with Google. I think that this US ban has destroyed this industry. It has split the industry - it is harmful for US companies. The smartphone as a product has no relationship with network infrastructure or backbone 5G security. So why they are doing this – it is really difficult to understand why they are like this.

“This US ban has destroyed this industry” Nirave Gondhia, TechnoBuffalo: With Huawei having zero interaction with Google, we no longer have Google-based applications. This will be a make-or-break deal with a number of potential customers outside of China. How will Huawei approach this?

A: With Google apps - some of the apps are web-based, or you can download them from other channels, other app stores. Huawei will aim to provide alternative solutions for our users - we cannot install the GMS core, and so using Huawei HMS and Huawei App Gallery is our solution. From next month on, we will ship this to global market.

Q: Specifically about the Google Play Store, can it be side loaded on the Mate 30 series?

A: We recommend the Huawei App Gallery, or other stores. Some Google apps are on the App Gallery store, or on other stores. There are many stores, you can download apps from other stores. You cannot use Play Store [on the Mate 30 series], because it requires the GMS core which we cannot use. This is not good for Google, for their business – we have made a big contribution to US companies, and now that is all forbidden. That’s damaging to US companies. We [at Huawei] are very open and transparent.

Q: Which Google Apps will or will not work due to GMS?

A: We hope that consumer can use Google’s apps. There are web versions [through the browser] that still work if users cannot load the applications. However for example, Google apps work on iOS because iOS has the GMS core support. Users might be able to download the GMS core themselves through other stores or third party websites. Some consumers can do that.

Q: Will Huawei do anything to help people Google apps? Will sales people in stores help users? Or will software be installed to help others install Google apps?

A: We cannot help our users to do it. The retailer might help the user, but not with help from Huawei.

Q: Will the Mate 30 smartphones be preloaded with other app stores?

A: [At the moment, only] Huawei App Gallery. We are discussing to make the other app stores on our phones also. We are looking to preinstall them, or offer them through our app gallery. They can also be side loaded.

Q: If the issue with the US resolves in a positive way, how easy/difficult is it for Huawei to add Google services?

A: Over one night. We can do it immediately. In the past years, we have made big contributions to the Android ecosystem. We are leading many of the innovations. We bring a lot of profit to US companies.

Andy Boxall, Digital Trends: With regards the App Gallery - you've spoken before about partnerships and the $1b investment bringing developers. Can you explain how you are planning to expand the apps in the App Gallery?

A: We are working with developers to implement applications with the HMS core, rather than GMS core. Today Google and Apple take 30% of their app store revenue, with the developer getting 70%. With Huawei, we only take 15% and give 85% to the app developer. Huawei only takes 15%. More revenue for the app developer means more profit, and we like that kind of encouragement. We have to do this - we were forced to this. I hope you can understand that. But the US government forced us, we have no other choice. It's not good for the US companies.

Nirave Gondhia: Without the Play Store, it does hamper you slightly. What we've seen from other companies going this route is that there are only three big apps that most people care about: Facebook, Whatsapp, and Instagram. They are all managed by Facebook. Are you talking to Facebook about new apps for the App Gallery?

A: Those apps will work with our phones. Can run those without GMS core.

Dr. Ian Cutress: For the past couple of generations, Huawei has locked down the boot loader to its new phones, which has stopped users from adjusting the device and modifying the OS. With these new developments and the lack of interaction with Google, will this policy of the locked boot loader continue?

A: In the past we limited this feature to guarantee more security for the consumer. This time I think perhaps we need to give more freedom for the consumer. We are planning on the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro - consumers can do customization by themselves. Especially to download apps that they need from US companies.

“We Bring a Lot of Profit to US Companies” Q: Huawei has showed great sales and revenue performance of the last couple of years. How will recent ban affect the sales of Mate 30 compared to previous devices?

A: Inside China, sales will increase. Outside China, might decrease. The market is more competitive in China, but the China market will have strong demand and growth. We will sell in the global market, but for sure some market will be influenced by the change. From May, the US ban means Huawei’s retail sales dropped, but retail is now recovering quickly through Q3. I believe that this generation we can sell maybe more than 20 million units. This [the Mate 30 series] will be a very successful product, I do believe. Some consumers, even without Google apps, they love our products. We have influence, but the China market demand will be huge.

Q: For the Mate 30 / Pro, Huawei has over the last 18-24 months in the EU worked with carriers to bring handsets to users. With these new developments, are we still going to see them sold by carriers?

A: Yes. We still have good partnerships with carriers - they buy a lot of our products. That is because of the relationship, but more importantly the consumers love our products. [We have the] Best quality, the best user experience. That is why we still sell many products in the carrier channel. Fore example, our new P30 colors are selling very well. We have the 5T, and some other new products in before the Google ban. We bring them to the European global market and our consumer feedback is still very positive. The carriers need us, and they have trust and support. The users love Huawei.

Q: When the pricing up came up for the Mate 30 series, it was in Euros. Can you say which European countries these devices are coming to?

A: We are planning to come to Europe from next month, step by step. We are still in the process and planning. Even without GMS core, and Google services, we still want to ship the AOSP version to our European consumers.

Q: Can you confirm when Huawei Mate 30 series is coming to the rest of the world (Middle East / Latin America)?

A: We are planning this. We cannot stop our business - our consumers love our products. Some products we don't need Google GMS, like the smartwatch.

Q: You have announced plans for the Mate 30 series to be released next month. Is there a chance there will be a delay? A: We are planning to ship these devices next month in APAC. For the EU market, we are planning for some markets in the next month, so we don’t expect any postponement to be too long. We are vetting the user experience across multiple regions, so countries can use the product. It's a flagship phone. I'm not humble - it's better than the other flagships!

“Huawei is a Bargaining Chip. We Follow All Local Laws.” Q: Do you consider the situation with the US as static, or are there changes ahead with the US relationship?

A: It is a US-China issue, and Huawei is a bargaining chip for it. That’s not good. Some politicians are playing games and making a lot of noise – that is unfair to us. They relate us with China, but Huawei is a global company. We have operations in over 170 countries. We follow all local laws.

Q: What are your personal feelings about the US issue?

A: This kind of trade war is not good for two great nations. This is like a real war. It damages both sides. I do believe this war will finish sooner or later - I believe sooner rather than later. It is too big a damage for two great nations, and that is not good.

“This is like a real war. It damages both sides” Dr. Ian Cutress: Over the past couple of weeks we have seen your SoC competitors announce mid-range chipsets with integrated 5G for 2020, bringing this technology to the masses next year. Huawei has yet to say the same – can you comment on whether you think that the mid- range is ready for 5G next year, or what Huawei’s plans are to do in this market?

A: With Huawei, 5G will come to mid-range and low-range next year. We also have 5G mid-range and low-range solutions next year. Our competitors are not yet ready for mid-range hardware, and we're not ready yet either. This year is all about the premium segmentation, and next year the battle is for mid-range 5G smartphones. 5G consumer demand is very high – users who want to buy a new phone, if they want to keep it for several years, don’t want to be stuck on 5G in 2021-2023. In 2020, we will see increased demand for 5G in the mid-range. Users need to experience 5G and the speed.

Q: During the presentation you covered the automation stuff around the home, such as using automation to turn on the TV, the vacuum, the lights. As far as we understand, that is mostly in the China market right now - are you bringing these features to other geographic regions?

A: Yes, we are planning the ecosystem to the global markets. One example, the phone working with the car, and the ecosystem, is important for next year. For sure we are planning this. Our software already supports this. We need some time to deploy the cloud and do the IoT testing. We are working with some European partners and we already work with these people. We will deploy our AI engine and our AI solution and our HiLink smart home solution outside China to global market from next year. Even today, Huawei Vision is coming to the global market.

Cutress, I. (2020, March 26). Richard Yu Press Interview: Huawei’s CEO on COVID-19 and Huawei Apps. Retrieved, May 11, 2020, from: https://www.anandtech.com/show/15666/huawei-ceo-richard- yu-global-press-qa-on-covid19-and-huawei-services

Richard Yu Press Interview: Huawei's CEO on COVID-19 and Huawei Apps

Today Huawei launched its latest generation of photography focused smartphone: the P40 series. This series consists of the P40, the P40 Pro, and the P40 Pro+, starting at €799 for the cheapest going up to €1399 for the high-end model, which features a 40W wireless charge mode, a 6.58-inch OLED 90 Hz display, 10x optical zoom, up to 100x zoom, Wi-Fi 6, and a range of new photography features to get the best shot.

After the launch, Huawei’s Consumer Business Group (CBG) CEO Richard Yu invited the press to a group question and answer session. There were two main topics that dominated the session - how the prevalence of COVID-19 is affecting Huawei’s strategy, but also how the continuation of the US ban on Huawei interacting with US companies is affecting users and in particular the available apps on Huawei’s own App Gallery that can’t use Google’s services.

The Q&A session lasted a little over 45 minutes. Despite being asked in advance to supply questions for the session, we were not selected to ask our question. (I’ve suggested to my Huawei contact that after the current situation is finished, we should fly over to China to have a 1-on-1 with the CEOs of both Huawei CBG and Honor.) Here’s a tidied transcript of the questions and responses.

You can read our coverage of the P40 Series launch at the following link:

Huawei Announces P40, P40 Pro and P40 Pro+: A New Generation of Cameras

Mike Lowe, Pocket Lint: How will COVID-19 affect production and manufacturing? Will it cause delays with production of devices like the P40, and will it effect any products going forwards, particularly as they come to the EU markets?

Richard Yu: We already started manufacturing the P40 in Q4 2019. So despite China having COVID, we see it as under control now, and the manufacturing and supply chains have recovered. Our supply for the P40 has been eased, so it is ready now, because we started last year, and have been manufacturing for four months.Even in February, during Chinese New Year and due to COVID, manufacturing was down, but it has recovered. We feel that we can meet the market needs with demand for the P40 series.

In the EU, or other countries, the COVID situation is not like China is today. China (from our point of view) has recovered, but outside China, there are many physical stores that are closed. But our products are ready to ship when the stores are ready. Even during the COVID situation, we were still manufacturing - we had some supply chain issues, but everything has recovered and we can guarantee supply.

Leo Kelion, BBC: How will demand change during the COVID-19 crisis? Launching a family of flagship smartphones during a time when people are losing jobs, or have not enough money, people are considering purchasing other devices for study and such. To what extent do you think this is going to hit demand? A: The smartphone is more and more important for everyone. People spend so much time with their phones, more time than on a PC, or a laptop, or a tablet. Now because more and more people are working from home, we do see there is a strong demand on PC/tablet, and also the mobile broadband, the home routers, mobile wifi and such - all of these are seeing strong demand. The smartphone also has strong demand, because people are using more smartphones. Our flagship phones, with 5G, are the best performing in the world, with the best camera technology, and with many new innovations and have smooth operation. I think these features are stimulating the market.

Because of COVID, our PC/tablet demand has increased a lot, and yes people need more PCs or tablets for kids, for family, or for work. But we also see the smartphone is getting more important, with people spending time at home. We still feel the demands on us to launch new flagship devices, with 5G and improved camera features. Our devices also work together as one seamless solution - such as PC and smartphone. We feel we still have a strong demand.

Also, we have launched our products and our price is very competitive, starting from 799 Euro. The P40 Pro is only 999 with a super high specification. I hope that the P40 series will sell very well.

Guillaume Grallet, Le Point: Do you think that as the world is fighting against COVID-19 that data from geolocation services can help in fighting the disease or in getting better treatment?

A: With a smartphone with AI and all the sensors, we can help to be honest to help identify. We have software and we should help all the consumers with privacy and protection. We have an app ready in China now that can detect heartbeat and things through AI, and that’s innovative technology, like with breathing rate and stress. The AI can learn people, and it is quite accurate. This functionality is available to new apps for phones with AI. Our P40 Pro+ can even detect temperature using a unique algorithm - actually our Global Sales team said they didn’t need it, but our China Sales team wanted it! It can check body temperature with the rear cameras, and it’s very accurate. It’s new technology. With all these technologies it can help, but we need to get permission from consumers, and we care about privacy. We have the technology, and we’ve done comparisons with professional machines, and it’s very accurate. The technology on the phones, along with AI, can work very well, that’s why technology can do many things - with time we can see launching some more important services.

Christopher Denbach, Deutsche Press-Agentur: What is the state of development of Huawei’s Mobile Services (HMS)? What is the state of the ecosystem?

A: Huawei Mobile Services started May of last year, and it has been expanding. Progress is very good. The more and more popular top apps are now in Huawei’s App Gallery and integrated with the Huawei Mobile Service Core. It gets better and better with time, and the P40 series are the first phones that are full of HMS apps.

We still want to continue our cooperation with Google, but we do not have a choice. We have built HMS to do this, and the company is ready to give the consumers more choice. We make a lot of profit for US companies, but they ban us, which gives less choice to consumers. It is difficult to understand. For the last 3 years we have had a good contribution to the Android ecosystem, with technology and ideas and everything, but also we enable big profits to US companies. Google uses ideas that are first from Huawei. But unfortunately the US ban influences us a lot. But we are recovering well, and HMS Core and HMS Services will be very successful in the future. It is getting better every month, every week, every day. We do still want to cooperate with Google. But we need the US government licence and permission.

Basil Kronfli, Let’s Talk About Tech: It’s clear that Huawei is doing a lot with making HMS a more appealing offer, as it is available for all smartphones to download, but it has a long way to go to be seamless for the average user. The Mate 30 came to market and there was lots of guidance to sales staff to explain how the device worked. How will that messaging change for the P40 series, when common users might not understand that common apps like Uber do not work right now?

A: I understand your concern. We provide full retail services and help in packaging, to help when the customer unboxes. We want to provide a full service to help the user clone their old phone to a new phone, but also how to download apps if they need them. In the beginning with HMS and the App Gallery, perhaps some apps are not ready, but they could download them from elsewhere. With time, most of the popular apps will integrate HMS Core, and be in the App Gallery. That will improve very quickly. In the beginning, perhaps it was not so perfect, but with time it will get better. I still have confidence it will quickly improve. But our service, and through our retail service partners, we can help the consumer to tell them how to use all of these popular apps and how to use the phones and use the full capabilities.

Daniel Bader, Android Central: This is the first year that Huawei has broken the Pro line of devices into two, the Pro and the Pro+. What was the reason, and do you think this is a long term strategy for the Mate series as well?

A: You may be curious about regular and Pro, but now we have Pro+ as well. Why did we do this? We want to use more advanced technology, but it is also more expensive! It is not affordable for everyone. So this is why we have a new high end model to give the consumer more choice. Some consumers really want those options! Like the photography options, the 100x zoom, or active photography of birds from a distance. We lead with this technology, but we also understand it is not affordable for everyone, which is why we have the Pro+ which can cover the more premium high end users. This year we want to provide the leading technologies, even better technology, it’s not for everyone, but it’s for the high-end users.

David Phelan, The Independent: What are Huawei’s ambitions for P40 Pro, and how does it fit into the strategy? Also, is there any news for the Huawei App Maps app built with TomTom?

A: With the P40 Pro, we want to cover more volume on high end users. The Pro+ is even more towards the higher end. We think the P40 Pro will be the highest volume, then the P40, then the Pro+. We have confidence that this is the most powerful 5G smartphone, with the best Wi-Fi 6 performance, and the best performing product. The design is also compact. All this new technology camera and 5G, I hope this generation can sell a lot of volume, as that’s my target. In China the volume every generation increases a lot, our retail shipments do.

With TomTom, our partnership progresses very well. TomTom is to provide location services and a Maps service with HMS Core to all the apps that need location services. We want to give consumers stand alone apps for navigation from Tomtom and it’s going very well and positive. That’s good news. Google’s map is very good, and users can still use it for navigation through the browser, but without an account you don’t have preferences, but the navigation still works.

Ben Sin, Forbes: Can you tell us about Huawei’s 1+8+N strategy?

A: We started this more than 2 years ago in China, and it is very successful. This strategy is our full scenario Smart AI Life strategy. We make all the devices to work together seamlessly and bring the best experience to user at home, travelling, sports, or any scenario.

1 means the smartphone, 8 means the eight most common devices, and N is everything IoT and Smart Home, with ‘plus’ being the connection. Huawei will design 1 (smartphone) and 8 (most common devices) and the plus is the connection, and the N is the wider ecosystem. N is for partners, like Bosch, Siemens, like Panasonic - home electronic product vendors. We work with a wide range of products with Home AI Life. That’s our strategy, to build this ecosystem with hardware, with software, with a connection, with voice, from a control panel - it should all be seamless. This is how devices and collaboration works for a seamless experience.

It’s a 5 year strategy, with Smart Home AI, HiLink, with Celia our new AI voice assistant, all built around HMS Core and the App Gallery. It is an ecosystem. We offer more value to local app developers, with more revenue sharing and more support, and we want to offer the best local integration for experiences. It really is a project for the next 5-10 years.

Damien Wilde, 9to5 Google: With the App Gallery, what has been the feedback from moving from GMS to HMS core?

A: From the appearance for the app developer, to switch to HMS core, it’s very convenient, very quick. In one or two days, you can do the full integration. It’s very easy. In the beginning, app developers do not understand Huawei, but when they know, they say it is very convenient. We provide a development environment and tools to help the app developer to make it quick and easy for HMS core. We have a toolkit for this, and an IDE.

Mishaal Rahman, XDA: What kind of customer service does the App Gallery provide developers? We’ve heard from developers that Google’s App System makes it difficult to actually contact a person, so what about Huawei?

A: We want to learn what others are doing, and we want to do them better! We are improving in this area. We are building the hotline and services to support this. We are newcomers, and in many areas we are building our capabilities - we are progressing our capabilities above and beyond. We are also investing more.

Daniel Zlatec, PhoneArena: I’ve been using the P40 Pro for 2 days, and I’m amazed about the camera. When all the folks from Nokia and Lumia went to work for Huawei, did they help with this camera development?

A: We have a great mobile photography talent and team - not just from one company, but we get professional experts from lots of companies to come and join us in Huawei. DSLR from Japan, from Leica, we have the best collection of top talent in Huawei. This is why we are leading in mobile phone innovation. We have strong R&D in , also Sweden, in many countries worldwide - also in Japan, in France. We have a very powerful team developing our ISP, our sensors, modules - it’s spread all over.

Katie Collins, CNET: How does it feel to be launching a phone during COVID-19? Is it surreal to have an event like this?

A: From the China schedule, we have a strict control on COVID.In the beginning, many Chinese had a worry that this COVID will make us lose control of our product timeline. But the Chinese Government got it under control very quickly. So the situation is good, people go back to work, back to shopping mall, and other public areas - it’s very good. Other countries can learn this. We moved the launch to online, we think it is still OK because China is OK. To avoid any risk, we moved the launch to online, and offline more and more stores are opening in order to buy the device over time. We launched the product on schedule, and are shipping on schedule - we have a strong commitment to our customers, even during COVID. I live in China, and I want to tell you China is very safe. I think every government can learn from each other, and this can be under control very quickly. I’m still very positive on this!

Paul Sandle, Reuters: How are we going to mitigate the GMS issue for P40 and other devices?

A: We want to talk with the leading app developers to quickly integrate HMS Core and put the apps on the Huawei App Gallery as soon as possible. I hope the media can tell the app developers this! It is very quick to do with HMS. This is our top priority. In our global team, our business development team, their priority is to work with developers. There are lots of apps! So it will require some time. But it is getting quicker. The media should be able to tell that to the developers.

We also want to support Google, so we hope that we are issued a licence. This is our long term goal - we have grown to the #2 in the world, even without the US. We think we can contribute a lot of revenue and profit to our partners in the US. We want to continue this partnership for the next 10 years. But we are still working on our own HMS integration. We will improve very quickly. In some countries we have made a lot of very good progress.

Alex Todd, Tech Advisor: How does COVID affect the marketing of the phones? What’s the strategy?

A: With COVID, most people are told to stay inside and do not go out. So the most effective is online or TV. For online the marketing is more effective than outside on the street. So we will invest more in our marketing, our branding, ecommerce, and also with some of the TV channels like that. We continue to invest in marketing branding.

Andy Boxall, Digital Trends: Celia - the new Huawei assistant. What is the direction of Celia, regarding all Huawei devices. Google integrates its assistant into everything, but Samsung’s Bixby has a back seat to the ecosystem. How will Celia be pitched in this space? A: Because of the US ban, we used to have Google and Alexa, but now we use Celia. Every country has its own optimized version of Google and Alexa, and we want to launch everywhere and give the consumer more choice. We hope that the consumer can ask for any assistant and we want to give the consumer more convenience. We want to make Celia more convenient so we will continue in this area. But we want to use more than just Celia.

Because of the US ban, we want to get the licence to use the others to give the consumers more choice. We want to make the Celia more competitive with other assistants, in some areas at least. That’s my target, my ambition. We will continue to invest. With time, we will launch further. Rome was not built in a day! We need more time, but our ambition is high and we can catch up and do better.

Diaconescu, A. (2020, March 3). New reports suggest Samsung claimed two big Q4 2019 wins over Apple and Huawei. Retrieved, May 4, 2020, from: https://www.phonearena.com/news/market-reports- q4-2019-smartphone-sales-samsung-apple-huawei_id122688 New reports suggest Samsung claimed two big Q4 2019 wins over Apple and Huawei

Even though we're approaching the end of the year's first quarter, it appears market research firms are not done releasing interesting reports about the evolution of global smartphone sales in 2019 just yet. While Counterpoint Research, Canalys, and the IDC all came out with their Q4 and full-year estimates more than a month ago, Gartner waited until today to crunch its own numbers... and name a different vendor winner for the final three months of 2019.

At the same time, The Korea Herald is reporting on an overview of the European smartphone market compiled by Counterpoint Research, which provides some interesting albeit unsurprising insight into how things shifted on the old continent following Huawei's Google woes. But let's start from the beginning:

Did Samsung steal Apple's Q4 2019 crown after all?

Although the three aforementioned research firms couldn't agree back in late January on how many smartphones were shipped in total around the world between October and December, Apple ruled all the charts, edging out Samsung by only 2.9 million units in Counterpoint's report, 4.4 million according to the IDC, and a whopping 7.6 million units as measured by Canalys.

But Gartner claims Samsung was the world's number one vendor during the 2019 holiday season, as well as the entire year, with 70.4 million and 296.2 million unit sales respectively. Obviously, no one is disputing the chaebol's overall supremacy last year, when Gartner estimates only a little more than 193 million iPhones were sold, far behind Huawei's 240 million+ tally, not to mention Samsung's towering figures.

As far as Q4 is concerned, the stark contrast between these numbers put together by Gartner and, say, the 78.4 million iPhone shipments estimated by Canalys might be explained by a difference in research methodology. Gartner seems to be tracking "sales to end users", which is not the same thing as shipments. The latter measurement often includes devices shipped by a manufacturer to a retailer before actually ending up in the hands of consumers.

The only logical conclusion we can draw here is that Apple overestimated iPhone demand around the holidays, which helped the company take the global shipment trophy while losing the sales game to its arch-rival. Still, the Cupertino-based tech giant can arguably be happy with its Q4 2019 sales performance, which marked a solid improvement from the same period of the previous year.

Ironically, that can't be said about Samsung's sales numbers, which declined slightly from 70.8 million units. Huawei and Oppo's figures dropped by a significantly larger extent, while Xiaomi enjoyed double digit growth, finishing in fourth place. Xiaomi and Oppo were ranked fourth and fifth respectively in the full-year chart as well, with Huawei sitting in second place and impressively boosting its overall scores despite US sanctions and many controversies surrounding possible spying and various user privacy concerns.

Samsung thrived in Europe at Huawei's expense

Huawei may have managed to end 2019 with a remarkable total driven in large part by domestic sales, but its European popularity was severely impacted by the US - China trade war. As expected, plenty of people on the old continent care about Google services and apps, and in their absence, it looks like many buyers opted for Samsung in favor of Huawei handsets during Q4.

Counterpoint Research claims that resulted in a 2 percent year-on-year market share surge for Samsung, from 25 to 27 percentage points. Unfortunately, the full report doesn't appear to be out just yet, so we don't know exactly how big were Huawei and Apple's slices of the European pie in the October - December 2019 timeframe.

What we do know is that Samsung struggled across regions like Middle East-Africa, Central and South America, and even North America, so Europe crucially helped the company keep its global numbers relatively steady amid mounting pressure from brands like Oppo and Realme in key emerging markets.

Looking ahead, the world's top smartphone vendor is expected to see "stable growth this year", although it's not entirely clear if this prediction takes production slowdowns and other issues caused by the coronavirus epidemic into consideration.

Dissis, J. (2019, December 31). Huawei’s sales grew in 2019, but it says next year will be “difficult”. Retrieved, June 16, 2020, from: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/30/tech/huawei-revenue- smartphone-sales/index.html

Huawei's sales grew in 2019, but it says next year will be 'difficult' Hong Kong (CNN Business)A top Huawei executive says the Chinese tech company had a strong 2019. But next year promises to be "difficult" as it battles a prolonged American campaign against its business.

The company estimates that sales revenue will top 850 billion Chinese yuan ($122 billion) in 2019, an 18% increase over the previous year, according to a new year's message written by Eric Xu, Huawei's rotating chairman. Huawei also sold 240 million smartphones this year, a 17% jump from 2018. "These figures are lower than our initial projections, yet business remains solid and we stand strong in the face of adversity," he said. Xu acknowledged that Huawei faces several challenges — including a fragile global economy and pressure from the United States, which argues that the company poses a national security threat (Huawei denies this). Washington placed the company on a trade blacklist in May, barring American companies from selling the company software and components without a license. Those restrictions undermined Huawei's relationships with its partners, including Google and mobile operators that sell its smartphones. Because new Huawei devices no longer have access to some critical Google services, global sales outside of China have been hurt, according to independent research.

Huawei CEO says his daughter should be proud she became a 'bargaining chip' in the trade war "We won't grow as rapidly as we did in the first half of 2019, growth that continued throughout the year owing to sheer momentum in the market," Xu said. "It's going to be a difficult year for us," he added, referring to 2020. Xu also outlined an aggressive plan for Huawei to follow if it hopes to succeed next year, including a need to "drive the global development of 5G." The door has not yet been closed to Huawei in several major markets, including Germany and the United Kingdom, despite efforts by the United States to discourage its allies from using the company's equipment in their 5G networks. Xu also called on Huawei employees to "hone our ability to fight and cut red tape," adding that "every one of us needs to fight inertia and rid ourselves of complacency." He said Huawei needs to reward high performers while removing "mediocre managers" who "have lost their enterprising spirit." He added that managers performing in the bottom 10% will be removed each year. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-16/huawei-defies-u-s-ban-with-torrid-growth-in- smartphone-sales Huawei Defies U.S. Ban With Strong Growth in Smartphone Sales

Huawei Technologies Co.’s revenue jumped 24% in 2019’s first nine months, defying Trump administration sanctions to sustain growth in its pivotal smartphone business.

China’s largest technology company reported revenue of 610.8 billion yuan ($86.1 billion) in the January to September period. Global smartphone shipments jumped 26% in the first three quarters to over 185 million units, helping safeguard its position as the world’s second largest name in mobile devices. China’s largest technology company managed to grow revenue despite curbs on the export of crucial American software and components, which executives had warned for months would severely crimp both its networking and smartphone businesses. Huawei has said it expects U.S. export restrictions to reduce annual revenue at its consumer devices business by about $10 billion, in part because Google can no longer supply Android updates and apps from Gmail to Maps for the Chinese company’s newest handsets.

The company’s reported results -- which were unaudited -- suggest that those restrictions have yet to severely impair the business. Huawei, accused by Donald Trump’s administration of aiding Beijing in spying while spearheading China’s tech-superpower ambitions, is trying to claw back business and shore up trust in its products.

Billionaire founder has warned his tech empire faces a “live or die moment,” and mobilized thousands of staff to work around the clock devising alternatives to American technology. Some American giants, including Intel Corp. and Micron Technologies Inc., have said they’re found ways to resume supplying Huawei, a major boost for the Chinese company. Huawei Sales Growth Slumps as U.S. Sanctions Start to Bite

Its phone shipments in 2019 suggest its lead in the Chinese market, the world’s largest, is offsetting weak sales abroad. Huawei shipped more than 206 million smartphones in 2018, according to research firm IDC. The company is betting on its home turf and upcoming holiday season to drive its smartphone sales for the rest of the year. It aims to take half of the smartphone market in China, Bloomberg News reported earlier.

There are signs also that U.S. efforts to block Huawei from the development of 5G technology are flagging: Huawei said Wednesday it has signed more than 60 5G commercial contracts to date worldwide. A senior executive in India for the company said the government there had given “no negative feedback” on Huawei, while in Germany, one of the biggest European markets, the Merkel administration said Huawei’s equipment will not be excluded in future 5G procurement. Huawei’s biggest bet, however, remains in China, where state-owned carriers are ready to build their own 5G networks.

It remains unclear whether prolonged sanctions will eventually rob Huawei of growth, something Ren himself has warned may happen. Huawei remains at the heart of U.S. tensions with China, a symbol of the Asian country’s rising technological might.

Critics charge that intellectual property theft from the likes of Cisco Systems Inc. and Motorola Solutions Inc. helped Huawei vault into the upper echelons of telecommunications providers, though Ren and his executives credit years of investment and research. The wireless giant is now accelerating spending on artificial intelligence chips and mobile software. It’s mobilizing its employees to source or develop alternatives to American circuitry and software to keep its edge in smartphones and next- generation 5G wireless technology.

Global Times (2020). The history of the suppression of Huawei by the United States: from all kinds of obstruction to direct action, what will happen to Huawei? Retrieved, May 4, 2020, from: https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1659039289853316247&wfr=spider&for=pc The history of the suppression of Huawei by the United States: from all kinds of obstruction to direct action, what will happen to Huawei? The US crackdown on Huawei began more than a decade ago. As early as 2008 when Huawei sought to acquire US 3COM, it was blocked by the US government. The merger failed to pass the CFIUS review.

In the following years, many equipment sales contracts and M&A offers between Huawei and US companies have failed. The reasons behind all are the intervention of the US government. The following table summarizes all important failure cases.

Major commercial contracts blocked by the U.S. government in the past decade

Huawei heads for the storm

Starting in 2018, the U.S. government's suppression of Huawei has suddenly escalated, and various policies have been introduced. The following is a simple arrangement by timeline:

2018

On January 9, 2018, Huawei lost AT&T's mobile phone order

On February 13, 2018, FBI director Chris Wray warned against buying Huawei phones

On March 22, 2018, Huawei phones lost support from retailer Best Buy

On May 2, 2018, the US Department of Defense banned the sale of Huawei and ZTE mobile phones at US military bases

On June 7, 2018, the US Congress called on Google to stop cooperation with Huawei

On July 11, 2018, Australia banned Huawei from participating in 5G network construction

On December 5, 2018, British operator BT Student stated that it would eliminate Huawei's 4G equipment and would not purchase Huawei's 5G core network equipment

On December 7, 2018, Reuters reported that Japan would stop buying Huawei and ZTE equipment On December 12, 2018, the Canadian court granted Meng Wanzhou $10 million bail.

2019

On January 3, 2019, a report recommended that Trump use an executive order to ban sales of Huawei and ZTE

On January 4, 2019, the senator proposed a bipartisan bill to address concerns about Huawei

On January 11, 2019, in Poland, a Huawei employee was arrested for espionage. Three days later, Huawei fired the employee.

On January 23, 2019, the media reported that Meng Wanzhou might be extradited to the United States

On January 29, 2019, the United States filed 23 prosecutions against Huawei for alleged theft of trade secrets and fraud.

On February 4, 2019, the US FBI raided the Huawei laboratory. In addition, after checking the work permit, two employees of Huawei were expelled from Denmark.

On February 6, 2019, the US government urged European countries not to buy Huawei's 5G equipment

On February 21, 2019, US Secretary of State Peng Peiao said that countries using Huawei technology pose a risk to the United States.

On February 22, 2019, it was reported that Italian politicians promoted Huawei's 5G ban

On March 1, 2019, Meng Wanzhou's extradition hearing was approved in Canada, and the United States warned the Philippines not to use Huawei 5G equipment.

On March 8, 2019, Huawei sued the US government for a ban on its equipment

On March 12, 2019, the United States warned that Germany must ban Huawei, otherwise it would restrict intelligence sharing with Germany

On March 28, 2019, British regulators warned that Huawei’s products “significantly increased risk”

On April 21, 2019, the CIA stated that Huawei was funded by the Chinese National Security Agency On May 2, 2019, leaks about Huawei prompted the dismissal of British Defense Minister Gavin Williamson

On May 15, 2019, Trump effectively banned Huawei through a national security order

On May 19, 2019, Google deleted the Huawei phone from the Android upgrade list

On May 20, 2019, Huawei received a temporary probation from the US trade ban, prompting Google to resume work temporarily.

On May 22, 2019, chip design company Arm gave up Huawei, and Mate 20 X canceled its launch in the UK

On May 23, 2019, it was reported that the United States accused Huawei of lying about China's relations

On May 30, 2019, SD Association and Wi-Fi Alliance resumed Huawei membership

On June 3, 2019, the academic organization IEEE lifted the one-week ban on Huawei scientists from reviewing technical papers.

On June 7, 2019, Facebook stopped letting Huawei pre-install its applications, and Google reportedly warned the Trump administration that its Huawei ban would pose a national security risk.

On June 24, 2019, the FCC commissioner wanted Huawei to be detached from the US network, and the Trump administration was considering requiring 5G equipment to be manufactured outside of China.

On June 25, 2019, U.S. companies reportedly bypassed Trump’s ban on selling products to Huawei, and FedEx sued the Ministry of Commerce over plans to transfer Huawei’s packages.

On July 1, 2019, Trump administration officials stated that relaxing restrictions on Huawei only applies to products that are widely available in the market.

On July 16, 2019, the US bipartisan senator organization launched 5G legislation, which will make Huawei blacklisted

On July 25, 2019, it was reported that after the US ban was implemented, foundry company Wistron "confiscated" Huawei products worth $100 million.

On August 7, 2019, the Trump administration said it would ban the government from conducting business with Huawei, and Republican senators would target Google and Huawei projects. On August 19, 2019, the US Department of Commerce extended the probation period, allowing US companies to cooperate with Huawei

On September 3, 2019, Huawei accused the United States of using cyber attacks and threats to disrupt its business

On September 9, 2019, Microsoft President Brad Smith hoped that the US government would provide more evidence to support its Huawei ban. U.S. prosecutors accused a Chinese professor of fraud on suspicion of purchasing California company’s technology for Huawei’s benefit.

On October 28, 2019, the FCC stated that it would cut off financial support for wireless operators using Huawei and ZTE equipment

On November 8, 2019, Trump's head of technology slammed countries for "open arms" to Huawei

On November 22, 2019, the FCC banned Huawei and ZTE from obtaining federal subsidies, and the senator hoped Trump would stop permitting US companies to sell licenses to Huawei.

On December 17, 2019, Huawei will launch the P40 Pro without Google services in March 2020. Telefónica said it will significantly reduce the use of Huawei’s 5G core network equipment

2020

On January 9, 2020, Senator Tom Cotton announced a bill banning the US from sharing intelligence with countries using Huawei 5G technology.

On January 14, 2020, the United States urged British officials to prevent Huawei from entering its 5G network. The US senator proposed to provide more than 1 billion US dollars in 5G subsidies to offset Huawei's dominant position.

On January 30, 2020, Australian politicians dismissed the re-discussion of Huawei's 5G ban.

On February 7, 2020, US Attorney General William Barr suggested that the United States hold a "controlling interest" in Ericsson or Nokia to deal with Huawei.

On February 11, 2020, foreign media reported that the U.S. government stated that "it was discovered that Huawei can access the mobile network through the back door worldwide" On February 13, 2020, the US Department of Justice accused Huawei of extortion and theft of trade secrets

US Secretary of State Pempeo is the most active US official to "persuade" other countries to ban Huawei equipment

From the timeline point of view, the most severe period for the US to suppress Huawei was from May to July 2019. Huawei was included in the trade blacklist, and several international standardization organizations suspended Huawei's membership. However, after this, under the pressure of US domestic suppliers, U.S. Commerce eased its supply to Huawei by issuing temporary licenses, and international organizations also restored Huawei’s membership. But the crisis facing Huawei has not disappeared.

The US government cracked down on Huawei's "Top Ten Tortures"

The US crackdown on Huawei has actually been used against companies in many countries in history. But there has never been any company in the world like Huawei, forcing the US government to use most of the means, and forcing the US president and secretary of state to personally vilify the world.

The measures that the United States has taken are as follows:

Embargo. See the historical Batumi organization and the current Wassenaar Agreement.

① Detain senior executives. See the US government's approach to Alstom officials.

② Directly persuade other countries not to use Huawei equipment. See the US approach to Japanese products in the 1980s and 1990s. ③

Academic cutting. The United States has such restrictions on some scientific research units in Iran and Russia. ④

The media is discredited. This is much more. The United States will not let go of anything that is not in the interest of the United States, even if it is an allied company. But only Huawei suffered such a ⑤ long-term consistent smear.

At present, the United States has not used the methods: fines, carve-outs, see the US approach to Alstom France.

So, how do these tricks affect Huawei? What will make Huawei really feel "painful"? Detaining executives: Has little impact on Huawei.

Ren Zhengfei said in an interview with the British BBC in February 2019 that Meng Wanzhou’s loss of freedom had no impact on Huawei’s business. Meng Wanzhou's CFO work has been replaced by other executives. In fact, Huawei's management system does not depend on a certain executive. Even the CEO is on a rotating basis. Huawei has enough talents to maintain the company's normal operations.

Academic cutting: short-term impact

Major international organizations have restored Huawei's identity. However, many American universities have stopped scientific research cooperation with Huawei, which has a certain impact in the long run, which may make Huawei's contact with the latest technology slower, but this is not impossible to alleviate.

The U.S. government’s embargo against Huawei is currently not effective embargo. With strong technical strength and hard work of employees, Huawei has minimized the impact of the US embargo. At present, Huawei's base stations and mobile phones can do without electronic components made in the United States. However, there are still some embargoes that will affect Huawei.

Hardware: Huawei has alternatives

The author is most worried about before, some categories with the highest market share of American manufacturers, such as FPGA chips, RF components, AD/DA and other analog components, Huawei has found an alternative solution, either use self-developed chips to replace, or use Replacement of other national and domestic components. The impact of the hardware embargo on Huawei is relatively small.

Among them, there is no substitute for laptop CPUs of Intel and AMD. If Intel and AMD cannot supply, Huawei’s laptop business will be shut down. However, the US government has relaxed restrictions in this regard. toC software

If the laptop cannot be pre-installed with Microsoft's Windows operating system, the business will be greatly affected. But Microsoft has been allowed to continue to supply Huawei. Huawei mobile phones cannot use the Google service framework GMS, which has a greater impact on overseas markets in the short term, because foreigners rely more on Google’s software stores, map services, etc., but have no impact on the domestic market.

If the alternative Huawei service framework HMS can be accepted by overseas consumers, the future of Huawei mobile phones in overseas markets is also optimistic, but the cultivation of consumer habits takes time, and Huawei will start to do on the latest flagship mobile phone There are still certain risks in this matter. toB software

Semiconductor chip design EDA software is currently monopolized by three companies in the United States. If Huawei does not have the latest version of the software, it will not have any impact in the short term, but the long-term impact after one year will be relatively large and needs to be taken seriously.

Market suppression

There is a certain impact, but the United Kingdom and the European Union have stated that they will not ban Huawei equipment. Canada also has operators who want to purchase Huawei equipment. At present, Japan and Australia are the only countries that still insist on completely disabling Huawei equipment.

The overall effect of containment in the United States is not great. In addition, according to the statistics of the communications industry, more than half of the global 4G base stations are in China, and it is expected that 5G will continue this proportion. China is the world's largest market for 5G networks. As long as it has a relatively high share in the Chinese market, Huawei can rank among the world's largest manufacturers of communications equipment.

Media smear

Western media's stigmatization of Huawei is consistent. Every once in a while, some Western media broke Huawei's "black material." However, Huawei's rumours and explanations will not be concerned by Western media. Western media is to create a "universal consensus" that Huawei equipment is not safe.

Currently, Huawei has opened a network security center in Brussels where stakeholders can test Huawei’s equipment and browse the source code of Huawei’s software. This move has already won the trust of many Western operators. So, what other tricks are not used in the United States? How effective are they?

In fact, the key to Huawei is the manufacture of self-developed chips. Currently, Huawei's chips are mainly entrusted to Taiwan's TSMC. According to Taiwan media reports, according to TSMC's own assessment, the proportion of U.S. technology used in TSMC's 14-nanometer manufacturing process is less than 25% but higher than 10%, and in 7-nanometer and more advanced processes, the proportion of U.S. technology is already lower than 10%.

In the current US "Long Arms" bill, third-party companies are restricted from selling products to companies on their blacklists where the proportion of US technology is higher than 25%. However, some US media reported that the US Department of Commerce is discussing reducing this ratio to 10%. So we see that Huawei has transferred part of the production of 14-nanometer process chips to SMIC.

However, there have recently been reports in the US media that the US government even wants to put all chips produced using US equipment under its control. Due to the relatively high market share of US- based applied materials and production equipment from companies such as LAM in the field of chip manufacturing, both TSMC and SMIC have adopted them. Once this policy is really implemented, the consequences will be disastrous. This can only be solved if our government comes forward and fights against the United States by various means.

In short, Huawei has survived under the sanctions unprecedented by the US government with its strong strength before, but its future will not be calm. Huawei must prepare for greater challenges.

Goh, B. (2019, December 31). Huawei’s 2019 revenue to jump 18%, forecasts ‘difficult’ 2020. Retrieved, June 19, from: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-tech-results/huaweis-2019- revenue-to-jump-18-forecasts-difficult-2020-idUSKBN1YY1JL

Huawei's 2019 revenue to jump 18%, forecasts 'difficult' 2020 SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Huawei Technologies on Tuesday said its full-year revenue would likely jump 18% in 2019 to 850 billion yuan ($121.72 billion), lower than its earlier projections, as a U.S. trade blacklisting curbed growth and disrupted its ability to source key parts.

The world’s biggest maker of telecom network equipment and the No. 2 manufacturer of smartphones, was all but banned by the United States in May from doing business with U.S. companies, preventing its access to technology like Google’s (GOOGL.O) Android operating system. The U.S. government alleges Huawei equipment pose national security risks because they could be used by the Chinese government to spy on users. Huawei has repeatedly denied its products are a security threat.

Huawei’s Rotating Chairman Eric Xu revealed the numbers in a New Year’s message to employees and customers in which he also forecasted 2020 to be a “difficult year’, saying that the firm was unlikely to grow as rapidly as it did in the first half of this year.

Its estimate of 18% revenue growth in 2019 is less than 2018, when Huawei’s annual revenue rose 19.5%.

The company did not break down fourth-quarter figures but according to Reuters calculations based on its previous statements, revenue in the quarter to end Dec. 31 rose to 239.2 billion yuan ($23.28 billion), up 3.9% from a year earlier and slower than the 27% increase it reported in the third quarter.

“The external environment is becoming more complicated than ever, and downward pressure on the global economy has intensified,” he said. “In the long term, the US government will continue to suppress the development of leading technology – a challenging environment for Huawei to survive and thrive.”

Xu also said that Huawei shipped 240 million smartphones this year, a 20% increase from 2018. Huawei has mainly sold smartphones that were launched before the ban.The newest Mate 30 smartphone first went on sale in September but it cannot access a licensed version of Google’s Android operating system because of the trade curbs.

Xu said in his letter that Huawei would in 2020 “go all out” to build its Huawei Mobile Services ecosystem, which comprises services such as cloud storage and an app gallery, describing it as “the foundation of our ability to sell smart devices in markets outside China”.

It is also developing its own mobile operating system known as Harmony, although analysts are skeptical that the system is a viable alternative. Huawei’s reputation was dented earlier this month after details of the dismissal and wrongful detention of a former employee went viral. In his letter, Xu said they would continue to remove mediocre managers and complacent employees as Huawei needed to rid the company of complacency, and that they would remove managers performing in the bottom 10% every year.

Goodman, D. (2020, January 17). TomTom closes deal with Huawei for use of maps and services: spokesman. Retrieved, June 11, 2020, from: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tomtom-huawei- tech/tomtom-closes-deal-with-huawei-for-use-of-maps-and-services-spokesman-idUSKBN1ZG1SW

TomTom closes deal with Huawei for use of maps and services: spokesman (Reuters) - Dutch navigation and digital mapping company TomTom on Friday said it has closed a deal with China’s Huawei Technologies for the use of its maps and services in smartphone apps.

Huawei was forced to develop its own operating system for smartphones, after it was effectively blacklisted by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration last year out of concerns over national security.

This banned Huawei from using Google’s official Android operating system, along with widely used apps such as Google Maps, in new phones.

The deal with TomTom means Huawei can now use the Dutch company’s maps, traffic information and navigation software to develop apps for its smartphones.

TomTom spokesman Remco Meerstra said the deal had been closed some time ago but had not been made public by the company.

Meerstra declined to provide further details of the agreement.

TomTom, which is moving away from selling devices to offering software services, sold its telematics division to Japan’s Bridgestone last year to focus on its digital map-linked businesses.

GSMArena (2020, March 15). AppGallery review: Can new Huawei and Honor phones work without Google? Retrieved, May 8, 2020, from: https://www.gsmarena.com/appgallery_review_can_new_huawei_and_honor_phones_work_without_ google-news-41973.php

AppGallery review: Can new Huawei and Honor phones work without Google? Introduction Huawei lost access to Google Mobile Services (GMS) in May of last year, but that hasn’t stopped the company from launching new devices. To ensure its phones have an uninterrupted supply of apps, the company is now pushing its own app store - called Huawei AppGallery. Huawei has announced it has a new strategy in place to put the AppGallery on the mobile app store map. The company has been pretty aggressive in bringing in developers, going as far as offering perks like 100% revenue share. Huawei will also be focusing on getting local apps on board for its key markets instead of the big names and we can see how this can pay off. With the launches of midrange phones like the Lite (Nova 7i) and the Honor 9X Pro, consumer on all markets outside of China will now have access to affordable Google-less phones, and the severity of the limitations imposed by the lack of GMS may be an important consideration for many. So we decided to take a look at how life is without GMS and how easy it is to get your favorite Messaging, Social, Video and Audio streaming and Maps apps to work.

How do you get apps on a Google-less phone? Our first impression was that things are definitely looking up compared to our previous look at this. Spotify is already available, as is TikTok, so you won’t lack entertainment. There’s a great selection of navigation apps, be it in-car navigation or for using public transport, you can even call a Lyft or an Uber just fine. The Productivity section is well-stocked too. Where the Huawei AppGallery is still rather lacking is in the messaging and video streaming categories. But since Huawei doesn’t insist that you use AppGallery, the Amazon Appstore is welcome on the platform, so that will help fill in any gaps. For this test, we first tried using AppGallery to source as many apps from our list as possible. Next, we resorted to the Amazon Appstore which was our second source of apps when we couldn't find something on the AppGallery. Those two stores are trustworthy, and we were sure than any app we installed from there would work properly without GMS. If you insist on simply having your set of favorite apps on the phone and not much else, you can directly transfer them from your old phone. Huawei recommends that you use Huawei’s own Phone Clone app. It will transfer most of your apps and your old phone doesn't have to be a Huawei phone. Google apps can't be transferred, of course, as well as some apps, but most applications can be carried over to your new phone just fine. While Phone Clone works okay the first time you set up the device, we can’t expect the average user to install an app on their old phone and transfer it every time they want to try something new or when they'd like to update an installed app.

So this is where our third app repository comes in. APKPure will allow you to keep up-to-date all the apps that Phone Clone has transferred and that's an important consideration. Not only that, but you can also download new apps from APKPure - ones that you can't find on the AppGallery or the Amazon AppStore. The apps on APKPure, however, are not verified to work without the Google Services Framework installed on the phone so it will take some experimenting on what works and what doesn't. Finally, if you are really after a particular app that can't be found on any of these places - the App Gallery, Amazon AppStore, APKPure, or on your old phone, you can just look for the APK installation file online. Some devs offer their apps for direct download on their website or you can find the app on any of the online APK download repositories. But again, you'd have to download manually all future versions to keep the app up-to-date and you can never be sure whether someone hasn't modified the APK you are downloading to include some malicious code. Update 15 April: Huawei has introduced a new app aimed at helping you find apps across several app repositories. It's called AppSearch and it's an meta app search engine. It's still in beta so it's not even available in all regions but you can find a download link on this dedicated page set up by Huawei Germany. In its current form, it lets you browse through categories and sort apps by popularity. Huawei has also prepared lists of popular apps tailored to individual countries. Say you can't find Discord in the AppGallery. AppSearch will find it on the Amazon App Store and offer a link to that. The app itself has no direct download buttons, which adds an extra step in the process, but also gives you a piece of minid - you don't have to wonder where the APK is coming from like you do with APK Pure. Also, you get recommendations for similar apps (other in this example), so you can explore the possibilities. You can download AppSearch through the AppGallery if you reside in any of the supported regions.

The situation with the most popular apps We felt it was important to keep things simple so that our findings are relevant to the average consumer. So we aren’t going to dive into custom ROMs or sideloading Google Services or installing any tweaked apps. Also, we only relied on the official apps for stuff such as social networks as sharing login info with third-party clients is never a good idea. So let’s see how easy (or hard) it is to find and install the most popular apps on our test Huawei phone and how well they work after they are installed. Social networks AppGallery: TikTok is available, of course, and offers short bursts of entertainment. Surprisingly, we also found Pinterest inside the AppGallery, so you can continue discovering cool new things. However, while you can always use the websites of other social networks, we preferred apps (they handle things like notifications better than the web versions). Amazon Appstore: Facebook and Amazon seem to get along. The Facebook app and its lite version are both available, as is Instagram.

APKPure: Twitter installed and worked correctly. Also, Helo and ShareChat (which are popular in India) worked without any issues. However, Snapchat refused to launch without GMS. P.S. The Facebook APK is available for direct download from Facebook's website, too. Productivity AppGallery: Microsoft Office is available, which is usually all you need for handling work documents. There's also WPS Office if you want an alternative. OneNote is available to help you organize. Amazon Appstore: OneDrive and Dropbox weren't available in the AppGallery, but you can download them from Amazon if you need a system to sync with your PC. Evernote is also available if you use that instead of OneNote. APKPure: We didn't find a manager on our preferred stores, but you can find 1Password on APKPure. Maps and GPS navigation AppGallery: 'Here Maps' has always been one of the best free navigation apps (ever since the Navteq days). It offers free voice-guided navigation and you can easily download maps for offline use. There is also Sygic but Bing Maps is not available. Uber and Lyft work just fine if you want to hail a ride, Moovit will guide you through public transport just fine, too. We think this is one of the most complete categories. If you're okay with non-Google navigation, there are plenty of options.

Conclusion Life without GMS is possible, but you'll be better off installing the Amazon Appstore as soon as you set up your new Huawei phone. It plugged several major holes in messaging, social and entertainment and it’s an app store we’d trust even with paid software. Phone Clone is a great option if you want to hit the ground running. The AppGallery will make sure to keep updated those apps that are available there, whereas APKPure can take care of the rest. Of course, APKPure has its limitations, too, because it only handles free apps but that's okay. The bigger issue that will be impossible to overcome for the average user is that some apps just won’t work - these are the ones that are based off Google services such as GMaps. There are alternative apps to pretty much everything, of course, but if that’s not possible for you (e.g. you have existing subscriptions), then there is not a lot you can do. More knowledgeable users might be able to get around that dependency on the Google services but that would require even more tinkering. You can look into the microG Project - the XDA-approved open-source framework for getting apps designed for Google Play Services to run on phones that don't have them. But this goes beyond the scope of this review as it's unlikely that the average user will go that route. So to wrap things up, AppGallery is still quite new - it's not even been a year since the trade war started. The poor app selection was one of the things that sunk Windows Phone, but Huawei is determined to avoid that destiny. There is still a long way to go before we can recommend a Huawei or Honor device without asking "well, can you live without App X?", but for those of you who know what you're getting into - yes, it is possible to live without GMS. However, this also means that Huawei phones in the foreseeable future will be attractive either to power users who won't mind juggling several sources of apps or to basic users who simply wouldn't care about the somewhat limited app selection. So the company's smartphone strategy should probably be adjusted accordingly, at least until the situation changes.

Hill, S. (2019, December 27). Android vs. iOS: Which smartphone platform is the best? Retrieved, April 6, 2020, from: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/android-vs-ios/

Android vs. iOS: Which smartphone platform is the best?

If you’re buying a new smartphone today, chances are very good that it will run one of two operating systems: Google’s Android or Apple’s iOS. These two platforms accounted for virtually all new smartphones shipped in the last couple of years, according to IDC.

The good news is that both smartphone operating systems are excellent. They have quite a bit in common with each other, but there are some important differences that you’ll want to consider. We’re going to pit Android against iOS in several categories here and pick a winner for each one. Ultimately, the best platform for you depends on, well, you. Pick the things that matter most to you, count the wins in those categories, and you have a personalized recommendation.

Affordability

Apple has always been at the high end of the market in terms of pricing, but the iPhone X took things to a whole new level with a starting price of $1,000 and the iPhone 11 Pro Max starts at $1,100. If you need something more affordable, the iPhone 11 starts from $700 and the latest iPhone SE from $400. That’s as cheap as it gets unless you delve into the secondhand market.

For sheer scale and variety, nothing competes with Android. You can spend a lot if you want to, — for example, Samsung’s newest Z lineup costs nearly $1,400, but there’s also a huge selection of good, low-cost handsets from a wide variety of different manufacturers, and the platform has been deliberately optimized to run on low-end hardware. The fact that Android also leads the field in free apps makes it the natural choice for the budget-conscious.

Winner: Android

Apps

Let’s start with a look at the numbers. This is roughly how many apps you’ll find in the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store:

. Android apps: 2.5 million

. iOS apps: 1.8 million

Truthfully, numbers aren’t the best metric because most of us only use a handful of apps and the most popular ones are available on both platforms. Traditionally, iOS has been a more lucrative platform for developers, so there has been a tendency for new apps to appear there first, but that is changing as Android’s market share continues to grow. In the U.S., iOS still leads the way, but developers elsewhere are increasingly targeting Android first. Luckily, both operating systems have been taking more precautions when it comes to malicious apps and spyware, making apps safer to download than ever.

The Play Store still has a higher percentage of free apps than the App Store. But the best mobile games still land on iOS first — and they don’t always come to Android. Ultimately, quality beats quantity and so this is a narrow win for iOS.

Winner: iOS

App Store

It’s difficult to organize millions of apps and games and neither Google’s Play Store or Apple’s App Store does it perfectly. Overall, we think Apple’s App Store provides a better browsing experience on your phone and does a better job with curated recommendations. The Play Store is easier to search and you can queue and install apps from the web browser on your PC or laptop.

We like the fact that you can buy apps using your fingerprint via Touch ID on iPhones, but you can set up the same thing for the Play Store on Android phones with fingerprint sensors. The Play Store wins points for having a no-quibble refund policy within two hours of purchase. There are some questionable apps in both stores, but Apple is generally stricter about blocking certain types of apps. That can be a good thing for overall quality, but it’s a bad thing if you’re into something like game emulators for classic consoles. The App Store edges the win for usability and curated content.

Winner: iOS

Alternative app stores and sideloading

It’s relatively easy to sideload apps on Android. Tick a box in the settings, download an APK, and you’re set. There are also a lot of alternative Android app stores beyond the Play Store, but sideloading can open you up to the risk of malware and isn’t worth worrying about for most people. Apple is opposed to third-party app stores. If you want a wider choice of apps and easy sideloading, then your winner is obvious.

Winner: Android

Maps

As the newer navigation system, Apple Maps did not have a great start, but it has improved significantly. Key features are similar, you can download maps for offline use, get accurate estimates based on current traffic conditions, and find turn-by-turn directions for driving or walking. You’ll also find public transit and ride-booking integration. They all work well and should get you where you’re going.

One thing that Google Maps offers that Apple Maps doesn’t is cycling directions. Overall, the scale and quality of Google Maps are unsurpassed. It has more points of interest and it is generally more detailed than Apple Maps, but the accuracy can vary from place to place. Given the choice, we’d always pick Google Maps, and though you can get it on iOS, it’s better on Android because it’s the default navigation app.

Winner: Android

Battery life and charging

As one of the biggest complaints for smartphone owners, battery life is a huge factor. It’s difficult to compare the two platforms because there’s no common hardware. We could say iOS is optimized to squeeze the most out of the battery per mAh rating, but you can buy an Android device with a much bigger battery that will easily outlast the iPhone.

Both Android and iOS allow you to see your battery usage at a glance, broken down by app, but only Android shows an estimate of how much battery life you have left. They both offer power-saving modes that can extend your battery life by limiting performance, connectivity, and other power- sapping features, but precisely how it works is generally more customizable on Android.

For a long time, Android had an advantage in the charging department, because many Android phones offered fast-charging capabilities and wireless charging. However, Apple’s iPhone 11, iPhone X, and even the iPhone SE (2020) adopted wireless charging and fast charging, so they’re not that far behind. It’s worth noting you have to buy the fast-charging adapter separately for some iPhone models, whereas it’s usually provided in the box with an Android phone.

This category is far from clear-cut, but comparing similarly priced Android phones with iPhones, they tend to have longer battery life and they always have fast chargers included in the box, so Android gets the win.

Winner: Android

Updates

Apple’s iOS offers consistent and timely software updates and security patches. If you want the same experience on Android, then you must buy one of Google’s Pixel phones. This is how iOS version shares break down according to the official Apple Developer website:

. iOS 13: 70%

. iOS 12: 23%

. Earlier: 7%

Around 70% of all iOS devices are now running the latest version. That figure will be a lot lower for Android. While is already open for public beta testing, only about 8% of Android devices are running the latest, Android 10. This is how Android breaks down according to the stats available in , and is accurate up to May 2020.

. Android 10: 8.2% . Android 9.0 Pie: 31.3%

. Android 8.1 Oreo: 14%

. Android 8.0 Oreo: 7.3%

. Android 7.1.1 Nougat: 5.4%

. Android 7.0 Nougat: 7.5%

. Android 6.0 Marshmallow: 11.2%

. Android 5.1 Lollipop: 7.4%

. Android 5.0 Lollipop: 1.8%

. Android 4.4 KitKat: 4%

. Older: 1.9%

If you want the latest features, bug fixes, and security updates, then you should choose iOS.

Winner: iOS

Customizability

This has always been one of Android’s main strengths. It’s very easy to customize your phone — you can set up the layout you want on your home screen, add widgets and shortcuts, and even change your entire with launchers.

You can set backgrounds in iOS and there’s limited support for widgets, but you don’t have anything like the same level of freedom. Android also allows you to set up third-party apps as your default options for many things that are still locked down in iOS. If you enjoy tinkering, or you want a truly unique, personalized look for your home screen, then Android is the platform for you.

Winner: Android

Accessibility

The perception that Android is more complicated than iOS prevails, but there’s no need to dive into customization options. Both platforms offer a good range of accessibility features.

If you’re looking for a device for an elderly relative or a technophobe then you’ll find some specialist offerings on Android, but they tend to scale down what’s possible. Manufacturers like Samsung also include options like “Easy mode” which make the interface bigger and simplify the whole experience, or you can opt for a third-party app to do the same. There are lots of good apps aimed at the elderly on Android and iOS.

Ultimately, iOS is simpler and easier to use in some important ways. It’s uniform across all iOS devices, whereas Android is slightly different on devices from different manufacturers. We also think iOS is less cluttered and more streamlined than most Android phones, although Google’s stock Android is every bit as elegant and accessible.

Winner: iOS

Calls and messaging

Basic calling and messaging functionality are good on both platforms, but it can be confusing on Android. Google appeared to be folding everything into Hangouts, which allows , SMS, video chat, group chat, and more via Wi-Fi or your data network, but then it somewhat confusingly released Allo and Duo, and now it is retiring Hangouts. There’s also Android Messages, which used to be called Google Messenger, and it’s the default texting app. To make matters worse, you’ll find many manufacturers like to offer their own alternatives. Many Android phones come with their own messaging and dialer apps in addition to Google’s messaging apps, or they eliminate the Google apps. It looks as though Chat, based on the new Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging standard, will unify things, but it will be a while before it’s available on all Android phones.

FaceTime and iMessage come pre-installed on every iPhone and iPad, so it’s remarkably easy to connect with your friends and family. While iMessage is very easy to use, it works best when communicating with other iPhone users, creating a culture of blue versus green bubbles. You’ll find third-party app integration, fun stickers, GIFs, and much more in iMessage. We give iOS the win for its consistency and ease of use.

Winner: iOS

Email

The default email apps on Android and iOS are very easy to use and quick to set up. You can pull in multiple email accounts and view them in a single inbox if you desire. Android and iOS have a huge range of third-party email apps available as well. However, Gmail is a stronger default email app than iOS’ Mail. Since Gmail is the most popular email address system in the world, it makes sense that the Gmail app would be a winner. You can also add email addresses from different providers in Gmail with ease. The intuitiveness of the app with other Google Suite apps sets it apart from the rest.

The only issue is that Android phones often offer alternative email apps made by the manufacturers, which may or may not be good.

Winner: Android

Camera

This is a difficult category to call. In the past, we’ve argued that Apple does the best job capturing lighting, coloring, and other details, but the latest Android smartphones are casting a lot of doubt on that assertion. Google’s Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL boast excellent cameras, but so do the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max. While most of the current crop of Android flagships sport good, or sometimes great, cameras, there’s a fair bit of variance and the camera quality of many midrange devices doesn’t come close to the quality of iPhone cameras. As you’d expect, most budget Android phones have lower-quality cameras.

The camera apps on both platforms are very good and very fast. For ease of use and best results without tweaking, the iOS camera app takes the cake. There’s more variation on Android simply because manufacturers tend to add their own camera apps with lots of features, some good, some a bit gimmicky. We’re going to give this one to iOS, but with the caveat that the top Android phones, particularly the Pixel 4, can match — and in some areas excel — the iPhone.

Winner: iOS

Photo backup

If you use the Photos app in Android, then you can automatically back up all your photos and videos. There’s no doubt that is the best option because it offers unlimited free storage, provided you don’t mind the 16-megapixel limit for images and the 1080p resolution limit for video.

You can back up photos and videos at the original resolution with iCloud or Google Photos, but you only get 5GB of free space with iCloud, compared to 15GB with Google.

This category is complicated by the fact that the default on iOS is iCloud, but you can also use Google’s Photos on iOS. However, since most people go with the default option, we’re giving Android the win here.

Winner: Android

Cloud services

Apple is still lagging when it comes to cloud storage and automatic backups. 15GB for free and has cross-platform support. You only get 5GB with iCloud, and it only works with Windows, Mac, and iOS.

If you need a lot of additional space, charges $2 per month for 100GB ($20 for the year), while Apple charges $1 per month for 50GB or $3 per month for 200GB. Apple’s price for 2TB jumps up to $10 per month. Google will also give you 2TB for that price, but you can get a discount if you pay for the year which costs $100 ($8.33 per month).

Android’s cloud storage is easier to use and more effective than iCloud. You can also use on an iPhone, whereas iCloud is iOS only.

Winner: Android

Voice assistants

You can do many of the same things with Apple’s Siri as you can with Google Assistant, but Siri is more like a straightforward helper for setting calendar appointments, searching the web, or making calls. Google Assistant has an extra layer. It can preemptively offer useful suggestions, and it has a more conversational side that offers up entertaining games and contextual information based on what you’re doing. It’s smarter and more versatile than Siri.

The addition of Siri Shortcuts in iOS 12, which allows you to set up voice commands to trigger groups of automated tasks, is a big step in the right direction and Siri is also beginning to make more suggestions based on your iPhone usage. For now, however, Google Assistant can do more and seems to be improving at a much faster rate, offering things like call screening and the ability to make reservations for you.

Winner: Android

Security

Much has been made of the supposedly “toxic hell stew” that is Android, but the threat of malware is exaggerated. The truth is that most people will never encounter a problem because they don’t go outside the Play Store for apps. Specific manufacturers like Samsung have taken extra efforts to beef up security for the enterprise market. But the slovenly nature of updates on many Android devices can seriously delay important security patches.

Speedy updates are now more important than ever because security breaches are becoming more serious. Android is behind in the update world unless you have a stock Android device, and so it is less secure. Because millions of Android phones are still running software that’s years old, they can be vulnerable to serious hacks like Heartbleed and .

Apple is already firmly entrenched in corporate America and has also worked on improved security for general consumers, most notably with Touch ID and FaceID in the iPhone X and later. The tight oversight that Apple has on apps and the ability to push updates out to more devices, more quickly, gives it an edge over Android. The company also encrypts data in iMessage and its other apps.

Apple prioritizes user privacy, so you can feel safe knowing your personal data is not stored or read by Apple. It is all encrypted, too. Meanwhile, Android encrypts some data, but your privacy is less protected. Google mines your data for information that it can use to sell better ads and market products to you. Your data is also stored and read to provide you with a better A.I. experience.

Google claims it is committed to fully protect user privacy and still provide the A.I. services it offers, but some security experts and Apple argue that Google presents a false choice between A.I. and privacy. Apple even went to war with the FBI to guarantee your right to . It’s hard to beat that kind of dedication.

There’s no denying that iOS is the most secure platform and the one that best protects user privacy. If you care about your privacy and security, go with an iPhone.

Winner: iOS , bootloaders, and jailbreaking

We’ve looked at how to root your Android phone or tablet before. It’s not for everyone, but if you want root access and complete control over your device, then rooting is the way to get it. Rooting gives you access to more apps, the latest OS updates without waiting, new software skins to get the aesthetic you want, the chance to get rid of bloatware from carriers and manufacturers, potential tweaks to boost your device’s speed and battery life, and more.

Many Android OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) also offer a way to unlock the bootloader, which determines how the operating system loads up on your device. Apple is completely opposed to this kind of thing. Jailbreaking is an option for iOS, which lets you download and install apps from outside the App Store and bypass some other limitations.

Winner: Android

Cases and accessories

The average iPad or iPhone owner spends more money on more things than the average Android device owner, and Apple has built up a great ecosystem of peripherals for its phones and tablets. There are far more peripherals and cases aimed at the iPhone than any other device, but something like Samsung’s Galaxy S20 would be a close second.

On the other hand, Android devices have adopted the Micro USB or USB-C standard, whereas Apple insists on its proprietary Lightning cable, which means it’s much easier to find a charger if you’re not an iPhone owner. This often means you have to splash out on an overpriced Apple adapter. Peripheral manufacturers may still go after iOS as their main target, but it’s very rare to find something without Micro USB or USB-C support.

Another mark against Apple here relates to its abandonment of the standard 3.5mm audio port, which started with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. You did get an adapter in the box with a new iPhone for a while, but Apple no longer includes it, so you’ll have to buy the dongle and, even if you do, it’s easily lost. The choice of headphones sporting 3.5mm audio jacks far exceeds those with Lightning connectors. Of course, many Android phones have also axed the headphone jack in favor of USB-C audio, so this may not be such a big difference for much longer.

It’s also important to note that Apple’s ecosystem of products all work together exceedingly well. The iPad, Apple Watch, MacBook, and HomeKit products all work together in perfect harmony. MacOS, WatchOS, iPadOS, and iOS are all well connected, making it easy to have all Apple products on the same page.

Since Android phones are produced by many different manufacturers, product ecosystems vary. Samsung has a great ecosystem, for example, and Android phones have support from Home, , and Wear OS. However, it’s not quite as seamless.

Overall, taking all available accessories into account, you have more choice with an iPhone, so iOS takes the win here, but with caveats.

Winner: iOS Conclusion

Numerically speaking, Android wins 10 categories and iOS wins 8 categories, but iOS wins in some of the more important categories — we don’t think rooting or alternative app stores are as important for most people as accessibility or security, for example. It’s very difficult to compare the two. Because Apple controls the hardware and the software, you’ll find that iOS offers a more uniform experience across devices.

A straight comparison of the latest versions of Android and iOS wouldn’t be very representative of most people’s experience, because most Android devices aren’t running the latest version. The experience you get is further complicated by the fact that most Android smartphone manufacturers add their own user interface on top of Google’s stock Android. As a result, there’s quite a big difference between using Google’s Pixel 4, the , and the OnePlus 8 Pro, for example.

If you do decide to go with an Android device, make sure you do a little research and look at the version of Android it runs, the manufacturer skin on top, and the manufacturer’s record for software updates.

Ultimately, different categories will be important to different people, so you should pay attention to the ones that count for you and make your decision based on that. If security and privacy are an important factor, then the iPhone is the obvious choice. If battery life tops your list and you want to be able to customize your phone, then choose Android. Both Android and iOS are mature, feature-packed platforms with far more similarities than differences, and we can heartily recommend either.

Hall, C. (2020, March 20). Huawei and the future: Without Google what is Huawei's plan B? Retrieved, May 11, 2020, from: https://www.pocket-lint.com/phones/news/huawei/148118-huawei-alternative- os-without-google-huawei-plan-b

Huawei and the future: Without Google what is Huawei's plan B? Huawei has been in hot water since the US imposed trade bans on the Chinese company in May 2019. That impacts on many of Huawei's interests, including its smartphones. Globally, Huawei sits in the top three: it was a huge player in Android, a system to which it might have limited access in the future. "We have been making a plan for this possible outcome," commented Jeremy Thompson, UK executive vice president, in an interview with the BBC soon after the May 2019 listing. "We have a parallel programme in place to develop an alternative. We would rather work with Android but if it doesn't happen in the future we have an alternative in place which we think will delight our customers." It was originally thought that the alternative was called HarmonyOS, a multi-platform operating system announced at Huawei Developers Conference in August 2019. As soon as the spat with the US appeared, we started to hear talk of a plan B. But it wasn't the first we'd heard of Huawei's plans as there was talk of it in March 2019. Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's device business, said at the time that there was a plan B, but they would rather work with partners like Google and Microsoft - something that the company still maintains and does, to a certain extent. HarmonyOS was unveiled in August 2019, expected to be a replacement for Android, but that wasn't the be the case. HarmonyOS has been deployed for IoT applications and smartphone devices, although Huawei hasn't ruled out HarmonyOS for use in smartphones. Huawei has confirmed that HarmonyOS will be known as HongMengOS in China. HongMengOS was one of the first names to appear soon after the US spat and we first encountered HarmonyOS as a trademark prior to the announcement. What will run HarmonyOS? Cross-device platform Wearables, IoT, smart home, TVs, smartphones HarmonyOS was officially revealed at the Huawei Developer Conference in August 2019. It is described as a microkernel-based, distributed operating system, designed to run across all types of devices. Huawei has said that it's going to be starting with smart watches, wearables, in-car head units and it's running the Honor Vision smart TV. As it will run on all platforms, it's very much an alternative to Android, able to replace Android, Android Auto, WearOS, Android TV and , although the idea isn't to replace Android on Huawei devices - which Huawei continues to use, most recently on the Huawei Mate 30 Pro. "We're entering a day and age where people expect a holistic intelligent experience across all devices and scenarios. To support this, we felt it was important to have an operating system with improved cross-platform capabilities." "We needed an OS that supports all scenarios, that can be used across a broad range of devices and platforms, and that can meet consumer demand for low latency and strong security," is how Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's Consumer Business Group, explains it.

A modularized #HarmonyOS can be nested to adapt flexibly to any device to create a seamless cross- device experience. Developed via the distributed capability kit, it builds the foundation of a shared developer ecosystem #HDC2019

HarmonyOS is reportedly able to run on low power devices and rather than Huawei replace Android with HarmonyOS, it is instead going to start using the platform in a roll-out in China across the next few years on a range of products. Huawei said at the launch of HarmonyOS that if it "can not use Android in future [it can] immediately switch to HarmonyOS" - and although there's been no official suggestion of that happening on smartphones, instead, Huawei's smartphones continue to run the open source part of Android, with Huawei looking to replace the Google services that it no longer has access to. What is happening on Huawei smartphones and what is Huawei Mobile Services? Mate 30 Pro launched in September 2019 P40 series expected on 26 March 2020 Rather than ditching Android completely, Huawei continues to use the open source core Android operating system on its devices. A perfect example is the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, which launched in September 2019 and was impacted by the ban on Huawei devices. The result was that it launched without the Google services you'd normally find on an Android device. That included everything that would be part of Google Mobile Services - the Play Store, Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube - and all the other Google apps. The US ban means that Huawei can't use these services from Google, so that's what customers currently miss out on - and that will be the case on the Huawei P40 series too. Huawei's plan is to replace these services with alternatives. For example, it has announced that it's going to be working with TomTom on a new mapping solution, it's working on its own search tool and a big part of the offering is working to expand it's own App Gallery to replace the Play Store, with a full suite of Huawei Mobile Services planned instead. Huawei does have a lot of cloud support for its existing services and anyone with a Huawei ID will potentially just be able to access all those services, synced across devices, whether you're accessing from an Android phone or from new HarmonyOS devices - so Huawei isn't actually starting from scratch. Huawei has frequently said that it could switch back to the full Android experience with a flip of a switch basically, but there's also been the suggestion that Huawei is now more committed to following its own course. Pocket-lint plants a further 1,000 trees with Resideo That, of course, means that the familiar EMUI experience continues, but there will be changes to the services within that offering. What are the challenges for Huawei? Huawei asking devs to use App Gallery Apps, undoubtedly, present the biggest problem for any mobile OS when it comes to customer expectations. Apple and Android have offered app parity for a number of years, but in the early days of Android, it was criticised for not having all the apps that Apple's iOS offered. Huawei has its own App Gallery and Huawei appears to be providing the tools to ensure that developers can move their apps to the App Gallery, but it is also part of a Chinese alliance, called the Global Developers Service Alliance, working with Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi to lure developers to an alternative platform to Google's. That's the real challenge: convincing developers that App Gallery or an alternative is as important as Google Play or the Apple App Store when it comes to releasing new versions of apps. Again, this is critical for delivering the customer experience. Huawei is actively working with developers to try and make this as easy as possible and offering a range of incentives to develop for App Gallery too. But there's still an underlying question over whether customers will abandon the familiar Google experience, for different apps and services on a Huawei device. China will likely prove strong, with brand loyalty and low dependency on Google services already. But outside of China, Huawei has to convince people that life after Google is possible.

Huawei Developer (n.d.). HMS Core Toolkit. Retrieved, May 11, 2020, from: https://developer.huawei.com/consumer/en/huawei-toolkit/

HMS Core Toolkit This IDE plug-in provides all the tools you need to develop your own HMS Core-integrated app (creation, coding, debugging, and testing) and release it in HUAWEI AppGallery.

IDC (2020, January 20). Smartphone Market Share. Retrieved, April 6, 2020, from: https://www.idc.com/promo/smartphone-market-share/os Smartphone Market Share OS Data Overview

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the worldwide smartphone market is expected to decline again in 2020. The International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker forecasts worldwide smartphone shipments to decline 2.3% in 2020 to 1.339 billion units, down from 1.372 billion in 2019. IDC believes the market will return to growth in 2021 with volumes up by 6.3% mostly driven by the accelerated launch of new devices and 5G plans picking up from the damage of the pandemic. In the long-term forecast, IDC expects the overall smartphone market to reach 1.511 billion units in 2024.

Year 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

Androi 85.1% 86.1% 86.1% 86.5% 86.7% 86.9% 87.0% d iOS 14.9% 13.9% 13.9% 13.5% 13.3% 13.1% 13.0%

Others 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%

TOTAL 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% Get More Data Both Android and iOS are expected to take a hit due to expected launch delays and inventory issues from the pandemic challenges. Android's smartphone share is expected to hover around 86% with a slight increase throughout the forecast. In 2020, volumes are estimated to drop to 2.3% YoY. With most manufacturing focused in China, COVID-19 is expected to hurt iOS the most in short-term with an expected volume to drop to 186 million, down 2.5% year over year. It is likely to delay the most awaited 5G iPhones, which were expected later in 2020.

Joire, M. (2019, November 7). I tried to use an Honor phone without Google's apps — and it did not go well. Retrieved, May 4, 2020, from: https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/11/07/i-tried-to-use-a- huawei-phone-without--apps-and-it-did-not-go-well/

I tried to use an Honor phone without Google's apps — and it did not go well

By now you’re probably familiar with the Huawei ban. Back in May, as part of the US government’s pointless trade war with China, Huawei was put on an “entity list” preventing American companies from doing business with the Chinese giant. As a result, Huawei lost access to Intel and Qualcomm’s chips, Microsoft and Google’s software — like Windows and Google Mobile Services (GMS) — and much more US tech. Huawei mostly makes phones using its own Kirin processors, so losing access to Qualcomm’s hardware isn’t a huge issue. The company can also continue using Android since it’s open source. But losing access to GMS means new Huawei phones cannot run Google’s apps or services, or third party apps that use Google’s APIs — a deal breaker in many markets, including Europe, where Huawei handsets are extremely popular. The first two phones from the Chinese company to launch without GMS support are the Huawei Mate 30 Pro and the Honor 9x Pro (Honor is a sub-brand of Huawei). I recently received a Chinese-market Honor 9x Pro review unit from the PR team, and so began my first serious experience using an Android phone without GMS. I’m writing this article to share my trials and tribulations on this mad journey, from the perspective of someone who relies extensively on Google’s apps/services. The challenge My goal here is to share which apps work, which don’t, and what alternatives exist. And yes, I’m aware of at least two workarounds to restore GMS support on these two handsets, but that’s besides the point. First, this isn’t as trivial as downloading and installing a few APKs and second, I’d like to explore what’s possible and what’s not before having to reach for the nuclear option — enabling GMS support. Below are the apps I selected and tested on the Honor 9x Pro, along with any challenges I encountered along the way. For each category, I started by installing my preferred app, then settled on an alternative only if absolutely necessary. To be clear, the apps listed below are my personal picks, and you might not agree with my choices. Feel free to suggest better apps for each category in the comments below. App store Since the Google Play Store was definitely out the window, and Huawei’s built-in AppGallery mostly features Chinese apps I don’t care about, my first idea was to download and install the Amazon App Store APK. This did not end well. While I was able to run the app and successfully login to my Amazon account, I systematically got a network error beyond this point, whether I was connected via LTE or WiFi — as if the phone was blocking access to Amazon’s servers. I‘d pretty much resigned to using APK Mirror to get all my apps — a time-consuming process — when one of my podcast listeners suggested I try the Aurora Store. And that, dear readers, was a stroke of genius. The Aurora Store is an unofficial Play Store client that gives any Android device anonymous access to every app in Google’s store. It’s totally awesome, and I highly recommend it. From here on, downloading, installing, and updating apps was a breeze! Launcher Since I’m not a big fan of the default Huawei/Honor launcher, I installed Nova launcher. No problems here, until I tried making it the default launcher. Turns out you can’t change the launcher on Huawei and Honor phones sold in China. Apparently, there are clones of the stock launcher with malware out there, so the company’s locked it down. Major bummer. Keyboard I like Google’s , and surprisingly, I was able to install and run it without any issues. This was a pretty rare instance of complete success with a Google app, though, because many of the others rely on a linked account for certain features to work. Messaging My preferred SMS app is Google Messages, but strangely, it didn’t work, so I just used Honor’s built- in app — appropriately called Messaging. I’m sure there are better SMS apps out there, but texting isn’t critical when I’m testing a phone. Suggestions? I don’t generally need WhatsApp, WeChat, or on handsets I review, so I didn’t try these apps, but I installed Facebook Messenger since my friends and family use it (for better or worse). As you’d expect, it worked just fine without GMS. Social media Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram installed and ran like a charm. No surprises here! Email, calendar, and contacts I’m lumping these together because I found a single app that conveniently syncs with Gmail, , and . As you probably guessed, this app is Microsoft Outlook, and it’s fantastic. My only gripe is that it lacks support for Gmail labels, which I use extensively. But honestly, that’s a minor issue when you consider how well this app integrates with Google’s services. I did run into one snag, though. Outlook uses a web view to login to Google’s services, and that didn’t work out of the box. I’m not sure if this a limitation with Honor’s built-in browser or something else, but the solution was to install and make it the default browser. Speaking of which... Web browser I enjoy using Google Chrome on most of my devices, and I’m happy to report that Google’s excellent web browser installs and runs just fine without GMS. Obviously, you can’t connect it to a to sync bookmarks and browsing history, but it works and even supports form and password autocompletion. Maps Google Maps is my go-to navigation app, and it works without any issues here. Honestly, this was a pleasant surprise. Like with Chrome, you can’t connect the app to a Google account to sync search and location history, but that’s not a huge deal. I didn’t try Waze since I don’t use it. Cloud storage As you’d expect, Google Drive and the company’s Documents, Sheets, and Slides apps installed fine but didn’t run. That being said, you can use Google Drive on the web instead. It’s not ideal, but it’s OK in a pinch. I figure that Dropbox probably works without GMS, but I didn’t try it. Music My preferred music app is , and obviously, that didn’t work. Like Google Drive, though, it can be accessed via the web — not the best solution, but possible. I also installed Spotify, and it ran totally fine. Photo and video Google Photos was a no-go, disappointingly. I really like using it to edit photos, so I expected it to behave like Google Chrome and Google Maps and run fine without being logged into a Google account. The app installs OK but crashes at launch. It’s really unfortunate since it does so much more than just backup photos. At least works without any issues. I didn’t try Google Play Movies, but I installed Netflix, and it doesn’t run. It complains about needing Google Play services, which seems like an odd dependency for a non-Google app, but is probably related to the app's notoriously fickle DRM. Other apps While I don’t usually use Lyft and Uber on my review units, I decided to try them out — mostly because both use the Google Maps APIs, and Google Maps works fine. The apps installed OK, but didn’t run without Google Play Services, just like Netflix. That makes them effectively useless. The takeaway

At this point I gave up. Sure, you might be able to replace Google Drive and even Google Photos with Dropbox for backups, and Snapseed for editing. And Spotify is definitely more popular than Google Play Music. But without Netflix, Lyft, or Uber, you’re pretty much DoA — and that’s not even counting the dozens of other apps I didn’t try that most people use every day, many of which probably rely on Google's Play Services for things as basic as notifications and as critical as in-app mapping and device authentication. Ultimately then, it’s just not practical (or even reasonable) for anyone who has access to the unrestricted Internet to live with an Android phone that lacks GMS -- Google user or not. It’s a foolish and quixotic endeavor, best left to those who like to tinker and experiment. To put it another way: good luck with that. I ended up enabling GMS on my Honor 9x Pro review unit, and I haven’t looked back -- it’s been a great experience ever since. And to be clear, this story is not about a particular handset, but about how critical GMS is to the future of Huawei. In fact, the Honor 9x Pro is a lovely $320 mid-range phone made even better by re-enabling GMS. It features a notchless 6.59-inch 1080p IPS display and a 16MP pop-up selfie camera. There’s a Kirin 810 under the hood, along with 8GB RAM, 128GB of storage (plus micro-SD support), and a 4000mAh battery. But it’s the triple rear shooter that really shines, with a 48MP f/1.8 main camera, 8MP ultrawide lens, and 2MP depth sensor. Hopefully, you’ll be able to enjoy this handset outside of China soon, as the US government is expected to lift the Huawei ban sometime in the next few weeks, In the meantime, you can pick up the global variant of the Honor 9x (non-Pro), which is very similar and supports GMS out of the box.

Keane, S. (2020, June 10). Huawei ban timeline: NATO head supports UK review of Chinese firm’s role in 5G rollout. Retrieved, June 11, 2020, from: https://www.cnet.com/news/huawei-ban-full-timeline- us-restrictions-china-trump-executive-order-uk-security-threat-5g/

Huawei ban timeline: US companies allowed to work with Huawei on 5G standards

Huawei is the world's No. 1 telecom supplier and No. 2 phone manufacturer, but it's a pariah in countries like the US. For more than a year, there's been no shortage of scrutiny on the Chinese telecom giant, and a number of countries have banned the use of its networking equipment. Its phones are virtually invisible in the US despite its massive presence around the world.

The company's chairman predicted that 2020 will be "difficult" for Huawei, and the early going seems to bear that out -- the US is continuing to pressure allies to block Huawei from their next-generation

5G wireless networks. Despite this, January saw UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson giving the company approval to build non-core parts of the country's 5G infrastructure, setting an important precedent as the wireless tech becomes increasingly mainstream.

In April, Huawei reported that its revenue for the first quarter of the year was 182.2 billion yuan

(around $25.7 billion) -- an increase of 1.4% year over year -- despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Related: Huawei EMUI 10 Android skin update is available, but some phones can't download it.

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The core issue with Huawei has been concerns about its coziness with the Chinese government and fears that its equipment could be used to spy on other countries and companies. It's the reason why the US banned companies from using Huawei networking equipment in 2012 and why the company was added to the US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security Entity List in May

2019, following an executive order from President Donald Trump effectively banning Huawei from

US communications networks. A year later, Trump extended the order until 2021.

Related story: 5 things you should know before buying a Huawei P40 Pro. The US has offered a reprieve to companies, allowing them to work with Huawei through temporary licenses, but the Commerce Department has also accused the company of exploiting the rules to continue using American technology in its semiconductor design.

Huawei has long denied any wrongdoing and continues to maintain its innocence.

It can be tough to keep pace with the sheer number of headlines, so here's a timeline going back to

2018.

2020

June 15, 2020: Commerce Department lets US companies work with Huawei on developing 5G standards.

June 10, 2020: NATO boss supports the UK's review of Huawei's role in its 5G rollout.

June 9, 2020: Huawei insists it "grew up in the UK" and wants to play a significant role in the country's 5G deployment.

June 4, 2000: Documents reportedly reveal Huawei covered up ownership of Iranian affiliate in scheme to sell prohibited US tech.

June 3, 2000: Canadian telecoms effectively lock Huawei out of country's 5G development.

June 2, 2020: US Senator Tom Cotton tells British politicians he thinks China is trying to use Huawei to "drive a hi-tech wedge between" America and the UK.

June 1, 2020: Huawei reportedly turns to rival chipmakers to weather US clampdown.

May 27, 2020: Huawei CFO loses case to dismiss extradition to the US.

May 26, 2020: UK launches fresh probe into Huawei's role in future 5G plans. Huawei announces partnership with Youtube rival Dailymotion. May 22, 2020: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reportedly looks to reduce Huawei's role in country's 5G networks.

May 18, 2020: Huawei criticizes new US rules as "pernicious" and "arbitrary," and China reportedly prepares to take "forceful countermeasures" against US tech companies.

May 15, 2020: Commerce Department tightens export controls on Huawei, and extends Temporary

General License for another 90 days.

May 14, 2020: Trump extends executive order targeting Huawei for another year.

May 7, 2020: US rule might let American companies work with Huawei on 5G.

May 1, 2020: Huawei Australia's carrier business drops 21% for 2019 as 5G ban bites.

April 29, 2020: Huawei reportedly expands partnership with European chipmaker in the face of increasing US restrictions on suppliers.

April 21, 2020: Huawei reports 1.4% revenue increase for the first quarter of 2020 as it grapples with the coronavirus pandemic. Also, senior British official reportedly says UK is unlikely to reconsider "firm" decision to allow Huawei access to non-sensitive parts of its 5G network.

April 20, 2020: Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei downplays his influence over the company in a South

China Morning Post profile.

April 17, 2020: Chinese teaser video showcases Huawei's Nova 7 phone series ahead April 23 reveal.

April 15, 2020: BT delays removal of Huawei equipment from EE's core network by two years.

April 13, 2020: Huawei warns that disrupting its involvement in Britain's 5G rollout would do the country "a disservice."

April 2, 2020: Huawei signs non-aggression patent pact as it joins Open Invention Network.

March 31, 2020: Huawei reports smallest profit increase in three years as US ban takes its toll. March 27, 2020: Huawei reportedly starts working on platform with Tencent, the biggest games company in the world.

March 26, 2020: Huawei reveals P40 Pro Plus, P40 Pro and P40, along with smart assistant Celia.

Also, senior US officials reportedly agree on new rules to cut Huawei off from global chip suppliers.

March 24, 2020: Huawei P40 and P40 Pro apparently leak online ahead of launch.

March 12, 2020: Trump signs law to prevent US rural telecom carriers from using Huawei network equipment, and France is reportedly planning to allow some Huawei gear in its 5G network.

March 11, 2020: US officials reportedly postpone a meeting on potential new restrictions on sales of technology to Huawei and China, and the Commerce Department extends Huawei license through

May 15.

March 9, 2020: Huawei cancels P40 launch event due to coronavirus, and US envoy reportedly presses Canada over Huawei role in 5G network.

March 6, 2020: Huawei reportedly projects major drop in phone sales amid US sanctions.

March 4, 2020: Nokia and Ericsson pitch themselves to US lawmakers as Huawei 5G alternative.

Also, Huawei pleads not guilty to new US criminal charges in 2018 case and FCC's Brendan Carr says

US "cannot treat Huawei as anything other than a threat to our collective security."

March 3, 2020: US senators urge UK to reconsider use of Huawei gear in its 5G network.

March 2, 2020: Leaked documents reportedly reveal Huawei's role in shipping prohibited US gear to

Iran.

Related story: Huawei P40 Pro specs, P40 Pro Plus and P40 vs. P30 Pro and Mate 30 Pro: What's new and what's different?

Feb. 28, 2020: Huawei will spend €200 million on new 5G plant in France. Feb. 27, 2020: FCC starts collecting data on Huawei use in US networks, and Senate passes bill banning government purchases of Huawei gear.

Feb. 26, 2020: Officials from Huawei and Defense Department spar at cybersecurity panel.

Feb. 24, 2020: Huawei will launch its P40 Pro in Paris on March 26, its upgraded Mate XS foldable will be available outside China and the company is bringing a new tablet, speaker and green

MateBook X Pro laptop to Europe. And Trump reportedly accuses British Prime Minister Boris

Johnson of "betrayal" in a heated phone call about Huawei 5G decision.

Feb. 23, 2020: Google warns people against sideloading its apps on Huawei's P40 phones.

Feb. 21, 2020: The White House reportedly is planning a 5G summit to combat Huawei.

Feb. 20, 2020: Huawei makes an aggressive 5G infrastructure product pitch to European nations.

Feb. 18, 2020: A judge dismisses a Huawei suit challenging the US government's equipment ban.

Feb. 14, 2020: Huawei gets another 45-day reprieve from Commerce Department.

Feb. 13, 2020: The Justice Department charges Huawei with racketeering and theft of trade secrets.

Feb. 11, 2020: The US reportedly finds Huawei has backdoor access to mobile networks globally.

Feb. 7, 2020: Attorney General William Barr suggests that US take a "controlling stake" in Ericsson or Nokia to counter Huawei.

Feb, 6, 2020: Huawei hits Verizon with lawsuits alleging patent infringement, and it'll reportedly join forces with Vivo and Oppo against Google Play Store.

Feb. 5, 2020: Vodafone says implementing UK and European Huawei restrictions could take five years.

Feb. 3, 2020: Huawei asks FCC to drop national "unlawful and misguided" security risk label, and updates its "ultralight" MateBook D laptops. Jan. 30, 2020: Australian politicians dismiss talk of revisiting Huawei 5G ban.

Jan. 29, 2020: EU allows Huawei for 5G, but warns states to limit core network access.

Jan. 28, 2020: UK gives Huawei the green light to build the country's non-core 5G network, with some limitations, while an analyst says Huawei is the world's top 5G phone vendor.

Jan. 24, 2020: The Pentagon reportedly blocked even tighter rules on US companies selling to

Huawei.

Jan. 23, 2020: Huawei postpones its China developers conference due to deadly coronavirus outbreak.

Jan. 20, 2020: Huawei will use TomTom's navigation software and data after losing Google Maps.

Jan. 16, 2020: Huawei Mate XS foldable phone will reportedly be cheaper and smaller, while images of purported Huawei P40 Pro hint at many camera features.

Jan. 15, 2020: Huawei shipped nearly 7 million 5G phones last year, and it's reportedly spending $26 million courting developers to build apps for its phones.

Jan. 14, 2020: The US presses British officials to block Huawei from its 5G network, and US senators propose over $1B in 5G subsidies to counter Huawei dominance.

Jan. 9, 2020: Sen. Tom Cotton unveils a bill to stop the US from sharing intelligence with countries that use Huawei 5G technology.

Jan. 7, 2020: Huawei is allowed to participate in India's 5G trial phase.

Related story: Huawei P40 Pro specs vs. iPhone 11 Pro vs. Galaxy S20 Ultra vs. Pixel 4 XL.

2019

Dec. 31, 2019: Huawei boosted phone sales in 2019 but predicts a "difficult" 2020.

Dec. 26, 2019: Huawei rebuts suggestions that Chinese state support drove its growth. Dec. 20, 2019: Huawei's new P40 Pro rumored to have 10x optical zoom.

Dec. 19, 2019: Greenland opts for Sweden's Ericsson over Huawei for 5G rollout.

Dec. 18, 2019: Huawei opens 5G innovation center in London.

Dec. 17, 2019: Huawei will launch the P40 Pro in March without Google support, and

Spain's Telefonica says it'll drastically reduce Huawei gear use for its core 5G network.

Dec. 16, 2019: US House of Representatives passes bill barring government from buying Huawei gear.

Dec. 15, 2019: Norway's Telenor says Huawei will still play a role in the country's 5G rollout.

Dec. 13, 2019: Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou wins court order to receive documents for her arrest and extradition.

Dec. 8, 2019: Huawei will bring Harmony OS to more products next year, but not phones.

Dec. 5, 2019: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson takes selfie with Huawei phone after hinting at ban.

Dec. 4, 2019: Huawei slams FCC's new restrictions as unconstitutional in legal challenge.

Dec. 3, 2019: Huawei cut US components out of Mate 30 in wake of Trump's ban, and US judge disqualifies Huawei lawyer from fraud and sanctions case, citing conflict of interest.

Dec. 2, 2019: Huawei predicts Australia's 5G ban will force it to cut 1,500 jobs.

Nov. 29, 2019: Huawei will apparently fight the FCC decision to exclude it from federal subsidies.

Nov. 26, 2019: Huawei and Samsung see jump in phone sales for third quarter, while others see decline.

Nov. 25, 2019: Huawei unveils its iPad Pro rival, the MatePad Pro, for China. Nov. 22, 2019: The FCC bars Huawei and ZTE from billions in federal subsidies, while senators want

Trump to halt licenses that let US companies sell to Huawei.

Nov. 21, 2019: Microsoft scores license to export software to Huawei.

Nov. 20, 2019: Huawei Mate X's folding screen costs $1,000 to fix.

Nov. 19, 2019: Huawei says US license extension doesn't change the fact that it's being treated unfairly.

Nov. 12, 2019: Huawei is reportedly giving staff $286 million in bonuses for sticking through US ban.

Nov. 8, 2019: Trump's tech chief slams countries for "opening their arms" to Huawei.

Nov. 7, 2019: Huawei founder says the company's coping fine with the US trade ban, but stresses the need for open collaboration.

Nov. 5, 2019: Hungary will reportedly work with Huawei in building its 5G network.

Nov. 4, 2019: US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says licenses allowing US companies to sell equipment to Huawei "will be forthcoming very shortly."

Nov. 1, 2019: Huawei might be working on an iPad Pro-style tablet.

Related story: GT 2e gets a sporty look, new health features.

Oct. 31, 2019: The UK general election has apparently delayed the decision on giving Huawei access to the UK's 5G network again. Also, Huawei ships 66.7 million phones in 2019's third quarter.

Oct. 28, 2019: The Federal Communications Commission says it'll cut off funding to wireless carriers using Huawei and ZTE equipment.

Kelly, L. (2020, May 13). President Trump extends US trade ban on HUAWEI for another year. Retrieved, May 15, 2020, from: https://pocketnow.com/president-trump-extends-us-ban-on-working- with-huawei-for-another-year

President Trump extends US trade ban on HUAWEI for another year

In yet another huge blow to HUAWEI, US President Donald Trump has extended the term of an executive order he signed last year that prevented US firms from working or sourcing telecom equipment from companies deemed a security risk. The extension will be effective until May 2021 for all companies on the entity list.

In case you are wondering, yes, HUAWEI happens to be on that list, meaning it will have to survive until May 2021 without conducting business with Google or other US-based companies. So, if you were hoping for a return of Google services on HUAWEI phones, you’re out of luck.

“The national emergency declared on May 15, 2019, must continue in effect beyond May 15, 2020. Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13873 with respect to securing the information and communications technology and services supply chain,” said the latest order signed by Trump.

The executive order effectively declares a national trade emergency by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) and states that acquisition or usage of telecom equipment from “foreign adversaries” poses a threat to national security. You can read the full order, dated May 13, here.

Kharpal, A. (2019a, March 15). Huawei built software for smartphones and laptops in case it can’t use Microsoft or Google. Retrieved, May 4, 2020, from: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/15/huawei- has-built-its-own-operating-system-for-smartphones-laptops.html

Huawei built software for smartphones and laptops in case it can’t use Microsoft or Google Huawei built its own operating system for smartphones and laptops — to be used in case it’s forced to stop using Google and Microsoft products. On Monday, it was reported that Google — which makes the Android operating system that Huawei uses in its handsets — has suspended the transfer of hardware, software or technical services to Huawei except what’s available via open source. Huawei has faced intense political pressure from the U.S. around its networking equipment, but its consumer business has been largely protected from the negative headlines

Huawei has built its own operating system for smartphones and computers in case it’s blocked from using U.S. software from Microsoft and Google, the Chinese company confirmed to CNBC on Friday. On Monday, it was reported that Google — which makes the Android operating system that Huawei uses in its handsets — has suspended the transfer of hardware, software or technical services to Huawei except what’s available via open source. In addition to using the Android mobile operating system for handsets, Huawei uses Microsoft Windows for its laptops and tablets. Richard Yu, the CEO of Huawei’s consumer division, told German publication Die Welt in a recent interview, that the company has a back-up operating system, in case it’s blocked from using U.S.- made software. “We have prepared our own operating system. Should it ever happen that we can no longer use these systems, we would be prepared,” Yu said, according to a translation of the original German text. “That’s our plan B. But of course we prefer to work with the ecosystems of Google and Microsoft.” Why the US thinks Huawei is a massive national security threat Yu’s comments were confirmed to CNBC by a Huawei spokesperson on Friday who said the back-up systems would only be used in “extenuating circumstances” and were “there for basic business continuity in a worst-case scenario.” “We don’t expect to use them and to be honest, we don’t want to use them. We fully support our partners’ operating systems — we love using them and our customers love using them,” the spokesperson said. Those “extenuating circumstances” could be a nod toward the troubles rival Chinese firm ZTE faced last year. The U.S. government banned American firms from selling parts and software to ZTE because the Chinese company violated sanctions on Iran and North Korea. Its ability to use Google’s Android was under threat, Reuters reported at the time. In other regards, though, Huawei has been trying to wean itself off of American technology. The company has made a big play in semiconductors and now designs its own chips for its smartphones. However, some its laptops still use American components from companies like Intel. A new operating system (OS) could make problems for Huawei, particularly if it’s forced to stop using Microsoft and Google software outside China. Within its home market, the Chinese government already blocks Google services, including the Play Store. But internationally, Google’s app store is available. “For Huawei, almost half of its smartphone sales come from China. So 50 percent of the business is anyways secured as Google mobile services — the Play Store is non-existent in China,” Neil Shah, research director at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC on Friday. “However, having no access to Google Android and Play Store could affect the other half of the business quite a bit in the near-to- mid-term.” “What Huawei has up its sleeves as an Android and Play Store alternative is not proven, though it could have a capability of running third-party Android app stores which could alleviate some concerns from the developers and apps perspective,” Shah added. “However, users which are fully immersed into Google services might give ... Huawei’s own OS a pass initially until (it has been) proven to run services and a user experience as good as Google’s.” Kharpal, A. (2019b, May 20). Google cuts ties with Huawei. That may be a ‘kill switch’ for the Chinese firm’s global smartphone ambition. Retrieved, May 4, 2020, from: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/20/google-stops-some-business-with-huawei-could-hit-its-global- smartphone-ambitions.html

Google cuts ties with Huawei. That may be a ‘kill switch’ for the Chinese firm’s global smartphone ambition Google has suspended business activity with Huawei that involves the transfer of hardware, software and key technical services. That means Huawei will not be able to license the Android operating system complete with Google services and will instead have to use an open-source version. Analysts said that could cause big problems for the company internationally, where nearly half of its smartphone shipments go. Other Huawei suppliers, including Qualcomm and Intel, reportedly told employees they will not sell to the Chinese firm until further notice. Chip stocks fall after Google restricts business with Huawei — Six experts on what’s next Google’s move to stop licensing its Android mobile operating system to Huawei could deal a huge blow to the Chinese tech giant’s ambitions to become the top player in smartphones globally. The U.S. tech conglomerate has suspended business activity with Huawei that involves the transfer of hardware, software and key technical services. Google made the move in order to comply with Washington’s decision to put Huawei on the so-called Entity List, meaning American firms need to get a license to sell products to the Chinese firm. It means Huawei can no longer license Google’s proprietary Android operating system and other services that it offers. Instead, Huawei is now only able to use a public version of Google’s operating system through the Android Open Source Project. It means future Huawei phones will not have the Google services that users have come to expect on Android devices. “We are complying with the order and reviewing the implications,” a Google spokesperson said Monday. “For users of our services, Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices.” What is Huawei? A Huawei spokesperson told CNBC that the company is “evaluating the possible impact of this U.S. government action on consumers.” “Huawei has made substantial contributions to the development and growth of Android around the world. As one of Android’s key global partners, we have worked closely with their open-source platform to develop an ecosystem that has benefitted both users and the industry,” the spokesperson said. “Huawei will continue to provide security updates and after sales services to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphone and tablet products covering those have been sold or still in stock globally. We will continue to build a safe and sustainable software ecosystem, in order to provide the best experience for all users globally.” It’s a huge blow to the Chinese firm, which relies heavily on Android for the smartphones it sells outside of China. Within China, the company uses a modified version of Android that doesn’t have Google apps preinstalled because the search giant’s services are blocked there. But in markets outside of China, Huawei’s smartphones run Android complete with Google apps. Just over 49%, of Huawei’s smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2019 were to international markets outside of mainland China, according to Canalys. Huawei was the second-largest smartphone maker by global market share in the first quarter. The company has previously laid out its ambitions to become the top player in smartphones by 2020. But the latest move by Google could put a dent in that. “It will be like an instant kill switch for Huawei’s ambition to overtake Samsung in the global market,” Nicole Peng, vice president of mobility at Canalys, told CNBC by phone on Monday. is a massive national security threat Huawei relies on key components from several other American suppliers for everything from smartphones to its networking equipment. It counts over 30 American firms among its core suppliers. Some of those suppliers, including Qualcomm and Intel, have told employees they will not sell to Huawei until further notice, according to a Bloomberg report on Monday. Is Huawei prepared? Huawei says it has been preparing for the sort of situation it now faces. In March, the company said that it had developed its own operating system for its consumer products if there came a time it was not able to use Google’s or Microsoft’s. And just last week, the Nikkei Asian Review reported that Huawei told some suppliers six months ago that it wanted to build up a year’s worth of crucial components to prepare for any issues related to the U.S.-China trade war. Huawei has been developing its own chip technology, as well. While Huawei has been able to reduce its reliance on American suppliers for some components, experts said that might not be enough because it still needs other parts from U.S. firms. And analysts have also cast doubt on the viability of Huawei’s own operating system. Neil Shah, a research director at Counterpoint Research, said Huawei will have to rely on third-party Android app stores outside of China because Google Play will not be installed by default. That could be a problem. “This makes a clear disadvantage for Huawei’s own (operating system) vs the Android (operating system) shipped on Samsung or other phones firstly in terms of lack of all the apps available on the Google Play store, quality of apps (some might be dated), potentially less secure as they will not be screened by Google or follows Google’s monthly secure patches and overall user-experience of the store,” Shah said. “So all the apps from US players will not be available out of the box and users will have to sideload it or Huawei will have to make it available via third party or own branded Android compatible app store which is going to be a humongous task for Huawei,” he added.

Kharpal, A. (2020a, March 31). Huawei says US blacklisting led to $12 billion revenue shortfall in 2019 as profit growth slowed. Retrieved, April 27, 2020, from: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/31/huawei-2019-results-us-blacklist-led-to-12-billion-revenue- shortfall.html

Huawei says US blacklisting led to $12 billion revenue shortfall in 2019 as profit growth slowed Huawei reported slowing profit growth in 2019 as the U.S. blacklisting the Chinese technology giant weighed on its business. Meanwhile, a top executive at the company told CNBC the impact from the coronavirus on its business is unclear. Revenue for last year totaled 858.8 billion yuan ($123 billion), a 19.1% year-on-year rise in yuan terms. Net profit came in at 62.7 billion yuan ($9 billion), marking a 5.65% rise from last year. That’s slower than the profit growth of 25% reported in 2018 and 28% in 2017. Eric Xu, rotating chairman at Huawei, told CNBC in an interview Tuesday that the company had missed its own targets. At the start of 2019, Huawei projected revenue of around 858.8 billion yuan or $123 billion, which it eventually ended the year with. But in April of last year, it was preparing to revise that target to $135 billion.

In May, however, the company was put on the U.S. Entity List, a blacklist that restricts American firms doing business with it. This included companies like Google which was no longer allowed to license its Android mobile operating system to the Chinese company. Xu blamed the blacklisting for the $12 billion shortfall. “We didn’t meet our revised targets, which was the $135 billion mark. We were short by $12 billion. This was the results of the U.S. sanctions,” Xu said Tuesday, according to a CNBC translation of his comments in Mandarin.

“We had to deal with the challenges around the supply continuity and we had to address the supply challenges in the short term, so as to supply certain products to our customers. And we also had to increase our R&D (research and development) investment,” Xu added, speaking about why the net profit growth slowed. This was according to a translation provided by Huawei. Huawei faced a tough year in 2019 as the U.S. continued its campaign to try to get the company blocked from 5G rollout around the world. Next-generation mobile networks known as 5G promise super-fast data speeds and the ability to underpin future technologies like driverless cars. Washington has maintained that Huawei represents a national security risk arguing that its networking technology could be used by China for espionage. Huawei has repeatedly denied the allegations.

Consumer weakness after Google block A large part of Huawei’s revenue shortfall occurred in the consumer division which accounted for over 54% of the company’s total sales in 2019. It overtook Huawei’s core networking equipment business to become the biggest division in 2018. “It is the consumer business of Huawei that was hurt the most,” Xu said. The unit, which includes smartphones and laptops, brought in revenue of 467.3 billion yuan or $66.93 billion in 2019. That was $10 billion less than Huawei was targeting. “We look at the consumer business, if everything goes on without being disrupted last year, the revenue from the consumer business would at least be $10 billion U.S. dollars more than the numbers we actually achieved,” he added.

He attributed this again to the effects of the U.S. blacklisting which meant licensed Google apps couldn’t be on its smartphones. That’s not a big deal in China where Google services are banned and Chinese consumers have alternatives. But in international markets, Huawei sells its phones with Google’s Android operating system which includes apps such as Gmail or Google Maps. Huawei has now launched two flagship smartphones without licensed Google Android — the Mate 30 last year and P40 earlier this month.

The Chinese technology giant still managed to become the world’s second-largest smartphone maker by market share in 2019, overtaking Apple, mainly by doubling down on its efforts in China. “China contributed to roughly three in five smartphones sold for Huawei globally in 2019 and this is about to rise further in 2020,” Neil Shah, research director at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/31/huawei-wants-to-put-google-apps-in-its-own-app-store-after- android-block.html

Huawei wants to put Google apps in its own app store after US blacklisting blocks access to Android

Huawei hopes Google apps and services will be available through its own app store — a new idea for the company looking to attract users to its latest handsets without the licensed Android operating system.

Last year, Huawei was put on a U.S. blacklist known as the Entity List, which restricted American firms from doing business with the Chinese telecommunications company. Google was forced to stop licensing its Android mobile operating system to Huawei.

Two flagship smartphones — the Mate 30 and P40 — were released without licensed Google apps. That means that services such as Gmail or Google Maps were not pre-installed on the device. This is not a big deal for Huawei in China where Google services are blocked and consumers don’t really use them. But in international markets, Huawei users have been using a fully licensed version on Android. The blacklisting caused a $10 billion shortfall in revenue in Huawei’s consumer division in 2019, Eric Xu, Huawei’s rotating chairman, told CNBC on Tuesday.

Huawei launched its own operating system called HarmonyOS last year which it said can work across multiple devices such as TVs and smartphones. But it has yet to put that operating system on any of its own handsets. Instead, the recently launched P40 is using a so-called open source version of Android which is loaded with the Huawei AppGallery, the company’s own app store. It does not have the Google Play Store on it. There are very few major apps in Huawei’s store and notable names like Facebook and Instagram are absent. Since the blacklisting last May, Huawei has maintained that it would still like to use Google and all of its services on its smartphones. But with the future unclear, Xu has suggested a different strategy. “We hope Google services can be available through our AppGallery, just like how Google services are available through Apple’s App Store,” he said in Mandarin, according to CNBC’s translation of his comments. Google apps are available through Apple’s App Store even though its devices run a different operating system. Google was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC. The suggestion from Xu is one that would allow Huawei’s users outside of China to get access to the apps they have come to rely on without the Chinese firm having to run an entire licensed version of Android. It’s a new idea from the company, one which analysts said could be crucial if Huawei is to find further success overseas. “I’ve always argued that even if Huawei could get most major developers onto its AppGallery in the upcoming years, there is still one critical developer whose apps would be missing: Google,” Bryan Ma, vice president of devices research at IDC, told CNBC. “So if Huawei is really able to get Google on board, then it would be a significant milestone.”

Kharpal, A. (2020c, May 20). Huawei says its operating system can rival Google, Apple - but experts say it might be a struggle. Retrieved, June 11, 2020, from: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/21/huawei- says-its-harmonyos-operating-system-can-rival-google-apple.html

Huawei says its operating system can rival Google, Apple — but experts say it might be a struggle

A top Huawei executive said the Chinese company’s mobile operating system is able to compete with Google and Apple — but analysts told CNBC that might be tough to achieve, especially in markets outside China where U.S. technology giants have a strong foothold. “Huawei is in a position to deliver an ecosystem that is on par with Google’s and Apple’s ecosystems,” Huawei’s vice president of consumer cloud services in its consumer business, Eric Tan, said on Tuesday. “We have the confidence to be one of the top ecosystem developers in the world.” He was speaking about the company’s own operating system, called the HarmonyOS, which was launched in August. It comes as the Chinese technology giant attempts to forge a path ahead without American technology. Huawei’s smartphones have relied on Google’s Android operating system for a number of years. But in 2019, the Chinese firm was put on a U.S. blacklist which restricted its access to American technology and meant it was no longer able to use licensed Android software on its handsets. In response, Huawei launched its own operating system that same year. On Tuesday, Huawei executives spoke about HarmonyOS, playing up its ability to be an operating system that can work across a number of devices rather than just smartphones alone, which could appeal to developers looking to make apps that work on different hardware. The management also talked about the Huawei Mobile Services (HMS), a collection of various Huawei apps from maps to payments to its app store. Huawei’s claim about being able to deliver an ecosystem “on par” with Google’s and Apple’s is a big one, considering the company only launched its operating system less than a year ago. But Tan backed up his comments by revealing that by the end of March, Huawei had 1.4 million developers on board — up 115% from the end of the first quarter of 2019. In China, where Huawei is the biggest smartphone maker by market share, not having access to Google’s Android is not a huge problem. That’s because Google services, such as search, are blocked in the country and users can’t really use them anyway. That also means Huawei’s HarmonyOS has a chance of being successful in the domestic market. So overall without marquee developers on board its going to be a tough sell. Neil Shah COUNTERPOINT RESEARCH However, in international markets where apps are built on Google’s services — integrating maps or payments, for example — Huawei could find its HarmonyOS a tough sell. “It won’t be easy for Huawei to build up a library of premier applications outside of China, as many of them rely on Google for things like digital rights management, location, payment, and notification services,” Bryan Ma, vice president of devices research at IDC, told CNBC. Huawei was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC. “Developers oftentimes have to be selective on which projects they spend their time on, and a key factor in that decision-making is whether there is enough of a critical mass in the user base to justify the time and effort spent in porting applications over,” Ma said.

New U.S. rules for chips against Huawei latest rise in trade tensions with China Huawei’s HMS is similar to Google Mobile Services and offers developers kits that can be used to integrate things like location services into apps. The Chinese firm said there are 60,000 apps using so- called HMS Core services, but it did not break down what countries or regions those are in. Neil Shah, research director at Counterpoint Research, called the number of apps “limited” and said Huawei is still missing major apps. “Outside of China, it will be struggle as most of the marquee applications come from big profile U.S. developers — Netflix, Facebook properties (Instagram, WhatsApp), Google apps, etc — which are obviously banned to collaborate with Huawei,” Shah said. “So overall, without marquee developers on board, it’s going to be a tough sell.” Indeed, a number of major apps that are important in international markets are not on Huawei’s app store, called the AppGallery. Users cannot download any Google apps or Facebook-owned services. Netflix or Spotify are not available either. However, it does have the Amazon Shopping app, as well as video-sharing app TikTok, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance. Huawei has expressed its desire to get Google apps onto the AppGallery. “We hope Google services can be available through our AppGallery, just like how Google services are available through Apple’s App Store,” Eric Xu, rotating chairman at Huawei said in an interview with CNBC in March. But this will be a challenge, according to Ma. “Legal considerations aside, I find it highly unlikely that Google would publish its own apps into the AppGallery, as they have the same hooks into its services as third parties do. And if anything, they want to drive usage of their services,” he said.

Kirton, D. (2020, February 6). Exclusive: China's mobile giants to take on Google's Play store - sources. Retrieved, May 11, 2020, from: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-mobile-exclusive- idUSKBN20018H Exclusive: China's mobile giants to take on Google's Play store SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) - China’s Xiaomi (1810.HK), Huawei Technologies [HWT.UL], Oppo and Vivo are joining forces to create a platform for developers outside China to upload apps onto all of their app stores simultaneously, in a move analysts say is meant to challenge the dominance of Google’s Play store.

The four companies are ironing out kinks in what is known as the Global Developer Service Alliance (GDSA). The platform aims to make it easier for developers of games, music, movies and other apps to market their apps in overseas markets, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The GDSA was initially aiming to launch in March, sources said, although it is not clear how that will be affected by the recent coronavirus outbreak.

A prototype website says the platform will initially cover nine “regions” including India, Indonesia and Russia.

Oppo and Vivo are both owned by Chinese manufacturer BBK Electronics. Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi confirmed they jointly developed the GDSA as a way to upload apps to their stores simultaneously. A Xiaomi spokesman said the alliance was not intended to challenge Google and denied Huawei’s involvement with it, but Oppo and Vivo made no mention of Huawei in their statements. Huawei declined to comment. Google, whose services are banned in China, earned about $8.8 billion globally from the Play store in 2019, said Katie Williams, an analyst at Sensor Tower. Google also sells content such as movies, books and apps on the Play store and collects a 30% commission. Google did not respond to a request for comment. “By forming this alliance each company will be looking to leverage the others’ advantages in different regions, with Xiaomi’s strong user base in India, Vivo and Oppo in Southeast Asia, and Huawei in Europe,” said Nicole Peng, the VP of Mobility at Canalys. “Secondly, it’s to start to build some more negotiation power against Google,” she added. Together the four companies made up 40.1% of global handset shipments in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to the consultancy IDC. While Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi have full access to Google services in international markets, Huawei lost access for new devices last year after the United States barred American suppliers from selling goods and service to it, citing national security. Chinese vendors are trying to capture a greater share of software and services as hardware sales slow, said Will Wong, a smartphone analyst with IDC. “App store, pre-loading apps, advertisements and gaming are areas that could generate new revenue,” he said. Huawei is also moving away from Google by developing its own Harmony OS as an alternative. The GDSA’s website includes the logo of Wanka Online (1762.HK), a Hong Kong-listed Android “ecosystem” platform next to a contact for the GDSA’s General Secretariat. Wanka declined to confirm its involvement.

The GDSA might be able to lure some app developers by providing more exposure than the already crowded Play store, and the new platform could provide better monetary incentives, analysts said. “By making it simple for developers to increase their reach across multiple app stores, Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi stand to attract more developers and, ultimately, more apps,” said Williams. However, managing the alliance may be a challenge Peng said. “The execution is difficult as its hard to say which company is pulling more weight and investing more in it. We haven’t seen the alliance model work well in the past.”

Laidlaw, Z. (2020, January 30). Huawei sold more phones than Apple in 2019, but Q4 data shows possible trouble. Retrieved, May 4, 2020, from: https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/01/30/huawei- sold-more-phones-than-apple-in-2019-but-q4-data-shows-possible-trouble/

Huawei sold more phones than Apple in 2019, but Q4 data shows possible trouble Despite facing a slew of challenges throughout 2019 that threatened to grind Huawei's global business into oblivion, the Chinese phone manufacturer has somehow managed to defy its own financial expectations and surpass one of its most powerful competitors. The latest financial reports are in, and Huawei has officially overtaken Apple to become the second largest global smartphone vendor in 2019. However, Q4 data shows that darker times may soon be ahead.

According to Counterpoint, more than 60% of all Huawei phones shipped in 2019 were bound for Chinese customers, the same market that both Samsung and Apple have struggled to crack. Meanwhile, Huawei's older flagships — like the P30 Pro — that are still able to access Google apps and receive Android updates have fueled sales in countries where the US government ban has had a larger impact. This has effectively sandwiched Huawei (~240M phones) neatly between leader Samsung (~290M phones) and third place Apple (~200M) for the 2019 fiscal year.

Although Huawei may have overtaken Apple in terms of units, this news isn't all positive. According to data gathered by Canalys, Huawei's shipments dropped 7% in Q4 2019, signaling the company's first quarterly decline in two years. Samsung also saw its first slump since 2018, while Apple surged to new heights, lending credence that this could just be a holiday season blip for the big three. We'll have to wait until Q1 2020 to know if Huawei's decline will continue or if the company will be able to rally ahead

McCabe, D., Hong, N., & Benner, K. (2020, February 13). U.S. Charges Huawei With Racketeering, Adding Pressure on China. Retrieved, April 27, 2020, from: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/technology/huawei-racketeering-wire-fraud.html

U.S. Charges Huawei With Racketeering, Adding Pressure on China The indictment is the Trump administration’s latest move in its fight against the Chinese tech giant, which it deems a security threat. WASHINGTON — The U.S. government has charged Huawei and two of its subsidiaries with federal racketeering and conspiracy to steal trade secrets from American companies, a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s legal fight with the Chinese telecommunications company. In a federal indictment unsealed on Thursday in the Eastern District of New York, the Department of Justice accused Huawei and its affiliates of a “pattern of racketeering activity” and said the companies had worked to steal trade secrets from six American firms. The stolen information included source code, as well as the manuals for wireless technology. The indictment did not identify the six companies, but a source familiar with the investigation — as well as court filings made in several civil lawsuits — indicated they were Cisco Systems, Motorola Solutions, Fujitsu, Quintel Technology, T-Mobile and CNEX Labs. “The new charges in this case relate to the alleged decades-long efforts by Huawei, and several of its subsidiaries, both in the U.S. and in the People’s Republic of China, to misappropriate intellectual property, including from six U.S. technology companies, in an effort to grow and operate Huawei’s business,” the Justice Department said in a news release. The charges add more weight to Washington’s pressure campaign against Huawei, which is already barred from buying many American products and is viewed by the Trump administration as a threat to national security. The escalation is also part of the administration’s attempt to crack down on what it says is a pattern of Chinese espionage and theft aimed at giving Beijing a technological edge. On Monday, four members of China’s military were charged with hacking into Equifax, one of the nation’s largest credit reporting agencies, and stealing trade secrets and the personal data of about 145 million Americans in 2017.

Also on Thursday, the Department of Commerce extended the temporary license that allows American companies to continue doing some business with Huawei. It will now expire in April. The new indictment goes beyond the Justice Department’s earlier allegations of trade-secret theft and sanctions violations. It applies a federal racketeering law that has historically been used to bring down mob leaders and gang kingpins and allows the government to file charges that would otherwise fall outside the statute of limitations. The criminal conspiracy that Huawei is accused of carrying out has been going on since at least 1999, according to the Justice Department.

Huawei officials argued that the latest charges were not new allegations and appeared to be part of a larger campaign against the company. It is confident that it will be exonerated in the criminal justice system, said Andy Purdy, the chief security officer for Huawei in the United States. He said the U.S. government was trying to hurt Huawei by pressuring allies not to use its equipment and was attempting to block American companies from selling parts to the Chinese firm. Both campaigns will ultimately hurt America, Mr. Purdy said, by eliminating jobs in the United States and reducing competition in the telecommunications industry. He said the U.S. government was engaged in a “campaign to carpet bomb Huawei out of existence,” adding: “It seems like the United States is not thinking about the significance of this.” Huawei has had legal disputes with several of the companies it is accused of stealing from. Cisco, a computer networking equipment maker in San Jose, Calif., sued Huawei in 2003, claiming the Chinese company infringed on numerous patents and illegally copied its software source code and documentation. The suit was dropped about a year later in exchange for a promise of product changes from Huawei. Quintel sued Huawei in 2015, claiming it had stolen its antenna technology. The litigation was settled in 2018. Motorola settled intellectual-property lawsuits with the Chinese company in 2011. T-Mobile was named in the earlier charges against Huawei, when prosecutors alleged that the manufacturer had tried to steal details about a robot, named Tappy, used by the wireless carrier. Last year, the Justice Department charged Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, with outlining a decade-long attempt by the company to steal trade secrets, obstruct a criminal investigation and evade economic sanctions on Iran. Ms. Meng was also named in the Justice Department’s indictment on Thursday. Ms. Meng is in Canada, out of jail on bail of 10 million Canadian dollars, or $7.5 million, awaiting extradition to the United States. She is under 24-hour surveillance and must wear a GPS tracker on her ankle. Gary Botting, a leading extradition expert in Canada, said the new charges were unlikely to have much effect on Ms. Meng’s case in Canada since they were, in his view, “too little, too late.” The judge in that case has been deliberating on whether extradition would meet a fundamental requirement under Canadian law: that the crime Ms. Meng is accused of in the United States constitutes a crime in Canada. While racketeering is not a crime under Canadian law, Mr. Botting said Canada’s extradition treaty with the United States allowed aspects of racketeering to be legal grounds for an extradition. And Canadian prosecutors representing the United States could decide to add new charges. The White House has looked to ratchet up the pressure on Huawei for years, with members of Congress from both parties backing its efforts. The new charges may give more fodder to the company’s critics on Capitol Hill, who have been pushing to make sure Huawei has no role in the next generation of wireless networks, known as 5G. “The indictment paints a damning portrait of an illegitimate organization that lacks any regard for the law,” said the top lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina, and Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia. Under the Trump administration, the Justice Department has focused on combating an array of threats that China poses to the United States and its allies in the West, including theft of trade secrets and espionage, as the country seeks to expand its sphere of economic and military power. Huawei, whose equipment powers telecom networks, sits squarely at the center of both of those concerns. Intelligence community analysts say Huawei can use its network equipment to monitor traffic across a network and potentially engage in unlawful surveillance. Mr. Purdy of Huawei pushed back against those claims, saying control of those mobile networks is firmly with the carriers that build and operate them. Huawei is also the leading supplier on every continent except for North America of equipment for 5G networks, which will underpin telecommunications and advanced technologies like self-driving cars. As countries around the world migrate their communications systems to 5G, and as more technology innovation is built on top of it, Huawei is in a position to gain a huge economic edge over U.S. tech giants, which have long been at the forefront of innovation and have lately powered the U.S. economy. Attorney General William P. Barr said in a speech last week that the Chinese government was using “every lever of power to expand its 5G market share” because it would gain ground in every technology that then touched 5G. “Our economic future is at stake,” Mr. Barr said in the speech, during a conference in Washington on threats that China poses to the United States. “The risk of losing the 5G struggle with China should vastly outweigh other considerations.” For years, American intelligence officials have tried to convince companies and governments around the world that Huawei’s equipment could give Beijing access to sensitive communications networks. But that global campaign has faltered, as countries like Britain and Saudi Arabia opt to use Huawei’s gear in their 5G networks. In January, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain believed that any risk could be managed and that the company’s products could be used in a portion of Britain’s 5G network. Germany is said to be close to a decision on whether to allow the company to work on its network, as well. As its global campaign to bar Huawei has faltered, American officials have argued that the United States should take aggressive action to help the world develop an alternative to Huawei’s products. Mr. Barr, in his speech, argued that the United States should consider providing direct or indirect financial support to Nokia and Ericsson, two European companies that are the primary competitors to Huawei’s networking gear. Ming, B. (2020, February 1). The United States regrets that Huawei has no choice but to use Google services. Retrieved, May 8, 2020, from: http://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/relnews/us/2020-02-01/doc- iimxxste7966265.shtml

The United States regrets it, Huawei insists that it will no longer use Google services Huawei ’s manager in Austria, Fred Wangfei, revealed that even if the US lifts the ban in the future, Huawei has no plans to use Google services. This means that Huawei will work hard to carry its own chip + Hongmeng OS system, which will completely break the monopoly advantage of American companies in the mobile market. In the mobile operating system market, the Android system owned by Google in the United States is the world's largest mobile operating system, occupying more than 80% of the market share in the mobile operating system market; the second largest mobile operating system is also owned by American companies, namely Apple's iOS system. iOS is exclusively used by Apple, while Android is open to all mobile phone companies. Google ’s Android system can become the world ’s largest mobile operating system, and it ’s inseparable from its openness. However, as Android ’s position in the mobile phone market has gradually stabilized, Google has become increasingly arrogant, constantly putting pressure on mobile phone companies and limiting mobile phone companies. Customizing the Android system and requiring more and more Google applications at the same time has made Android phone companies angry, but because of Google's strength, many Android phone companies dare to speak. In the face of this situation, Huawei emerged, saying that it began to develop its own Hongmeng OS system as early as 2012, surpassing the Android system in terms of system fluency, more secure in terms of security, and can be adapted to mobile phones, tablets, Products such as wearable devices can be replaced at any time to replace Google's Android system. The main obstacle to Hongmeng's OS system is that the ecology is not perfect. Last year, Huawei launched its own HMS service to replace Google's GMS service. In order to further enrich the application of HMS services, Huawei has invested US $ 3 billion to encourage global application developers to develop applications for it. At the same time, it has launched the Ark compiler to allow application developers to integrate Android Application migration to HMS service. After more than half a year's efforts, HMS service can provide more than 100,000 applications. In addition to actively attracting application developers to develop applications for HMS services, Huawei has also cooperated with Google's competitors. Previously, it reached a cooperation with European map company TomTom. It is expected that more Google competitors will be put into Huawei's arms in the future. To further enrich the application of HMS services, this move is especially scary to Google, because Huawei's move will help many of Google's competitors to grow and develop, breaking Google's dominant position in the mobile market. As Huawei continues to cooperate with US chip companies' competitors in the chip market, the performance of U.S. chip companies has fallen sharply. Even the US Department of Defense has come forward to oppose the U.S. Department of Commerce to further restrict the cooperation between U.S. chip companies and Huawei. Worries that restricting Huawei will in turn further affect the long-term development of US chip companies. Now that Huawei has a tough performance to cultivate its own HMS service + Hongmeng OS, it will break the monopoly advantage of American companies in the Internet market and break the leading advantage of American companies from multiple industries. This is probably causing the United States to regret it and restricting Huawei may be causing The terrible consequences of shooting yourself in the foot.

Moon, A. (2019, May 19). Exclusive: Google suspends some business with Huawei after Trump blacklist. Retrieved, January 5, 2020, from: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-tech-alphabet- exclusive/exclusive-google-suspends-some-business-with-huawei-after-trump-blacklist-source- idUSKCN1SP0NB

Exclusive: Google suspends some business with Huawei after Trump blacklist - source NEW YORK (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s Google has suspended business with Huawei that requires the transfer of hardware, software and technical services except those publicly available via open source licensing, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday, in a blow to the Chinese technology company that the U.S. government has sought to blacklist around the world. Holders of current Huawei smartphones with Google apps, however, will continue to be able to use and download app updates provided by Google, a Google spokesperson said, confirming earlier reporting by Reuters. “We are complying with the order and reviewing the implications,” the Google spokesperson said.

“For users of our services, Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices,” the spokesperson said, without giving further details. The suspension could hobble Huawei’s smartphone business outside China as the tech giant will immediately lose access to updates to Google’s Android operating system. Future versions of Huawei smartphones that run on Android will also lose access to popular services, including the Google Play Store and Gmail and YouTube apps. “Huawei will only be able to use the public version of Android and will not be able to get access to proprietary apps and services from Google,” the source said. The Trump administration on Thursday added Huawei Technologies Co Ltd to a trade blacklist, immediately enacting restrictions that will make it extremely difficult for the company to do business with U.S. counterparts. On Friday, the U.S. Commerce Department said it was considering scaling back restrictions on Huawei to “prevent the interruption of existing network operations and equipment”. It was not immediately clear on Sunday whether Huawei’s access to mobile software would be affected. The extent to which Huawei will be hurt by the U.S. government’s blacklist is not yet known as its global supply chain assesses the impact. Chip experts have questioned Huawei’s ability to continue to operate without help from the United States. Details of the specific services affected by the suspension were still being discussed internally at Google, according to the source. Huawei attorneys are also studying the impact of the blacklist, a Huawei spokesman said on Friday.

Huawei was not immediately reachable for further comment. Chipmakers including Intel Corp, Qualcomm Inc, Xilinx Inc and Broadcom Inc have told their employees they will not supply critical software and components to Huawei until further notice, Bloomberg reported bloom.bg/2VLT5QK late on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter. Intel, Qualcomm, Xilinx and Broadcom did not immediately respond to requests for comments on the Bloomberg report. Representatives of the U.S. Commerce Department did not immediately comment. POPULAR APPS Huawei will continue to have access to the version of the Android operating system available through the open source license, known as Android Open Source Project (AOSP), that is available for free to anyone who wishes to use it. There are about 2.5 billion active Android devices worldwide, according to Google. However, Google will stop providing Huawei with access, technical support and collaboration involving its proprietary apps and services going forward, the source said. Huawei has said it has spent the last few years preparing a contingency plan by developing its own technology in case it is blocked from using Android. Some of this technology is already being used in products sold in China, the company has said.

In an interview with Reuters in March, Eric Xu, rotating chairman of Huawei, struck a defiant note in anticipation of retaliatory actions by U.S. companies. “No matter what happens, the Android Community does not have any legal right to block any company from accessing its open-source license,” he said. Popular Google apps such as Gmail, YouTube and the Chrome browser that are available through Google’s Play Store will disappear from future Huawei handsets as those services are not covered by the open source license and require a commercial agreement with Google. But users of existing Huawei devices who have access to the Google Play Store will still be able to download app updates provided by Google. Apps such as Gmail are updated through the store, unlike operating system updates which are typically handled by phone manufacturers and telecoms carriers, which the blacklist could affect, the source said. The impact is expected to be minimal in the Chinese market. Most Google mobile apps are banned in China, where alternatives are offered by domestic competitors such as Tencent and Baidu. In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the ministry had noticed the report and would look into it and pay attention to developments. “At the same time, China supports Chinese companies to use legal weapons to defend their legitimate rights,” he added, but did not elaborate. Huawei’s European business, its second-biggest market, could be hit as Huawei licenses these services from Google in Europe. “Having those apps is critical for smartphone makers to stay competitive in regions like Europe,” said Geoff Blaber, vice president of research, CCS Insight.

New.QQ (2020, April 1). The idea of playing Chinese before the outbreak is behind the US "hegemony failure". Retrieved, May 11, 2020, from: https://new.qq.com/omn/20200401/20200401A059P200.html

The idea of playing Chinese before the outbreak is behind the US "hegemony failure"

Why does the United States do such harm to others? Using the title of the Boston Consulting March 9 report, this is the end of American semiconductor leadership. Many analyses have accused the United

States of "hegemonism," but there are more signs that this is more like a "hegemonic failure" performa nce.

【Text/Science and Technology column author's bag】

If the United States wants to crack down on Huawei, it is no longer news, and everyone on earth knows it. Recently, on the issues of "new crown pneumonia" and "expulsion of journalists", China and the United States have been lip service, but mainly to cooperate with the war of public opinion, there is no greater action for the time being, and the United States is likely to be the first big stick to swing.

You guessed it, it was directed at Huawei.

According to reports from CNBC and Reuters, the Trump administration may have to double-talk to restrict the world from supplying chips and equipment to Huawei. This is the longest stretch of hands.

The last rule was that if you used more than 25% of American products or technologies, you would have to listen to my command. You cannot supply Huawei without my permission. TSMC, a manufacturer of Huawei chips, evaluated and found that it does not need to listen to the United States.

Now the United States is preparing to modify the rules and reduce 25% to 10% to force TSMC to fail.

Why does the United States do such harm to others? Using the title of the Boston Consulting March 9 report, this is the end of American semiconductor leadership. Many analyses have accused the United

States of "hegemonism," but there are more signs that this is more like a "hegemonic failure" performance. A performance of "hegemony failure"

Since adding Huawei to the "Entity List" in May last year, the temporary license for Huawei has been extended five times, mainly because American rural operators do not want to "break up" with cheap and affordable Huawei equipment, and Ren Zhengfei's position is that the United States " No need to think about Huawei." U.S. politicians raised concerns about spying and other reasons, and wanted to persuade allies to ban Huawei from their 5G networks. It also became futile time and time again. The recent vote of the British House of Commons still allowed Huawei to participate, and Huawei’s 5G commercial contracts continue to rank first in the world. From Europe.

The reason why the United States commands no ally is simple. More than 70% of Huawei’s 13,000 employees in Europe come from the local area, and its annual contribution to European GDP exceeds

13 billion euros, supporting 169,700 jobs in Europe. Some European operators do not use Huawei, such as Orange in France, but the main reason is not the security considerations proposed by American politicians, but in France, the choice of Nokia (which has merged with Alcatel in France) has been able to reduce the cost of upgrading communication equipment. Orange and Huawei have cooperation in Africa and the Middle East. Orange's CEO Stephen said: "The debate at the political level annoys me...Nokia and Ericsson also have business in China. We can only find European suppliers. Is it good?

No, at the competitive level, it would not be better."

The example of TSMC is a model of "do not listen to orders". Due to the increase in orders from

Haisi, the mainland market accounts for 20% of TSMC's revenue. The United States issued rules to try to accumulate power in the console, but failed, and now it can only attempt to modify the rules again.

This is exactly the process of the US hegemony from vocalization, failure, and again seeking confirmation. Security threats are just an excuse. Confirming and reaffirming hegemony is the essence. Behind this is the decline in the strength of the United States and the inner anxiety that cannot lead the globalization order. This crazy behavior needs to be used to test allies. For this reason, the United States does not hesitate to provoke allies all over the world on the pretext that it does not believe. US Secretary of State Pompeo arrogantly said: "Huawei and other companies supported by the Chinese government are Trojan horses of Chinese intelligence agencies." US Speaker of the House of Representatives Pelosi described: "Huawei exports digital authoritarianism." But these words, not to mention American allies, not even Trump himself, Trump said: "I want to allow our company to do business. I mean, the proposal on my table and national security It has nothing to do.

What will happen if we do not provide these chips? They will be manufactured in other countries, or in China or elsewhere."

The United States hopes to use sovereignty and security to persuade allies, but for any country, whether to use Huawei or sell to Huawei is only up to you. This is sovereignty and security. The words of American hard-line politicians have become paradoxical logic in paradoxical ways. No wonder even Trump, who knows everything, can't understand it.

History and reality

How Trump decides is related to his election and public opinion on China after the outbreak of coronavirus. There are also complex uncertainties. The domestic support for Huawei mainly comes from organizations such as the Semiconductor Industry Association and the International

Semiconductor Industry Association, but their contributions to and influence on presidential candidates are limited. In the case of a serious lack of corrective power in the United States, the urgent need to shift domestic conflicting factors will increase the probability that Trump will choose to hit the south wall.

As early as the 18th century, in order to defeat Britain, Napoleon blocked trade with the British Isles, and all transactions were prohibited. Due to the French control of Northern Europe, the British industrial raw materials faced a shortage, especially shipbuilding materials, but the British soon began to turn to Canada and other colonies to purchase wood. With Canadian pine masts, the Royal Navy is still “arrogantly” driving over the ocean. As a counterattack, while Britain was supporting the colony, the tariffs on the Baltic timber were greatly increased. European countries quickly fell to Britain under economic damage, and the blockade policy went bankrupt.

But Britain has not learned anything from history. As the first country to achieve industrialization, the

United Kingdom attempted to maintain its industrial dominance and adopted strict technical blockades, which ultimately failed to prevent the United States and Germany from achieving industrialization. Now, this Hegelian prediction about human lessons is about to fall on the United

States.

If we compare globalization to a network, and the 5G industry chain is a chain, then the United States can master at most only the upstream part of the chain head. For example, Applied Materials and

Ram's research on these American companies can indeed seize TSMC's neck and become the bottom card for American hegemony claims. The thinking of American hard-line politicians is that by partially mastering the head of a chain, the United States can control the entire chain. This is a very outdated Cold War mentality, and it is also based on the "new planned economy" under the jurisdiction of the long arms. They forgot to really support this chain. The market is established, and it is a global industrial division of labor. Integrated circuits have gathered the joint efforts of elites from all over the world. It is an integrated product. In particular, currently 75% of integrated circuit technologies are developed in Asia, and more than 75% of new chip production lines are put into production in Asia every year.

The biggest loss is still American companies

Isolately hope to own the chip supply chain, which will not only make the US more alone, but also seriously disrupt the global 5G rhythm. The global semiconductor and communications industry chain has been preparing for 5G for many years and has invested heavily. Currently, large-scale commercialization has begun in the field of 5G terminal mobile phones. The United States has revised the rules at this time. The upstream and downstream of the global 5G industry chain and hundreds of millions of users have received With huge impact, the operation and survival of the relevant supporting chip suppliers worldwide are facing a huge crisis. The source of the new coronavirus may not be clear, but the source of such a crisis will be blamed by the United States.

Let’s not underestimate the resilience of the globalized supply chain. All disturbances will accelerate the reorganization of the chain in order to adapt to market needs and meet commercial conditions. The one that is ultimately thrown out may be the one in the hands of the United States. The biggest loss is the United States. enterprise.

According to the analysis of the Boston Consulting Report, since the start of the "trade war", the revenue of the top 25 semiconductor companies in the United States has increased from 10% in the four quarters before the first round of tariffs in July 2018 to the end of 2018. About 1%. After the

United States restricted sales of certain technology products to Huawei in May 2019, the revenue of the top US semiconductor companies fell by 4% to 9% in the three quarters.

If the United States maintains the restrictions set forth in the current list of entities, it will lose 8 percentage points of global share and 16% of revenue. If the United States completely bans the sale of semiconductor companies to Chinese customers, which will actually lead to the decoupling of technology from China, it will lose 18% of the global share and 37% of revenue. These revenue declines will inevitably lead to substantial reductions in R&D and capital expenditures, as well as the loss of 15,000 to 40,000 highly skilled direct jobs in the US semiconductor industry.

Chinese companies have now established alternative non-U.S. suppliers.

The saboteur can stir the small pond, but it is impossible to stir the sea There are also "counter-arms" in the hands of China. If China restricts the entry of US 5G chips and terminals and equipment containing US 5G chips into the Chinese market, American companies will suffer huge losses. And China will not be affected, 5G equipment can be provided by Huawei,

Samsung, Ericsson, Nokia, etc., and 5G chips have alternative solutions such as MediaTek, Samsung,

Spreadtrum and so on.

If China counters, the potential losses of Apple and Qualcomm alone will exceed at least US$70 billion per year, which is equivalent to Boeing's revenue in 2019. It is highly likely that Qualcomm will not be able to afford huge R&D investments because of a sharp decline in market share. Had to withdraw from the 5G communications market. Qualcomm's revenue for fiscal year 2019 is 24.7 billion US dollars, of which revenue in China reached 11.6 billion US dollars. If Chinese mobile phone manufacturers do not adopt the Qualcomm solution, Qualcomm will lose at least 40% of the global market share. Other US chip manufacturers such as Broadcom, Micron, TI, Skyworks, and

Qorvo will also be severely affected. In the first quarter after the US ban on Huawei, Micron’s revenue fell by 42.3% year-on-year. These US companies were breathless, which was also the reason for the temporary extension of Huawei’s temporary license.

China's bottom card is the market. The Chinese market is a vast ocean. The disruptors of the global technological ecology can stir up small ponds, but it is impossible to stir up the sea. China’s response can be very gentle and modest, such as whether it should implement a stricter review and licensing system for US companies’ ICT network and terminal technology direct products, and another example, whether it should approve 5G networks and terminals with US ingredients. 1. What about chips sold in the Chinese market? China may have to think about it.

The new crown epidemic has made the world see the power of the butterfly effect. The crisis has confirmed the judgment of the "Community of Human Destiny", which has promoted the solidarity and cooperation of human society, and has also aggravated many populist and racial discrimination biases, such as the "Chinese virus". Blame. In an increasingly complex and uncertain world, the United States has chosen to increase "entropy", modify policies at will, and expand jurisdiction without restraint. It is hard to predict what kind of chain damage the world will cause.

Trust, rules and organization are the foundation of the world order. No hegemony can be established based on the destruction of trust and rules. Many American politicians do not understand technical common sense and are open to information security issues. Nowadays, in the wild claims of hegemony and Frustrated, they may have ignored even their political common sense. If you have an American diary about common sense and enlightenment, you should write down how these people opened the

Pandora’s box step by step.

Xiao Yi's interest was all over. In the end, I also wrote some good technical and commercial knowledge. Although most politicians in the United States do not understand it, and many people of insight in the United States have pointed out this point: the biggest challenge for the development of

5G in the United States is not Huawei. In fact, it comes from its own internal spectrum allocation problem. The mid-to-low frequency bands are widely used and occupied by the US Department of

Defense, and are not available for civilian or commercial use. As a result, US operators can only choose high-frequency spectrum. The future 5G ecosystem adopted by most countries is in the mid- frequency spectrum, so it is inevitable for China to become a leader.

Without follow-up, there is no leading position. When the United States is exploring high-frequency spectrum, because the market is too small, the pressure on suppliers to serve the United States is great.

Therefore, it is destined to lack a global supply chain foundation and destined to become a lonely man. The correct approach for the United States to recapture the supply chain is not long-arm jurisdiction, but to solve the problem of spectrum allocation and increase its market size in order to compete directly with China. But today's United States, I am afraid that this determination has long been lost.

Onawole, H. (2020, March 5). Huawei offers developers 90% of revenue from AppGallery. Retrieved, May 11, 2020, from: https://www.gizmochina.com/2020/03/05/huawei-offers-90-of-revenue-from- appgalery-to-developers/

Huawei offers developers 90% of revenue from AppGallery

Huawei’s AppGallery is the third largest app store in the world even though it is practically new. The manufacturer has been wooing developers to create apps for its platform with incentives. The latest is a revenue-sharing formula that will see developers get up to 90% of the money made.

Huawei is calling it the Revenue Share Percentage for the Preferential Policy and it is valid for 24 months and it is valid from when developers accept the agreement before June 30, 2020. The preferential policy becomes effective the first day of the next month after you agree to the policy for developers who had previously signed the AppGallery Joint Operations Sevice Agreement. For those who have not signed the AppGallery Joint Operations Sevice Agreement, the preferential policy begins the same month. Both categories of developers have until June 2020 to benefit from the preferential policy.

Google adopts a 30:70 sharing ratio between it and its developers. This is the same revenue split Apple applies to developers on its App Store. Last year, Epic Games refused to put its popular game, Fortnite, on the Google Play Store. The games studio said the 30% Google took from sales was too high as the “developer’s 70% also covers the cost of developing, operating and supporting the game”.

Epic Games has launched its own game store where developers earn 88% and the store takes 12% of sales.

Pham, S. & Stout, K. (2019, November 26). Huawei CEO: We can still be No.1 without Google. Retrieved, April 27, 2020, from: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/26/tech/huawai-smartphone-ren- zhengfei/index.html Huawei CEO: We can still be No.1 without Google

Hong Kong/Shenzhen (CNN Business)Huawei CEO and founder Ren Zhengfei believes his company can still become the world's top smartphone brand, even if it remains cut off from

Google's software and apps.

The Chinese company is already the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker. It was on track to overtake Samsung as the No. 1 seller of smartphones this year, until it landed on a US trade blacklist. The restriction bars US companies like Google (GOOGL), Intel (INTC) and Broadcom (AVGO) from selling to Huawei unless they obtain a government license to do so.

Now, Huawei's hard-won overseas market share is shrinking, as customers outside of China become wary of buying a phone that may not have access to the Google Play Store and popular apps like Facebook (FB), Uber (UBER) and Google Maps.

Huawei phones are still red hot in China. But the Google app ban is hurting sales overseas Asked in an interview with CNN Business on Tuesday whether Huawei can still become the world's No. 1 smartphone brand even without Google, Ren said: "I don't think that would be a problem," adding that it will just take more time. Huawei has been under pressure from a broader US campaign against it. Washington says Huawei products pose a national security risk, allegations the Chinese company rejects. Some US companies, such as Microsoft (MSFT), received licenses last week from the US Commerce Department authorizing limited business which doesn't pose a significant risk to national security or foreign policy interests. The department also said that some companies have been denied licenses. Ren told CNN Business that Google has neither been denied a license, nor has it yet received one. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The United States once again kicks the Huawei can down the road Huawei has said repeatedly that it would prefer to work with Google if possible. But it is working on a "large scale" backup plan, Ren said. Huawei has been developing its own operating system, called Harmony, as well as an app store. But Huawei has just 45,000 apps available for download. That compares with about 2.8 million in the Google Play Store, according to market data company Statista. Ren said that the United States is still the most powerful country when it comes to innovation, and no one — including China — can overtake the country for "decades to come." But he suggested Washington may inadvertently help the rise of competitors if it continues to place restrictions on who US companies can trade with. If Huawei can't work with US suppliers, "we will have to resort to alternatives. If those alternatives become mature, I think it'll become less likely to switch back to previous versions," Ren said. "[It] is a critical moment for all of us, I hope the US government can consider what's best for American companies," he added. Huawei's business has proven broadly resilient this year, despite the trade blacklist. When the company reported earnings last month, it said revenue increased 24% in the first nine months of 2019 compared to the same period a year earlier. Soaring smartphone sales in China helped.

Porter, J. (2019, August 9). Huawei’s new operating system is called HarmonyOS. Retrieved, May 11, 2020, from: https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/9/20798251/huawei-harmonyos-hongmengos- smartphones-internet-of-things-operating-system-android Huawei’s new operating system is called HarmonyOS Huawei has officially announced HarmonyOS, the operating system it was rumored to be developing to replace its reliance on Android. In China, the software will be known as Hongmeng. The company says the operating system, a microkernel-based distributed OS, can be used in everything from smartphones to smart speakers, wearables, and in-vehicle systems to create a shared ecosystem across devices. The operating system will be released as an open-source platform worldwide to encourage adoption. There’s been a lot of speculation about Huawei’s in-house operating system ever since Google suspended the company’s Android license back in May, following the US government’s decision to put Huawei on the Entity List. Huawei has made no secret of the fact that it’s been working on its own OS, but the extent to which it would be able to act as a substitute for Android is unclear.

A modularized #HarmonyOS can be nested to adapt flexibly to any device to create a seamless cross- device experience. Developed via the distributed capability kit, it builds the foundation of a shared developer ecosystem #HDC2019

Huawei plans to launch HarmonyOS on “smart screen products” later this year, before expanding it to work on other devices, like wearables, over the next three years. The first of these products will be the Honor Smart Screen, which is due to be unveiled on Saturday. Huawei has yet to explicitly say what constitutes a “smart screen” device, but Reuters previously reported that the OS would appear on a range of Honor smart TVs. The focus for the operating system will be products for the Chinese market at first, before Huawei expands it to other markets. In a statement, the CEO of Huawei’s consumer business group, Richard Yu, says that HarmonyOS is “completely different from Android and iOS” because of its ability to scale across different kinds of devices. “You can develop your apps once, then flexibly deploy them across a range of different devices,” the CEO says. Previously, it’s been unclear whether HarmonyOS would be an operating system for smartphones or for Internet of Things devices. It now appears that it’s designed to power both, similar to Google’s experimental Fuchsia operating system, which is designed to run on various form-factors. “YOU CAN DEVELOP YOUR APPS ONCE, THEN FLEXIBLY DEPLOY THEM ACROSS A RANGE OF DIFFERENT DEVICES.” Although the OS will come to more devices over the next three years, in a follow-up press release, Huawei said that “for the time being” it intends to continue using Android on its phones. Whether it can continue to do so is another matter. CNBC reports that in a press conference following the launch, Yu said that the situation was “unclear” as to whether Huawei can still use Android, and that the company is “waiting on an update” to find out. Since placing Huawei on the Entity List, the Trump administration has indicated that it’s willing to ease the restrictions on the company. In July, senior officials said that the administration would grant licenses to deal with Huawei in instances where national security wouldn’t be impacted. However, yesterday, Bloomberg reported that the White House is delaying its decision about issuing these licenses in the wake of China’s decision to halt purchases of US farming goods. It’s yet another suggestion that the Huawei restrictions have as much to do with the US-China trade war as they do with protecting national security. HarmonyOS now has an official name, but it still has some major hurdles to overcome. Huawei is expecting developers to recompile their apps for this new operating system, with the ability to code once and deploy across multiple devices with different screen layouts, interactions, and more. Huawei says developers can compile a range of languages into machine code in a single environment, but it’s unclear exactly how easy that will be for developers. There are a lot of big promises here, but it’s going to be an even bigger challenge to build an app ecosystem to rival both Android and Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Update August 9th, 8:30AM ET: Added Huawei confirmation that the Honor Smart Screen will be the first product running HarmonyOS, and the company intends to continue using Android for the time being. Comments from Huawei’s consumer CEO noting that the company’s situation with Android is still “unclear” were also added.

Porter, J. (2020a, February 6). China’s smartphone giants reportedly unite to challenge Google’s Play Store. Retrieved, May 11, 2020, from: https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/6/21126118/huawei- xiaomi-vivo-oppo-app-store-platform-google-play-dominance-worldwide China’s smartphone giants reportedly unite to challenge Google’s Play Store A new platform could let developers upload to all of their stores at once Huawei, Xiaomi, and BBK’s Oppo and Vivo are working together on a platform that will allow developers outside of China to upload their apps to all of the respective app stores simultaneously, Reuters reports. The manufacturers have joined together under the Global Developer Service Alliance (GDSA) in what appears to be an attempt to challenge the international dominance of Google’s Play Store.

Since the Google Play Store is banned in China, Android users have grown accustomed to downloading apps from a variety of different app stores, many of which are maintained by manufacturers like Huawei and Oppo. But outside of China, the Google Play Store reigns supreme, providing a convenient single location where developers can upload their software. This near- monopoly means that third-party app stores have struggled with developer support internationally, and it’s this advantage that could be challenged by the GDSA’s platform.

EACH MANUFACTURER OPERATES ITS OWN APP STORE IN CHINA GDSA’s prototype website notes that its services are planned for nine countries and regions, including India, Indonesia, Russia, and Malaysia. Reuters notes that the companies are strong in different regions, such as Xiaomi in India or Huawei in Europe. But together, they control over 40 percent of worldwide smartphone shipments as of the fourth quarter of last year. The new platform would make it easier for developers to upload their apps to every store at once while ensuring some degree of parity across app stores. The Play Store’s international dominance is a much more acute problem for Huawei, which lost its license to offer Google’s apps and services last year, including the Google Play Store. This was such a problem that Huawei decided against officially releasing its last flagship, the Mate 30, internationally. The company has also announced it’s working on its own operating system called Harmony OS, and it says it’s investing $1 billion to fund the development, user growth, and marketing of Huawei Mobile Services, its alternative to Google’s services. The Play Store provides a significant revenue stream for Google, which takes a 30 percent cut of any sales made through the store. In total, it’s thought to have made the company around $8.8 billion worldwide last year, according to one analyst quoted by Reuters. China’s phone makers want a slice of that pie as handset sales slow globally. Reuters reports that a March launch was planned for the new platform, but this may have been delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Porter, J. (2020b, March 26). Huawei Hopes The P40 Pro’s Powerful Hardware Can Lure You Away From Google. Retrieved, May 8, 2020, from: https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/26/21194248/huawei- p40-pro-plus-release-date-specs-price-features-camera-google

HUAWEI HOPES THE P40 PRO’S POWERFUL HARDWARE CAN LURE YOU AWAY FROM GOOGLE Huawei has announced a new flagship series of phones in its latest attempt to use top-of-the-line specs and cameras to lure Western customers to its Google-free ecosystem. The Huawei P40, P40 Pro, and P40 Pro Plus are filled with flagship features, including Huawei’s 5G Kirin 990 processors, up to four rear cameras, and up to 90Hz displays. Ahead of today’s announcement, I had the opportunity to use the P40 Pro for a couple of hours to get an early impression of how it performs; that is the model pictured throughout.

YOU WON’T FIND ANY GOOGLE APPS OR SERVICES ON HUAWEI’S NEW PHONES Of course, it’s impossible to write about these phones without addressing the big, Google-shaped elephant in the room, which is that they can’t and won’t ship with access to Google’s apps or services, including the Google Play Store. Yesterday, my colleague Sam Byford wrote a pretty detailed explainer on what the situation continues to mean for Huawei’s devices, so I won’t repeat too many of his points here. Suffice it to say, despite Huawei offering a number of alternatives to get popular apps onto your device, a lot of them feel like workarounds and can come with downsides like a lack of access to automatic updates. For mapping apps, in particular, it’s hard to overcome the lack of Google Maps (other apps are available, but I’ve yet to find a good one), and if you absolutely need to use Google’s apps in other areas (such as if your work uses G Suite) then there really is no alternative to Google’s software.

Huawei is making investments to try to improve the situation. It says that it’s adding more and more apps to its own AppGallery store, that it’s working with developers to build more apps that use Huawei Mobile Services rather than Google’s Mobile Services, and it’s also got its own first-party apps to compete with Google’s. These include its video chat service, MeeTime, which it announced is coming to European markets, including Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, after launching in China last year. It’s also introducing its own voice assistant called Celia, which it’s clearly hoping can provide a replacement for Google Assistant. Finally, it’s working with TomTom to provide a Google Maps alternative. It’s a good start, but the extent to which these services can truly replace Google’s outside of China is still uncertain. All of this raises the question of how good a phone’s hardware has to be in order to tempt users away from Google’s app ecosystem. Huawei hasn’t forgotten how to make great hardware. Last year’s P30 Pro had one of our favorite smartphone cameras of the year, but it also still came with all of the apps and services that you tend to take for granted on an Android phone. The Huawei P40 Pro series boasts similarly impressive specs, but there are still big questions to be answered about how viable Huawei’s software ecosystem is for users outside of China.

Rahman, M. (2019, September 18). The challenges Huawei faces getting Google apps on the Huawei Mate 30. Retrieved, May 4, 2020, from: https://www.xda-developers.com/huawei-mate-30-google- play-store-challenges/

The challenges Huawei faces getting Google apps on the Huawei Mate 30 omorrow, journalists from around the world will gather at a venue in Munich, Germany to watch Huawei Consumer Business Group CEO Richard Yu announce his company’s latest consumer products. The company is expected to unveil two wearable accessories, a television, and four smartphones. The focus will largely be on the new Huawei Mate 30 series of smartphones, which Google confirmed cannot be sold with Google Play apps and services. Without Google’s suite of apps, the new Huawei phones will have a tough time in Europe, India, and other markets. But Richard Yu hinted at IFA 2019 that the company has a workaround to allow users to install Google apps on the Mate 30, noting that the process will be “quite easy” for users. We’re no stranger to sideloading Google Play apps and services at XDA, but given Huawei’s unique circumstances, we thought it might be worth exploring what options the company has and whether they really can offer a way for users to download Google’s app suite. MADA, GMS, and Android Certification In order for Google Mobile Services (GMS), a collection of Google apps and services such as the Play Store and Play Services, to be pre-installed on an Android device, a device maker must sign a Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA) to become a licensed Android partner. Then, the device maker must build software that meets all the requirements to be considered Android Compatible, including but not limited to following the rules laid out in the Compatibility Definition Document (CDD) and passing the Compatibility Test Suite (CTS). Per Google, “devices using Android as a trademarked name to advertise their compatibility with Android apps need to pass the Compatibility Test Suite (CTS).” Finally, the software must pass the Google Test Suite (GTS) to be considered compatible with Google Mobile Services. We viewed a copy of a “geo-availability chart” provided to device makers that sign a MADA to distribute GMS apps in the 31 countries of the European Economic Area (EEA). This chart is dated from October of 2018, so it likely does not reflect the up-to-date requirements that Google lays out for partners distributing GMS apps in the EEA. However, we can get a decent understanding of what Google apps are required to be distributed in Europe. The “geo-availability chart” differentiates between Google apps based on importance: Regular GMS Apps: The Core apps that MUST ship with regular Android devices. Go GMS Apps: The Core apps that MUST ship with Android (Go Edition) devices. Core Services: GMS software components that MUST ship on all devices. These are used by other Google apps and are not shown to the user in the launcher. Optional GMS Apps: Other GMS apps that the device maker can choose to preload. For the European Economic Area, the following GMS Apps are considered “Regular GMS Apps:” Google App* Google Chrome* Gmail Google Maps YouTube Google Play Store Google Drive Google Play Music Google Play Movies Google Photos *Following the European Commission’s €4.34 billion fine for antitrust violations, requires device makers to sign an additional license to distribute the Google App and Google Chrome for devices sold in the EEA. The “Core Services” includes system apps and libraries such as GMSCore (also known as Google Play Services), Google Services Framework, ConfigUpdater, AndroidPlatformServices, GoogleBackupTransport, Widevine DRM, and more. “Optional GMS Apps” includes Google apps such as Google Calendar, , , Messages, Google Phone, and much more. is an optional GMS app, and partners are allowed to distribute the app if it has launched in the country. For example, at the time this “geo-availability chart” was distributed, Google Pay had not yet launched in France, so Google warned that Pay “MUST NOT” ship in the country or be used in any marketing. Since Huawei cannot sign a new MADA with Google, the Huawei Mate 30, Huawei Mate 30 Pro, and Huawei Mate 30 Lite will not be allowed to ship with the full versions of any GMS apps, including the Core Services. So what can Huawei and users do to work around this restriction?

Sideloading Google Play Apps and Services Even if a device maker does not receive certification from Google to ship GMS apps and components on any given device, it may still be possible for users to manually sideload them. Scenario 1 Understand that Core Services such as the Google Play Store and Google Play Services are very powerful and usually have permissions that cannot be granted to standard user applications. As such, it’s not as simple as just downloading an APK file (the container for an Android application) off of the Internet and then just installing it. These applications must be installed as system applications with privileged permissions. Some device makers, such as Huawei itself, Huawei’s sub-brand Honor, Xiaomi, and others, pre- install what I like to call “stub” versions of the required applications. They also whitelist these applications ahead of time with the required privileged permissions. These “stub” APKs are basically dormant versions that are just waiting to be updated; the trick here is that while you can’t just insert the Google Play Store and Play Services as a system app, you can install an “update” on top of these “stub” APKs to activate them and turn them into their full versions. The user can download the latest, full versions of the Google Play Store, Google Play Services, and other Google apps from third-party platforms such as APKMirror.

The Honor Magic 2, a device made by Huawei sub-brand Honor, is only available in a Chinese market model and hence does not ship with the Google Play Store. As noted in Huawei’s Amazon listing for the device, however, you can sideload Google Play apps without issue. This is because, as shown in the screenshot to the left from an Honor Magic 2 firmware dump, the necessary “Core Services” are pre-installed. Furthermore, as shown in the screenshot to the right, the Core Services apps have been granted the necessary permissions to operate. From what I’ve seen, Huawei, Honor, and Xiaomi do this practice for the phones they sell exclusively in China since their Android licensing agreements require them to pre-install the full Google Play apps and services for phones they sell internationally. I suspect that Huawei, Honor, and Xiaomi do this because they know their China market devices are frequently exported to other countries. Scenario 2 To build upon Scenario 1, a device maker may go so far as to provide a downloader for Google Play apps and services in their own app store. Chinese device maker , for example, takes this approach. The past few days I’ve seen talk about a “Google Service Assistant” application that, upon inspection, seems to use Huawei enterprise APIs to install Google Play apps and services. Users have used this app for devices like the Honor 9X and Honor 9X Pro, which are both currently only sold in China. I do not know if Honor has sanctioned the use of this app, so we reached out to our contacts at Honor to confirm. This app is currently not available on the Huawei AppGallery, for what it’s worth. Scenario 3 If the device maker doesn’t pre-load the “stub” APKs in their software, then the only way the user can get the Google Play Store and Google Play Services up and running is to manually install these apps and grant them their requested privileged permissions. This cannot be done without modifying the software on the device in a process known as “rooting.” Root access grants the user the ability to modify files they normally wouldn’t be allowed to access. Think of it as the “Administrator” account on Windows. With root access, the user can easily install Google Play apps and services using a pre- packaged container made by community members from the Open GApps Project.

OpenGapps provides a nice, highly compressed package of all the GMS apps you need. Shown above is the “pico” package, which only contains the necessary Core Services. “Rooting” your device does not come without its downsides, however. The process of achieving root access is device-specific and may sometimes be too difficult for the average user to perform. Getting root access also requires that the device maker provide a way to “unlock the bootloader,” or disable the boot-level protections required to gain root access, which the device maker may or may not allow. Huawei, for example, disallows this practice. Finally, many device makers void the warranty if the user unlocks the bootloader, though this practice may not hold up in countries with more generous consumer protection laws. Everything we’ve just talked about involves just installing the Google Play Store and Google Play Services. There’s still the step of actually running these apps, and that may not be as simple as tapping the app icon in the launcher.

Google’s Crackdown on Uncertified Devices In March of 2018, Google started showing a “device is not certified by Google” message to some users whose devices did not pass Google certification. The message warns users that the device manufacturer “has preloaded Google apps and services without certification from Google,” and it warns device manufacturers that they “need a license from Google to distribute apps and services.” Until this message is dealt with, you cannot use any Google apps. The only way a user can bypass this message is to manually register their device with Google, but this is intended to be used only by users running a “custom ROM” (after-market software).

Google does not care if individual users in the custom ROM community install Google Play apps and Services, hence why Google has turned a blind eye for so long to the distribution of GApps packages even though they’re well within their rights to shut this down. On the other hand, Google does care if unlicensed manufacturers are distributing their apps, hence why they started showing this warning last year. After we published our article, a representative from Meizu reached out to us, asking if they could republish my workaround tutorial on this matter, so it seems that this warning has already hit many devices sold in China. I don’t know how widespread this warning is as of today, but the last time I personally came across this warning was when I flashed a leaked Android 10 system image on a XL.

If Google does not whitelist Huawei devices from the warning, then users will have to follow the instructions on this page to use Google Play apps and services. If you sideload Google Play apps and services as outlined in Scenario 1 or 2 on Huawei, Honor, and Xiaomi devices currently sold in China, you likely won’t come across this message. The reason is that even though these China market phones have no need to meet Google’s Android certification requirements, these device makers meet the requirements anyway. Abiding by the CDD and passing the CTS is already part of their engineers’ workflow and these companies already follow Google’s requirements for most of their other devices. I have thus sideloaded Google Play apps and services on the Honor Magic 2, Honor Note 8, Honor Note 10, and the Tencent ROG Phone II without any issues. The Honor Magic 2 passes CTS despite the fact that it never launched outside of China and doesn’t ship with GMS apps. Since Huawei sells the phone on Amazon, though, they know importers will want to have access to Google Play apps and services.

The Problem for the Huawei Mate 30 Disclaimer: I am unaware if Huawei has made any kind of agreement with Google, so I’m presenting the following as my own analysis of what might happen. Because the U.S. trade ban restricts Google from licensing Android to Huawei’s new products like the Huawei Mate 30 series, the Huawei Mate 30 cannot ship with Google Mobile Services. Huawei may be able to pre-install the “stub” APKs to facilitate sideloading, but they can’t actually host the full GMS apps on their own app store (the Huawei AppGallery.) As pointed out by Ron Amadeo from ArsTechnica, apps made by U.S. companies are also subject to the U.S. ban, so Google can’t distribute its own apps on the Huawei AppGallery. Huawei may be able to get away with hosting an installer for GMS apps—again, we’ve reached out to Honor see if the “Google Service Assistant” app is officially recommended by them—but I’m not sure that will hold up if the installer is made by Huawei. Even so, sideloading GMS apps on the Huawei Mate 30 and other new devices from Huawei and Honor will likely trigger the “device is not certified by Google” error message to appear. Overcoming this message will be a significant barrier to entry for the average user, and I’m curious to see how Huawei will deal with this. We’ll find out in about 24 hours from now when the Huawei Mate 30 series is officially unveiled in Munich, Germany. You can watch the live stream for the event here, which begins at 2 PM CEST/8 AM EST. I suspect that Huawei won’t make the Mate 30 series immediately available in Europe, and indeed, LetsGoDigital is reporting just that. Still, Huawei may end up surprising us by revealing an agreement they made in secret with Google.

Rahman, M. (2020, March 19). Huawei tests “AppSearch” to help users download popular apps without using the Google Play Store. Retrieved, May 4, 2020, from: https://www.xda- developers.com/huawei-appsearch-download-popular-apps-without-google-play-store/amp/ Huawei tests “AppSearch” to help users download popular apps without using the Google Play Store

Because the U.S. Commerce Department placed Huawei on the Entity List last year, Huawei cannot sign new Mobile Application Distribution Agreements (MADAs) with Google, which prevents Huawei from distributing new mobile devices with Google Mobile Services (GMS). This means that all new Huawei smartphones and tablets, at least ones that aren’t rebranded models of existing, already-certified devices, can’t ship with Google apps on board. This is problematic for Huawei because the vast majority of Android applications are distributed through the Google Play Store, so Huawei has had to beef up the catalog of apps in its own AppGallery app store. However, there are still many popular Android apps that aren’t available on AppGallery, which has forced users to install other app stores like Amazon or or download APK files from hosting sites like APKMirror. In order to make it easier for users to download popular applications without having to download additional app stores or sideload APKs from different websites, Huawei is developing an app called “AppSearch.” The app is currently being tested in Germany, and the APK is publicly accessible on the German website for the Huawei AppGallery. (The website’s name, “zukunftsversprechen,” roughly translates to “promise of the future,” which Huawei has used to market its commitment to its devices following the U.S. trade ban.) The landing page for AppSearch states that the app is intended to help users install their favorite apps on Huawei smartphones equipped with Huawei Mobile Services. Huawei lists Facebook and WhatsApp as examples of applications that can be downloaded by searching in AppSearch, and the description lists the “Mate30 series, P40 series, and Mate Xs” as examples of devices that this app is intended to be used on. XDA Contributor Max Weinbach sideloaded the application on his Huawei Mate 30 Pro to share the following screenshots. As you can see, AppSearch (in German: “AppSuche”) provides an easy way for users to find popular apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram, and much more, all in one place. The app lets you sort the list by popularity, alphabetically, or by categories. You can tap on an app to view a description and where it can be downloaded from. Note that AppSearch doesn’t actually provide direct downloads to any applications. In fact, the disclaimer in the app states that “[AppSearch] assists users to find popular Apps by consolidating multiple downloading sources. All the content accessible through [AppSearch] is provided by third parties. The content is the sole responsibility of the entity that makes it available.”

We find that AppSearch directs users to download apps from the following sources: Amazon App Store APKMirror APKMonk APKPure Huawei AppGallery Official website of the app (if one exists)

Reichert, C., & Keane, S. (2019, May 16). Huawei says Trump’s ban will hurt US 5G deployment. Retrieved, January 5, 2020, from: https://www.cnet.com/news/trump-effectively-bans-huawei-with- national-security-order/ Huawei says Trump's ban will hurt US 5G deployment

An executive order from President Donald Trump that effectively bans Huawei will leave the US

"lagging behind in 5G deployment," the Chinese networking giant reportedly said.

The response, reported by Reuters, came after Trump signed an executive order that declares foreign adversary threats to communications networks, technology and services a national emergency.

Trump's order, called Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply

Chain, puts limits on foreign involvement in the nation's carrier networks. It comes on the heels of rumors that Trump would be banning Huawei this week.

"The executive order prohibits transactions that involve information and communications technology or services designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied by persons owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of a foreign adversary whenever the secretary of commerce determines that a transaction would pose a threat to national security," the Department of Commerce said in a statement.

5G is widely seen as a game-changing technology that's expected to dramatically boost the speed, coverage and responsiveness of wireless networks. It can run between 10 and 100 times faster than a typical cellular connection today.

Huawei, which has repeatedly denied that its products pose a security threat, said restricting it from doing business in the US would force the country to use "inferior yet more expensive alternatives" and ultimately hurt the rollout of the 5G next-generation cellular network in the US and China, according to Reuters.

China intends to take "the necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights of Chinese firms," a commerce ministry spokesperson told reporters. The order follows a 10-count indictment by the US government alleging that Huawei conspired to steal intellectual property from T-Mobile and subsequently obstructed justice, in addition to a separate

13-count indictment against the company and its CFO, Meng Wanzhou.

The Trump administration has also reportedly been leaning on allies to ban Huawei because of the company's alleged ties to the Chinese government.

The Australian government banned Huawei in August.

Next steps for the US government

The Department of Commerce will issue regulations to implement Trump's order within 150 days.

In judging whether a foreign company's involvement is a threat to national security, the secretary of commerce will consult with the attorney general; the secretaries of treasury, state, defense and homeland security; the US trade representative; the director of national intelligence; the administrator of general services; the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission; and the heads of other appropriate agencies.

All of the above will report to the president in a year on whether the order's actions are sufficient and should continue.

Before then, the secretary of commerce is required to submit a report to Congress on the national emergency cited in the order, with the director of national intelligence to produce an assessment within

40 days. The secretary of Homeland Security is also required to prepare a written evaluation of hardware, software, and services vulnerabilities that could threaten US national security within 80 days.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai welcomed the move, pointing to threats from "certain foreign companies' equipment and services."

"Protecting America's communications networks is vital to our national, economic, and personal security," Pai said. "This is a significant step toward securing America's networks."

Reiff, N. (2019, August 9). Why Huawei Is in the Middle of the U.S. China Trade War. Retrieved, June 16, 2020, from: https://www.investopedia.com/why-huawei-is-in-the-middle-of-the-u-s-china- trade-war-4687522 Why Huawei Is in the Middle of the U.S. China Trade War The Chinese telecom giant, Huawei Technologies, until recently was known well only to investors who were familiar with the fast-expanding global telecom equipment and services industry. That's changed dramatically in the past year. Huawei (pronounced "wah-way") today is a centerpiece in the escalating trade dispute between the U.S. and China. The resistance that Huawei is facing in the U.S. is part of a broader battleground in which the Chinese telecom giant is tackling rising opposition from many foreign governments and customers concerned about Huawei's links to the Chinese government. Those concerns are important because of Huawei's reach. Last year, Huawei became the second- largest global seller of smartphones, surpassing Apple, Inc. (AAPL) for the first time, coming in behind number one Samsung Electronics Co. Inc. Below is a look at what Huawei Technologies is and does, followed by the major issues facing the company. Huawei Technologies: An Overview Huawei Technologies is a private company that was founded in 1987 in Shenzhen, located in southern China. The founder and current CEO of Huawei, Ren Zhengfei, was previously an officer in China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), the armed forces of the Communist Party of China. The company got its start by manufacturing phone switches and then expanded in the 1990s when it built a series of telecommunications networks both in China and abroad. Since then, the company has mushroomed in size from a regional player into a "leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices," according to Huawei's website. The company focuses its efforts across four domains: telecommunications networks, IT, smart devices and cloud services. According to the company website, Huawei generated annual revenue equivalent to more than $104 billion in U.S. dollars last year. The company reported "robust" results for the first half of 2019, but journalists pointed out that trade restrictions had a big impact on Q2 sales. Espionage Allegations Huawei has become so big that it now sells millions of smartphones annually, prompting several countries to grow concerned that the company may use its technology to spy on customers. The fact that CEO had been a member of the People's Liberation Army has added to concerns of individuals and governments who already are inclined to mistrust China's political leadership. Huawei has insisted that it has no ties to the Chinese government and that it acts as an independent company. Espionage allegations first surfaced in 2012. A U.S. congressional panel concluded that both Huawei and ZTE Corporation, a rival Chinese telecom company, could pose a security threat. In early 2018, a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing warned about potential national security threats and discouraged American companies from conducting business with Huawei and ZTE. U.S. intelligence agencies have alleged that Huawei equipment could contain "backdoor" applications which would allow the Chinese government to spy on customers internationally. As of this writing, no evidence of these secretive tools has been released publicly, and the company has repeatedly denied these allegations. Since 2012, other countries have also grown suspicious that the Chinese government may be spying on customers through Huawei products. In July of 2018, the U.K. government released a report indicating it had "only limited assurance" that the company's telecommunications equipment would not pose a threat to the country's security. Australia and New Zealand followed by excluding Huawei and ZTE from their 5G networks. US Restrictions On May 15, President Trump issued an executive order banning all U.S. companies from utilizing information and communications technology from any party considered a national security threat. The order also declared a national emergency related to this matter. Although the order did not explicitly mention Huawei, it was largely seen as being focused on the Chinese company. The U.S. Commerce Department also added Huawei and 70 of its affiliates to its existing "Entity List." This blacklist bars anyone on it from purchasing parts and components from U.S. companies unless they have prior government approval. On May 20, the U.S. government eased restrictions on Huawei by granting it a temporary license to "provide service and support, including software updates or patches, to its handsets that were available to the public on or before May 16, 2019." This means Google will be able to provide critical software updates and security patches until the license expires on August 19. In June, the president promised he would allow companies to request special licenses to sell to Huawei and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said he received 50 such requests. However, Bloomberg reported that the government is "holding off on a decision" about licenses because China has halted state-owned firms buying U.S. farm products. The Trump administration has also complied with a defense bill signed in 2018 and banned federal agencies from buying equipment and obtaining services from Huawei and two other companies. Huawei has sued the U.S. government over its ban on Huawei products in federal agencies. Arrest of Huawei CFO Last December, Canadian authorities arrested Huawei's Chief Financial Officer and vice-Chairwoman, who also is the daughter of the company's CEO. Meng Wanzhou was charged with "conspiracy to defraud multiple international institutions" based on allegations that Huawei had violated sanctions against Iran by misrepresenting a Huawei subsidiary as a separate company in order to evade sanctions. Meng was released on bail following her arrest, then formally indicted by U.S. prosecutors in January of 2019 on counts of fraud, obstruction of justice, and misappropriating trade secrets. As of this writing, the extradition process is ongoing, with Canadian, Chinese, and U.S. officials all involved. In response, Meng also has sued Canada over the handling of her arrest. Meng's arrest came at a crucial moment in the evolving trade tensions between the U.S. and China in which both countries have instituted tariffs on various trade goods. U.S. suspicions regarding Huawei predated the current trade dispute, but the legal battle over Huawei's CFO may have aggravated tensions between the nations' two leaders, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Looking Ahead All of this puts the future of Huawei in doubt. But it's very clear that that its future may be determined by the outcome of the trade conflict between the U.S. and China. Huawei for its part launched its own open-source operating system called HarmonyOS on August 9. The Android alternative will be first used on "smart screen products" and over the next three years will appear in other devices. CEO Ren Zhengfei has said that he expects the firm to take a $30 billion revenue hit in 2019 and things to improve by 2021.

Salmon, F. (2009, December 21). The winner-takes-all smartphone. Retrieved, April 6, 2020, from: http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2009/12/21/the-winner-takes-all-smartphone/

The winner-takes-all smartphone Before Apple came along, he says, phones were a bit like PCs, or blenders: a handful of different manufacturers would fight for market shares which had a tendency to mean-revert. But the iPhone has changed all that: because the iPhone is much more about software than hardware, the market-share characteristics in the smartphone space are going to look much more like the kind of markets dominated by Google or Microsoft or Autonomy or Oracle.

Apple’s achievement has been to shift the focus of the high-end handset market from voice to apps and browsing. Any old hardware would do for voice and SMS… now it is how nicely your phone can email, surf the web, and most of all, how rich and easy is the ecosystem of applications, that determines whether people buy your product or not. That’s software; precisely the type of market where monopolies or duopolies emerge.

You can see why Joseph Menn says that the iPhone app store “might prove to be the most important thing Apple has ever created”. It locks people into an Apple-controlled ecosystem, just like the iTunes Music Store did with iPods.

The app store isn’t perfect: the system for getting apps approved is lengthy, capricious, and bereft of accountability. And for all the obstacles which exist before your app is approved, Apple never seems to unapprove an app if the quality of service suddenly falls off a cliff. (It’s a bit like the ratings agencies in this respect: you have to sweat and pay to get a bond rated in the first place, but once the rating exists, it’s rarely revisited.)

But then again, no one ever said that Windows or Office was perfect, either, and both of them retain their cash-cow monopoly status to this day. The iPhone will always have competition, of course. But will it fight for every percentage point of market share, eventually ceding ground to a better product? Or will it end up dominating a new category — what David Pogue calls “app phones” — in much the same way that Google dominates search?

My feeling is that Baruch is right, and the latter outcome is likely to prevail. Consumers are lazy: outside the hard core of gadget geeks, people don’t spend a lot of time worrying about whether they’ve got the best phone on the market: instead, they’ll just buy an iPhone and be done. Assuming, that is, that Apple drops its exclusivity arrangement with AT&T. Because that really can be a dealbreaker.

Sawers, P. (2020, March 3). Gartner: Smartphone sales fell in Q4 2019, with mixed fortunes for Apple and Huawei. Retrieved, June 16, 2020, from: https://venturebeat.com/2020/03/03/gartner-smartphone- sales-fell-in-q4-2019-with-mixed-fortunes-for-apple-and-huawei/

Gartner: Smartphone sales fell in Q4 2019, with mixed fortunes for Apple and Huawei

Total global smartphone sales fell in Q4 2019, though both Apple and Xiaomi recorded small year-on- year (YoY) increases.

New figures from Gartner indicate that consumers bought 406.6 million handsets in the last three months of 2019, compared to 408.5 million in the corresponding period a year earlier. Perennial smartphone leader Samsung sold marginally fewer units YoY, though its market share remained the same at 17.3%, while Apple shifted some 5 million more mobile devices compared to Q4 2018 — its market share increased by 1.3 percentage points, falling just short of Samsung.

Perhaps most notably, Apple’s 7.8% sales increase reversed a trend of four consecutive quarterly declines — the boost can perhaps be attributed to Apple lowering the price of its last flagship, which launched in September.

“A slight lowering of the prices of the iPhone 11 series, compared with the iPhone XR, and other price reductions for previous-generation iPhone models increased demand,” noted Annette Zimmermann, research vice president at Gartner.

Huawei, which remains in third place overall, also saw a small decrease in sales for the fourth quarter.

For context, the U.S. placed Huawei on a trade blacklist last year, meaning the company can no longer use Google’s version of Android, which includes the full suite of Google apps. This restriction will have little impact in Huawei’s domestic Chinese market, where the company uses its own forked version of Android anyway, but it will likely deter international consumers from buying Huawei devices in the long run. We may see Huawei sales drop further as the impact of the trade ban affects future flagship phone sales.

“If Huawei continues to face a ban on accessing technology from the U.S. in 2020, its smartphone prospects in the international smartphone market will be severely impacted,” added Anshul Gupta, senior research analyst at Gartner. Elsewhere, China’s Xiaomi recorded a 5 million unit increase in smartphone sales during Q4, when its market share rose by 1.2 percentage points.

Above: Table 1: Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 4Q19 (Thousands of Units) Image Credit: Gartner

The bigger picture

With Gartner’s Q4 smartphone sales figures now in, we also have a clearer picture of the full calendar year. Samsung, Huawei, and Xiaomi all increased their smartphone sales last year, even though overall smartphone sales dropped by 0.5% between 2018 and 2019. And although Apple ended the year on a high, the bigger picture for 2019 showed iPhone sales falling by more than 15 million.

Above: Table 2: Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 2019 (Thousands of Units) Image Credit: Gartner

Huawei performed best overall (YoY), with sales increasing by around 18% to 48 million, boosting the Chinese company above Apple to second place, with a market share of 15.6% — a full 3 percentage points ahead of its Cupertino counterpart. It is worth pointing to one potential upside of the Google trade ban for Huawei, as earlier reports indicated that the ban spurred a patriotic increase in Huawei’s domestic sales in China. Indeed,

Huawei grew its market share in China by 37% in 2019, according to Gartner.

So 2019 was a mixed bag for both Apple and Huawei. Apple’s year wasn’t particularly great, but it ended well. And while Huawei looked pretty good overall, its year ended on a slightly sour note, with a drop in sales.

2020 is already shaping up to be an interesting year, due to numerous factors. Apple has warned of the impact the coronavirus will have on its Q2 revenue, while new foldables will enter the fray in various shapes and sizes, and 5G will gain a firmer foothold.

“The fierce battle between Samsung and Huawei in the foldable phone market will be interesting to follow this year, as each vendor takes a different approach,” Gupta said.

Scrivens, S. (2020, April 9). Sorry Huawei, the P40 Pro without Google apps is just too broken to live with. Retrieved, May 4, 2020, from: https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/04/09/sorry-huawei-the- p40-pro-without-google-apps-is-just-too-broken-to-live-with/

Sorry Huawei, the P40 Pro without Google apps is just too broken to live with Outstanding hardware and camera performance can’t compensate for a subpar software experience

When Huawei launched the P30 Pro this time last year, we knew it could be the last for some time to ship with a full-fat version of Android. Huawei had been added to the US Entity List as a result of the intensifying trade war with China, and the company's ability to do any kind of business with Google and other US firms had been severely limited. Even so, David called the P30 Pro the “world’s best ” in his review and Huawei's photography credentials have only been strengthened since then — the more recent Mate 30 Pro competed directly with the Pixel 4 and iPhone 11 for the honor of best smartphone camera. The problem with that phone and the freshly released P40 Pro is that neither was allowed to ship with Google Mobile Services (GMS), which means no Play Store, no Google apps, and none of the APIs required to make certain popular apps work properly. Instead, you get Huawei Mobile Services, which isn’t yet able to offer the same backend functionality that many third- party apps currently rely on. EMUI 10.1 may be based on Android 10 — and it’s certainly less objectionable than it once was — but this isn’t Android as most western users know it. This is a huge shame because the hardware on the P40 Pro is second to none. In my opinion, it tops even Samsung’s S20 series in terms of design and build quality, and from the few photos I’ve been able to take while in lockdown, the cameras are clearly among the best, if not the best, around. Huawei’s Kirin 990 5G chip is as good as or better than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865, battery life is excellent, and while there’s a sizeable double punch-hole cutout in the screen, it at least houses secure 3D face unlock sensors. The display, by the way, is a 6.58-inch OLED panel (1200p) with an under- display fingerprint scanner, but it tops out at a refresh rate of 90Hz. It’s also got an IP68 rating, 27W fast wireless charging, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and pretty much everything else a flagship Android phone should have in 2020. Premium hardware means a premium price tag. The P40 Pro that I’ve been testing costs €999, while the P40 Pro+ that’s set to launch later in the year will set you back a whopping €1,399 — that’s more expensive than the Galaxy S20 Ultra, for comparison. If you’re paying that much for a phone, you’d expect an overall experience that’s on a par with other competitors in the price bracket, but that’s sadly not the case, and I’m not sure enough has been made of this in much of the discourse around this phone. The software issues have been passed off as an unfortunate side note in many reviews I’ve seen, but I feel like this is actually a dealbreaker for most western consumers.

Transferring data from your old phone is problematic, to put it mildly. The setup process on the P40 Pro is mostly the same as with any other Android device, but it differs substantially when it comes to moving all of your apps and data from your old phone, in my case a Pixel 4 XL. Without access to Google services, there’s no way of using my Google Drive backup to seamlessly migrate all of my phone’s contents from my Pixel. Unless you’re coming from a Huawei phone and have used the company’s own cloud backup service, you’re going to have to install a new app on your old handset called Phone Clone. Once I’d used a QR code to connect the two devices I could then select what I wanted to export — except Contacts, which unfortunately was greyed out. Of my 154 apps, 120 of them were set to be transferred over. The list of apps not possible to move unsurprisingly consisted mostly of Google apps such as Assistant, Calendar, Chrome, Drive, Gmail, Keep, Messages, Photos, and Youtube, as well as all the Google Play apps, naturally. The only non- Google app one the unsupported list was eBay, presumably because it needs GMS to function correctly (more on that later). No, App Gallery (right), I don't want any of those apps. Except maybe TikTok. Once the transfer was complete, I was pleased to see that the vast majority of promised apps do make their way onto the P40 Pro. There are seven exceptions, however, including Uber, Netflix, and Citymapper, some of my most-used apps, so I head to Huawei’s alternative Play Store in search of them. The App Gallery’s first screen is a list of ‘recommended apps’ with nine unwanted entries pre- checked — this is not the best way to endear your new app store to users. It’s well documented that apps like Uber and Citymapper require Google’s location API to function properly, so even sideloading them won’t work. With Google Maps not officially available, that leaves the P40 Pro without a serviceable European map app right now, and that’s a major drawback for any smartphone. It is possible to sideload Google Maps, but you can't sign in to access your saved places or history, making it much less useful. Huawei has penned a deal with Dutch satnav maker TomTom for use of its map data, but there’s no indication that a fully-fledged navigation app will be ready any time soon.

You can sideload the eBay app, but it won't work without Google Play services. The eBay app that couldn’t be transferred by Phone Clone does show up in a search on the App Gallery, but tapping ‘Get’ only sends you to the eBay site where there’s a banner asking you to install the app. This would usually redirect you to the Play Store, but here it just takes you back the App Gallery which now says the app isn’t available. This type of runaround isn’t exclusive to the eBay app, and it’s really not helpful when users are trying to track down the apps they need to make their phone complete. I was able to download the eBay app bundle from APK Mirror, but it’s a waste of time because it doesn’t actually work. It gives me a message when I try to search that reads “eBay won’t run without Google Play services, which are not supported by your device.” It took a fair amount of time to go through that only for the app to not be compatible, which raises the question: why didn’t the Huawei App Gallery just tell me that the eBay app is not yet available for this phone? This is a terribly convoluted process and would be particularly confusing for less tech-savvy users.

According to App Gallery, Citymapper is a web app. If only it were. Searching for Citymapper in the App Gallery leads me down a different but equally useless path — the ‘Open’ button implies that it’s present on your phone, but tapping that takes you to the app’s website. Here your eyes are directed to the prominent ‘Get the app’ button with the little bugdroid on it, and that takes you to the web version of the Play Store where you can supposedly install Citymapper or ‘Open in the Play Store app,’ and obviously neither these options is possible on the P40 Pro. It’s as though nobody at Huawei has tested these highly likely user journeys, and the outcome is an incredibly confusing and user-hostile experience. Other App Gallery listings can be found with disingenuous ‘Open’ buttons, too, including one for the Instagram web app. Sideloading Citymapper leads to the same error as eBay — it needs Google Play Services to run.

App Search is supposed to fill in the App Gallery's many gaps. To get my apps on the P40 Pro without Phone Clone, I’d end up having to use at least four or five different sources It's plainly obvious why Huawei strongly recommends the use of Phone Clone to get apps onto its phone, but should you decide to start from scratch and install things yourself, as some people are likely to do, it’ll be a daunting task. A Huawei service called AppSearch is supposed to help with that. It’s a separate app already in some regions, but just a website linked to from the new tab page of the Huawei browser in the UK at the moment. This directs users to alternative but safe sources of Android app downloads, such as the official websites of Facebook and WhatsApp, third-party app stores like Amazon’s, or APK hosting platforms like our own sister site, APK Mirror. To get my apps on the P40 Pro without Phone Clone, I’d end up having to use at least four or five different sources — that’s a far cry from the ease of simply using the Play Store for everything. The other key issue is that even once these apps are on your phone, it’s hit and miss whether they’ll function correctly or not. My main banking app, from UK challenger bank Monzo, seems to run okay, but a lot of the more traditional finance apps won’t work as well as they do on Google-equipped phones, if at all. It's possible to sideload plenty of apps, but many are less functional without Play Services. And any app you do sideload won't receive updates as they usually would because there's no Play Store to serve them. If you’re really dedicated to making it work, you can try to do everything through a web browser, but you’ll lose a lot of native app functionality, especially for Google services, so it’s very difficult to argue that as a viable solution. Oh, and if G Suite is something you need to use for work, good luck with that. If you have experience tinkering with Android devices, it’s possible you’ll be able to get Google apps running on the P40 Pro in some form or another, but this shouldn't be a problem you have to solve when paying €1,000 for a smartphone. And even if you do go through the insanely long and convoluted process to get GMS on it, as Android Central's Alex Dobie discovered, plenty of essential services still won't work — including Google Pay —and any app that relies on won't be able to send notifications.

The P40 Pro ends up being useless to me in so many of the situations I usually take for granted. I can't use contactless payments to jump on a bus or buy groceries. I can't navigate to my saved addresses in Google Maps or check out my 'Want to go' list to see which restaurant I want to check out next (not that it matters while we're in lockdown). I can't order takeout via Uber Eats (and that does matter while in we're in lockdown). I can't receive notifications on Twitter when somebody sends me a direct message. I can't cast Netflix to the Chromecast plugged into the back of my TV. I can't automatically back up my camera roll to Google Photos so I can view them from anywhere and free up internal storage. This list of things I can't do would be unacceptable on a budget Android phone from five years ago, so it certainly doesn't cut it on a premium flagship launching in 2020.

What you're left with is one of the best Android camera phones on the market but with a software experience that’s far below what it should be — it’s a supercar with the engine of a compact hatchback. Huawei has no choice but to make the best of a bad situation if it wants to sell phones in Europe, but this current offering is not one I can recommend to anyone. For many prospective buyers with little technical knowledge, setting up and using this phone will be an exercise in frustration, no matter how hard Huawei tries to convince us otherwise. The company is throwing a lot of money at developers to get their software on the App Gallery and is also investing huge amounts to turn HMS into something that can eventually rival GMS. But it’s simply not there yet, so the P40 Pro — just like the Mate 30 Pro before it and every recent Honor flagship — gets added to the list of amazing Android cameras that aren’t much use as phones.

Sohu (2019, May 21). Huawei is banned! Can the Android system continue to be used? Retrieved, May 4, 2020, from: https://www.sohu.com/a/315430162_222118

Huawei is banned! Can Android continue to work? On the 15th of this month, the U.S. government included Huawei in the regulatory "entity list" and barred Huawei from purchasing high-tech products and services in the United States. According to Reuters reports on the 20th, the United States Google has suspended some business cooperation with Huawei, including hardware and software transfers and the provision of technical services. Some other U.S. companies have also begun to stop supplying parts to Huawei.

Seeing this, many domestic pollens may worry that Google has turned its face with Huawei. Will Huawei no longer be able to use the Android system? In fact, you don't need to worry about this issue. The Android system belongs to the Android Open Source Project (AOPS, Android Open Source Project). It is purely open source and can be used by all mobile phones. Therefore, Huawei's use of the Android system is not affected unless the Android system is turned off. It is impossible to say that it does not affect it at all. After Google and Huawei ceased cooperation, Huawei phones will not be able to receive the latest version released by Google as soon as possible. Only after system updates are pushed to the open source community can new systems be further updated. There will also be some delays in updating system security patches. Of course, system updates are not a big deal for Android users. However, in foreign markets, Huawei has been hit hard. Google will no longer authorize Huawei phones to use Google Frame Services (GMS, Google Mobile Services), commonly known as "Google Family Bucket". Few users in China may have heard of Google Framework services, but if you want to play foreign games or applications, Google framework services are essential.

In foreign countries, Google ’s Google Map, YouTube, Gmail, Google Play Store and other hegemonic applications need the support of Google framework to use. Google Play, which is the Android application market, is used by foreigners to download applications. There are basically no third-party platforms. Gmail, Youtube, etc. are all national-level applications. Without them, it is equivalent to iPhones that cannot be installed in China. WeChat is the same as Alipay, not even the app download stores such as Appstore. And if Huawei phones cannot support it, it means that users who use Huawei phones overseas will not be able to use these applications, which also makes many overseas users have to give up Huawei phones and choose other brands. But the good news is that Android phones that have been previously announced by Huawei have not been affected by this.

Sottek, T. (2019, May 19). Google pulls Huawei’s Android license, forcing it to use open source version. Retrieved, June 11, 2020, from: https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/19/18631558/google- huawei-android-suspension Google pulls Huawei’s Android license, forcing it to use open source version Following the US crackdown on Chinese technology companies, Google has cut off Huawei’s Android license, dealing a huge blow to the besieged phonemaker. Reuters first reported the news, and The Verge subsequently confirmed Google’s suspension of business with Huawei with a source familiar with the matter. Reached for comment, a Google spokesperson said only “We are complying with the order and reviewing the implications.” The order, in this case, appears to be the US Commerce Department’s recent decision to place Huawei on the “Entity List,” which as Reuters reports is a list of companies that are unable to buy technology from US companies without government approval. Speaking to Reuters, a Google spokesperson confirmed that “Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices.” So while existing Huawei phones around the world won’t be immediately impacted by the decision, the future of updates for those phones as well as any new phones Huawei would produce remains in question. Huawei is now restricted to using the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), cutting the company off from critical Google apps and services that consumers outside of China expect on Android devices. That also means Huawei will only be able to push security updates for Android once they’re made available in AOSP, assuming the company uses its own update system. It’s not clear yet how this will affect the full range of Android integrations that Huawei depends on, but we will update this story when we receive additional clarification about the impacts of Google’s decision. Huawei has been under increasing pressure from President Trump and the US government over fears that its equipment could be used by the Chinese government to spy on American networks. These fears have been under construction for a long time; In 2018, US intelligence agencies warned against using Huawei and ZTE devices, and US politicians have described Huawei as “effectively an arm of the Chinese government.” Huawei maintains that it is not possible for the Chinese government to poison its equipment with backdoors, and it has remained optimistic about the future of its business. But this latest setback from Google poses a grave risk to the future of Huawei’s core mobile business. The company was already preparing its own operating systems in the event of being banned from using Android and Windows, but given US fears about foreign interference, a home-grown OS is likely to face even more scrutiny than Google’s software. Update, 5/19/19, 5:18 PM: This story has been updated with confirmation of the Reuters story, plus some additional detail about Google’s suspension of business with Huawei. Update, 5/19/19, 10:37 PM: Additional details added regarding Google Play services on existing Huawei phones.

Stewart, E. (2019, August 19). The US government’s battle with Chinese telecom giant Huawei, explained. Retrieved, April 27, 2020, from: https://www.vox.com/technology/2018/12/11/18134440/huawei-executive-order-entity-list-china- trump

The US government’s battle with Chinese telecom giant Huawei, explained

The Trump administration is putting the squeeze on the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, but gradually — it’s adding more of Huawei’s subsidiaries to its trade blacklist, even as it’s delaying a ban on US companies doing business with Huawei. The decisions by the US government are, in part, the result of an escalating trade war between the US and China. But they also tie into longstanding concerns about potential spying by Huawei and other national security threats. In May, President Donald Trump issued an executive order barring US companies from using information and communications technology from anyone considered a national security threat and declared a national emergency on the matter. The move was widely viewed as being aimed at Huawei. The same day, the Commerce Department placed Huawei and 70 of its affiliates on its “Entity List,” which is basically a trade blacklist that bars anyone on it from buying parts and components from US companies without the government’s approval. In reaction, a number of US firms began to back away from their business with Huawei. But the Commerce Department has not brought down the hammer entirely. On Monday, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in an interview with the Fox Business Network that his department would allow for another 90-day reprieve and issue limited exemptions in an effort to minimize disruptions for some ongoing business until November. Namely, the department will allow Huawei to buy US-made goods in order to maintain existing telecommunications networks and provide software updates to its existing mobile phones. “We’re giving them a little more time to wean themselves off,” he said. The new deadline is around November 19. Also on Monday, the Commerce Department added 46 more Huawei affiliates to its “Entity List.” The delay is a bit of a surprise, because the president on Sunday suggested to reporters that it wouldn’t happen. And the US has become increasingly bold in striking out against Huawei. Late last year, Canadian authorities arrested Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer and the daughter of its founder, at the request of the US Justice Department. In January, US federal prosecutors hit Wanzhou and Huawei with 23 indictments for a variety of alleged crimes, including bank and wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the US, and stealing trade secrets. Wanzhou is fighting extradition to the US. To back up, a bit about Huawei: Founded in 1987 and headquartered in Shenzhen, Huawei is one of the biggest technology companies in China — think Google’s name recognition and Verizon’s major role in US telecommunications. It is the second-largest smartphone seller in the world, behind Samsung but ahead of Apple. Beyond consumer electronics, its business segments also include telecommunications networks, smart devices, and cloud services. But Huawei, which brought in more than $100 billion in revenue last year, isn’t your ordinary technology company — at least many officials and experts in the US and around the world don’t think so. For years, congressional committees, the FBI, the National Security Agency, and others have flagged close ties between Huawei and the Chinese Communist Party, and the US even banned the company from bidding on government contracts. At a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in February 2018, top US intelligence chiefs said Huawei and another Chinese tech company, ZTE, posed potential national security risks to the US and warned American companies about doing business with them. “We’re deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don’t share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks that provides the capacity to exert pressure or control over our telecommunications infrastructure,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in his testimony. “It provides the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information, and it provides the capacity to conduct undetected espionage.” In other words, officials are worried that Huawei will help the Chinese government spy on or attack the US. The United States is worried about what Huawei could potentially enable the Chinese government to do Huawei is the “emblem” of a variety of fears about China and its technological prowess packed into a single company, Scott Kennedy, deputy director of the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told me last year. And a lot of concerns about it aren’t necessarily tied to what it has done, but instead what it might do. US political and business leaders have long been anxious about Beijing’s high-tech drives, which are designed to help China surpass the West’s technological prowess — an area in which the United States definitely doesn’t want to be overtaken. Huawei is a research and development powerhouse: In 2018, the company said it would increase annual spending on R&D to $15 billion to $20 billion annually, and it has tens of thousands of patents in China and abroad. That’s played into questions about how much US market access to give Chinese companies amid concerns about intellectual property rights. These worries help animate Trump’s trade war, which, at least for his advisers, the US intelligence community, and the military, is about much more than the trade deficit he often laments. Intelligence officials caution about the national security implications of Chinese technology outpacing the US or being used for nefarious ends. In particular, officials are concerned that companies like Huawei might sell products compromised by “back doors” that allow Chinese government hackers access to data or surveillance. Alternatively, Huawei might turn over the data it has collected to the Chinese government, or the Chinese could somehow weaponize Huawei’s technology. “Since China has become more nationalistic, the possibilities that the US and China might end up in a tangle are higher,” Kennedy said. No one has yet found a back door in a Huawei product, Adam Segal, director of the Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations, noted. There’s been no “smoking gun.” But the risks surrounding Huawei increase with “fifth-generation” technology, or 5G, he explained. Huawei is one of many companies with a stake in the race to deploy the next generation of wireless technology, and is currently one of the major providers of products that enable super-fast 5G networks globally. The US has pressured allies to find alternatives, eyeing a future where ever more aspects of everyday life are connected to these networks, opening them up to surveillance and manipulation. “It’s going to involve so much data passing over the systems, and in particular, the concern would be more the Internet of Things and autonomous cars,” Segal said. The government has been sounding the alarm about Huawei for a while Concerns about Huawei are hardly new. Officials in the US and around the world have been keeping an eye on the company for quite some time. As Bloomberg’s Eli Lake explained, the worries about Huawei have historically stemmed from the fact that the company’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, was a technician for the People’s Liberation Army prior to founding Huawei — not to mention the tens of billions of dollars the Chinese government has invested in the company. Fears have been exacerbated in the wake of China’s passage of its National Intelligence Law and other cybersecurity laws in 2017, which, according to Lake, “compel corporations to assist in offensive intelligence operations” instead of just requiring them to cooperate with law enforcement on national security matters. In 2011, Huawei sent an open letter to the US government denying security concerns and requesting a thorough investigation from American officials, which it said would prove that Huawei is “a normal commercial institution and nothing more.” That’s what prompted the 2012 House Intelligence Committee report on Huawei and ZTE, though it didn’t produce the exoneration the company hoped for. The committee said that Huawei “did not fully cooperate with the investigation and was unwilling to explain its relationship with the Chinese government or Chinese Communist Party.” It concluded that the US “should view with suspicion the continued penetration of the US telecommunications market by Chinese telecommunications companies.” In 2014, the US banned Huawei from bidding on US government contracts, and in August, Trump signed a bill that would bar Huawei and ZTE from use by the US government and contractors. Last year, the Pentagon banned Huawei and ZTE phones from being sold at US military bases. In January 2018, AT&T backed out of a deal with Huawei to sell its smartphones in the US. And in March, the Federal Communications Commission proposed a rule that would stop US companies from using money from its Universal Service Fund on equipment services from China. The FCC’s Universal Service Fund provides subsidies to boost phone, wireless, and broadband services to poor and rural communities. It’s not just the US that is sounding the alarms. Canada and the United Kingdom have expressed concerns about the risks associated with working with Huawei on 5G deployment. Japan banned Huawei and ZTE from official government contracts. This probably isn’t the end of the US-Huawei story The US has a lot of tools in its toolbox to potentially use against Huawei, and its latest moves demonstrate it is not unwilling to use them. But how far this will go is unclear. “The challenge is, there have been boundaries placed around business with Huawei and Chinese industry and high tech, but we’re now in an environment where it’s unclear where those boundaries are, and if they need to be redrawn,” Kennedy said. The Commerce Department’s trade blacklisting of Huawei is similar to its actions on ZTE, which it put a trade ban on in 2016. (Trump intervened last year to strike a deal and lift the ban.) Cutting off Huawei “would certainly have an effect, but not like it did for ZTE,” Segal said, because it’s not as dependent on US suppliers. But the tensions are unlikely to end soon.

Tencent-QQ (2020, March 30). Official confirmation! Huawei no longer needs Google, and finally chose to say goodbye! Retrieved, May 8, 2020, from: https://xw.qq.com/cmsid/20200330A0J1XP00

Formally confirmed! Huawei no longer needs Google, and ultimately chose to say goodbye!

As we all know, after Huawei was added to the “Entity List” by the United States on May 16, 2019, not only Huawei ’s dozens of core suppliers in the United States will be collectively cut off (communication equipment parts suppliers, mobile phone PC parts suppliers, technical support supply) Business, etc.), including the GMS service provided by Google has also been stopped. During the period when Google stopped the GMS service, Huawei was really upset. The overseas mobile phone business suffered a "Waterloo" decline, and this result directly caused Huawei's overseas mobile phone business to lose tens of billions of dollars. Although the mobile phone business is only a side business of Huawei, it will bring greater losses in the future and it is unpredictable.

During this period, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei also repeatedly interviewed by the media and said that even without Google services and applications, Huawei can still become the world's top smartphone brand. At the time, Ren Zhengfei also revealed that he was reluctant to leave Google, and Huawei was still willing to cooperate with Google if possible. Because the United States is the strongest country in the world in terms of innovation, and no country can surpass it (including China) in the next few decades. If the United States continues to restrict cooperation between US companies and Huawei, it will unintentionally help competitors rise . However, the Trump administration in the United States ignored the words of Ren Zhengfei at all, and still suppressed and sanctioned Huawei in its own way and intensified.

In desperation, Huawei can only look for alternative solutions. It is in this context that Huawei has achieved complete localization without using US parts and components, and has also found other solutions to replace US companies. It is worth mentioning that the Hongmeng system has also officially entered the front desk, and the self-built Huawei HMS service has also come out. Technology. As of now, Huawei HMS services have entered more than 170 countries and regions around the world, with more than 600 million users and 400 million monthly active users. More than 1.3 million global developers have joined the Huawei application ecosystem, and more than 55,000 applications have access to HMS Core. And Huawei's HMS service has been updated to HMS Core 4.0, open HMS core services, including 14 HMS Core capabilities, 51 services, 885 API, has basically completely covered Google GMS services. And Huawei APPGralley has become the third largest app store in the world after Google Play and Apple App Store.

Not only that, at the Huawei conference on March 26, the first Huawei P40 series mobile phone equipped with Huawei HMS service and AppGallery store was officially unveiled. Yu Chengdong gave a perfect solution for the overseas market, that is, HMS service and AppGallery store. Yu Chengdong also said that in the past year, Huawei has experienced a very extraordinary year, and 2020 will be a more exciting year, and the most beautiful scenery will come later. From Huawei's first P40 series mobile phone with HMS service and AppGallery store, and Yu Chengdong, it can be confirmed that Huawei no longer needs Google, and finally chose to say goodbye!

In fact, earlier in the interview, Fred Wangfei, a Huawei executive in Austria, said that even if the United States lifts the so-called Huawei ban in the future, Huawei will not use Google's related services. This has foretold that Huawei can no longer rely too much on American technology and must stick to the path of independent research and development. Only in this way can it prevent starvation after the United States suddenly cuts off your food. But it is not the original intention for Google to cut off Huawei ’s GMS service. It ’s just that the United States Trump ’s coercive measures, Google, is also the same. After all, the cutoff of Huawei ’s GMS service is all harmful to Google, and Google has never wanted to face it. The Lampe government applied for a "summary" with Huawei.

If you can win an opportunity to Google Bailey without harm, it is not too late to make up for it. Huawei surpasses 200 million mobile phones each year, and the Google GMS service brings huge advertising revenue. Unfortunately, there is no definite news so far. No matter what Trump means, Google's wishes! Huawei has decided to face the year of survival in the United States in 2020, the focus is to firmly build the HMS and Hongmeng ecology, rebuild the track, restart the Long March, take survival as the bottom line, and give priority to solving overseas ecological problems. It is not required to restore the commercial benefits of HMS and Hongmeng Ecosystem in the short term, but only to build a foundation that can be realized after a few years, and achieve a win-win situation with the self-developed chip + Hongmeng and HMS service ecological layout.

This undoubtedly confirms what Ren Zhengfei once said, even without Google's Huawei mobile phones can still survive very well, and all mobile phones of Huawei will also be equipped with Hongmeng system in the future. Judging from the current Huawei's planning and development situation, Ren Zhengfei is not just talking, but he has not deceived people. Facts have proved that only independent research and development is the right path for many domestic manufacturers to take. Discussion in this issue: Huawei phones without Google GMS service, will you still choose to buy them?

Varas, A., & Varadarajan, R. (2020, March 9). How Restricting Trade with China Could End US Semiconductor Leadership. Retrieved, May 11, 2020, from: https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/restricting-trade-with-china-could-end-united-states- semiconductor-leadership.aspx

How Restricting Trade with China Could End US Semiconductor Leadership

A strong semiconductor industry is critical to US global economic competitiveness and national security in an era of digital transformation and artificial intelligence. The US has long been the semiconductor leader, with a 45% to 50% market share. US leadership is grounded in a virtuous innovation cycle that relies on access to global markets to achieve the scale needed to fund very large R&D investments that consistently advance US technology ahead of global competitors.

Frictions between the US and China are already generating significant headwinds for US semiconductor companies.

Frictions between the US and China, whose device makers accounted for around 23% of global semiconductor demand in 2018, have generated significant headwinds for US semiconductor companies. Since the start of the bilateral trade war, the median year-on-year revenue growth of the top 25 US semiconductor companies has plummeted from 10% in the four quarters immediately prior to the implementation of the first rounds of tariffs in July 2018, to approximately 1% in late 2018. And in each of the three quarters after the US restricted sales of certain technology products to Huawei in May 2019, the top US semiconductor companies have reported a median revenue decline of between 4% and 9%. Many of these companies have cited the trade conflict with China as a significant factor in their performance. Although the “phase one” trade agreement signed by the US and China in January 2020 contains provisions related to China’s protection of intellectual property and its technology transfer practices, it does not address the issue of China’s direct state support for its domestic semiconductor industry. Meanwhile, restrictions on exports of US-based technology products to Huawei and other Chinese entities associated with US national security concerns remain in place.

A further increase in bilateral tensions could amplify the negative impact on US semiconductor companies. In a new Boston Consulting Group report, we evaluated how these ongoing frictions may affect the US semiconductor industry under two scenarios. The first scenario assumes that controls on exports of US technology to the Chinese companies that are currently subject to US restrictions will remain in place, perpetuating the status quo. The second scenario considers a further escalation that results in a complete halt in bilateral technology trade, effectively decoupling the US and Chinese technology industries. ABOUT THIS REPORT

Either a continuation of the status quo or a complete decoupling of US and Chinese tech industries could have profound negative repercussions for the US semiconductor industry, well beyond the expected impact of the “Made in China 2025” policy. Our analysis of the demand and supply structure across more than 30 semiconductor product lines shows that either of these scenarios could have profound negative repercussions for the US semiconductor industry, well beyond the expected impact of the “Made in China 2025” policy. Today, China’s semiconductor industry (not including the manufacturing fabs built by foreign semiconductor companies in China) covers only 14% of its domestic demand. We estimate that the Made in China 2025 plan could increase China’s semiconductor self-sufficiency to about 25% to 40% by 2025, reducing the US’s semiconductor share globally by 2 to 5 percentage points. Broad unilateral restrictions on Chinese access to US technology would significantly deepen and accelerate US companies’ share erosion. (See the exhibit.) Several projected consequences of the two scenarios are especially noteworthy:

• Over the next three to five years, US semiconductor companies could lose 8 percentage points of global share and 16% of their revenues if the US maintains the restrictions that are already in force on access to products containing US technology by Chinese companies included on the current Entity List. (The Entity List specifies which organizations are subject to such restrictions.)

• US companies could lose 18 percentage points of global share and 37% of their revenues over the same period if the US completely bans semiconductor companies from selling to Chinese customers, effectively causing a technology decoupling from China.

• These drops in revenue would inevitably lead US semiconductor companies to make severe cuts in R&D and capital expenditures, resulting in the loss of 15,000 to 40,000 highly skilled direct jobs in the US semiconductor industry.

As a result, in a scenario in which escalating tensions lead to further restrictions on US semiconductor sales to Chinese customers, South Korea would likely overtake the US as world semiconductor leader in a few years; China could attain leadership in the long term. As experience in communications network equipment and other tech sectors has shown, once the US loses its global leadership position, the industry’s virtuous innovation cycle reverses direction, throwing US companies into a downward spiral of rapidly declining competitiveness and shrinking market share and margins. Lower R&D investment would inhibit the US semiconductor industry’s ability to deliver the breakthroughs that US technology and defense sectors rely on to maintain global leadership; ultimately, it could force them to depend on foreign semiconductor suppliers.

Once the US loses its global leadership position, the industry’s virtuous innovation cycle reverses

direction, throwing US companies into a downward spiral.

In order to avoid these negative outcomes, policymakers must devise solutions that simultaneously address US national security concerns and preserve global market access for US semiconductor companies. These dual objectives are fundamental to maintaining the proven innovation model that will allow the industry to continue to deliver technology breakthroughs that are crucial for US economic competitiveness and national security, and enable advances in electronic devices and digital services that benefit enterprises and consumers in the US and around the world.

Vonau, M. (2020, January 30). Huawei says it won't return to Google services even if trade ban lifts (Update: Statement). Retrieved, May 4, 2020, from: https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/01/30/huawei-says-it-wont-return-to-google-services-even-if- trade-ban-lifts/

Huawei says it won't return to Google services even if trade ban lifts (Update: Statement)

Huawei got caught in the middle of the US/China trade war and has been cut off from Google's apps and services for more than half a year now. That forced the company to quickly create a Google-less Android variant to ensure phones like the Mate 30 Pro could ship. Even though it looks like the US and China are coming to terms with each other and Huawei's ban might be lifted soon, the manufacturer has told Austrian newspaper Der Standard that it still won't return to Google's services. Huawei's Austrian country manager Fred Wangfei says the company wants to get rid of its dependence on US politics, as no one could tell if there would be another blockade following the current one. That's why the manufacturer's stated goal is the creation of a third smartphone ecosystem next to Android and iOS. In both the long and short term, Huawei wants its version of Android to stay as close as possible to Google's to burden app developers with little to no additional work. That's why it's currently hard- pressed to properly recreate Google Play Services functionality, which offers APIs that allow apps to receive push notifications and location services. Huawei tells Standard that it already replicates the most essential 24 out of 60 individual APIs through its Huawei Mobile Services alternative thanks to a team of 4,000 developers. The company would also be happy to welcome US apps like Facebook and WhatsApp in its Play Store alternative App Gallery. Since US companies currently aren't allowed to trade with Huawei, the manufacturer wants to found a proxy-corporation in Europe that those businesses could work with. Despite its positive outlook on the future, Huawei knows that becoming independent will be a hard feat. It expects that the lack of Google apps will lower its market share initially. Its three-billion-dollar investments in Huawei Mobile Services and additional one-billion-dollar expenses for international ad campaigns promoting its Google-less future probably won't help the company stay in the black, either.

Huawei's statement Following this news, Huawei has provided us with the following statement: An open Android ecosystem is still our first choice, but if we are not able to continue to use it, we have the ability to develop our own. In content, this response from the company doesn't deny the original statements it made regarding excluding Google apps and services from future devices. We frankly read this as confirmation, otherwise the company would have offered some sort of retraction — though perhaps it could change its mind in the future if a decision like this puts a bigger dent on its recent successes. Either way, it's basically a non-statement.

Vonau, M. (2020b, March 6). Huawei's giving developers a big incentive to join its app store. Retrieved, May 11, 2020, from: https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/03/06/huawei-developers- incentive-join-app-store/

Huawei's giving developers a big incentive to join its app store Some developers can receive 100% of the revenue they generate on Huawei's AppGallery for a limited time Ever since Huawei saw itself caught amid the US-China trade quarrel, it has been scrambling to find a replacement for Google's ecosystem of apps. While its HMS Core is already doing a decent job as an alternative to the Google Play Services, the same can't be said about the company's AppGallery. It's missing many vital apps owners outside of China expect to have on their Android phones. To help grow this store, the company wants to incentivize developers with preferential revenue sharing for 24 months after they join the platform. A dive into the AppGallery Joint Operations Service Agreement shows that Huawei differentiates between three categories for its incentive system: education, gaming, and others. Education apps will receive a standard 80% of the revenue they generate on Huawei's distribution platform, while the other two categories get 70%. The differences become more defined right after a developer joins the platform: Education and other apps will receive 100% of revenue between the first and twelfth month. After that, education applications still get 90% while other apps collect 85% for another twelve months. Games are entitled to 85% during the full 24 first months. There's a catch, though: GizmoChina reports that this preferential sharing agreement will only come into effect for developers who sign up before June 30, 2020. Standard Preferential Revenue Share Percentage（ Revenue Share ） Developer Huawei:Developer Percentage Apps Categories (Huawei: The 1st month to the The 13th month to the 24th Developer） 12th month month

Education 20%:80% 0%:100% 10%:90%

Gaming 30%:70% 15%:85% 15%:85%

Media and Entertainment, Tools, Communication, Books and References, Photography, Food and Drink, Travel and Navigation, Travel and 30%:70% 0%:100% 15%:85% Accommodation, Shopping, Business, Kids, Finance, Sports and Health, Lifestyle and Convenience, Cars, and Personalized Themes. The move could certainly entice smaller dev studios that offer paid apps or rely on in-app purchases to make the switch, but the question remains if it'll also pull in all the big players. We almost certainly won't see Google apps in the Huawei store, but Microsoft, Amazon, Snapchat, Reddit, and many popular European developers have already joined it. The list of prominent absentees includes Facebook, Twitter, and Spotify. Google, in comparison, only offers a blanket 70:30 revenue sharing option for paid apps and in-app purchases, though it relaxed this rule for subscriptions — for these, developers permanently get 85%. In an ideal world, Huawei's push for more developer revenue might also make Google reconsider its 30% Play Store tax, but that's unlikely — after all, most apps on the AppGallery will go back to the same 70:30 revenue sharing system that Google (and Apple) established. Wu, W. (2020, April 26). Huawei boss Ren Zhengfei says company has no plans to cut ties with US suppliers. Retrieved, May 11, 2020, from: https://www.scmp.com/print/news/china/diplomacy/article/3081613/huawei-boss-ren-zhengfei-says- company-has-no-plans-cut-ties-us

Huawei boss Ren Zhengfei says company has no plans to cut ties with US suppliers Chinese tech firm bought US$18.7 billion worth of parts from ‘our good friend’ the US last year, CEO and founder says China has to be realistic about its ability to move up the industrial supply chain and ‘can’t have too many illusions’, he says.

Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies, which has been at the centre of the technology war between China and the United States, will continue to use American components in its smartphones despite having other options, its founder said.

In an interview with Dragon magazine, published by the Gansu Academy of Social Sciences, Ren Zhengfei, who is also chief executive of the world’s largest telecoms equipment supplier, said also that China should take a sober view of the challenges it faces in trying to change global industrial chains. “We procured US$18.7 billion worth of parts from the US last year, a big increase from US$11 billion in the past. We are not thinking of replacing US components,” he said. “The US will always be our good friend.” Ren’s comments came despite the company being put on the US commerce department’s entity list, which means American firms can only sell to Huawei if they have been granted permission to do so by the government.

Richard Yu Chengdong, chief executive of the firm’s consumer business group, said on April 9 that Huawei had the option not to use US components in its smartphones but wanted to maintain good relationships with its American suppliers. After being placed on the entity list in May last year, Huawei raced to develop or procure components that did not use American technology. Three months later it launched HarmonyOS, a new operating system designed to run on all its devices, including smartphones, though it said at the time it preferred to continue using Google’s Android system. “It would be OK if we didn’t use US components, but what happens if consumers don’t buy our products,” Ren said. “The operating systems of Android and Apple have enjoyed massive sales in the world as consumers have become accustomed to them.” HarmonyOS was not developed to be a competitor to US alternatives but rather as a solution to being put on the entity list, Ren said. “Huawei is a latecomer, so it would be very difficult to surpass the operating systems of Android and Apple. It might take a long period of time, but no more than 300 years,” he joked. Huawei had “very friendly” relationships with Google and Apple, and their development of 5G smartphones was helpful, Ren said.

With the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic to global supply chains, as well as talk about the US and China decoupling economically as a result of their near two-year-long trade war, Ren said it would be impossible for any country to become totally self-sufficient. The cost alone would be prohibitive, he said, adding that China should optimise its business environment to maintain the attractiveness of its market while improving its industrial competitiveness. “It would be a mistake for countries to move industrial chains back home, as the world economy is set up to develop through globalisation. Competitiveness evolves as part of globalisation,” he said. “The massive middle- and low-end manufacturing sectors in China have been transferred to countries like Thailand and Vietnam, while the US’s hi-tech industry surpasses China’s. “Chinese manufacturing is in the middle layer of the global industrial chain, and it is set to face difficulty [moving up], so we can’t have too many illusions,” he said. The global health crisis had had a major impact on the production, sale and delivery of Huawei products, Ren said. In an interview last month, he said Huawei would increase its research and development budget for 2020 by 33 per cent from last year to more than US$20 billion. The company launched its new P40 range of smartphones last month.

XDA (2019, September 22). AppGallery is Huawei’s alternative to Google’s Play Store on Android. Retrieved, June 16, 2020, from: https://www.xda-developers.com/appgallery-huawei-alternative- google-play-store-android/

AppGallery is Huawei’s alternative to Google’s Play Store on Android Huawei has been in the spotlight in recent months, for reasons that have frankly been out of its control. The trade restrictions that the USA has put on Huawei and its business partners such as Google has deeply impacted all involved stakeholders. Google had been forced to revoke Huawei’s Android license for future smartphones, which meant that the Chinese OEM will be unable to install the Google Play Store, Google Play Services or any other Google app on its new smartphones. The same statements had resurfaced in relation to the upcoming Huawei Mate 30 series, wherein a Google spokesperson had been attributed saying that the Huawei Mate 30 cannot be sold with the licensed version of Android or Google apps and services. With the launch of the Huawei Mate 30 series, the statements have turned out to be true, as the phones have been launched without Google apps and services.

Because of the open-source nature of AOSP, Huawei is not completely debarred from using Android on its smartphone, though an argument can also be made to that end. Huawei has stressed that Android still remains its first choice, and its recently released HarmonyOS has always been pitched as a “Plan B” for its smartphones. During the Huawei Developer Conference 2019, the company had also mentioned that they will “lay the foundations for Harmony OS in the Chinese market” first before expanding it to the global market — which means that we are still some time, and some options, away from seeing HarmonyOS on a commercially sold smartphone outside of China. For now, Huawei is likely to use a Google-less Android with EMUI on its smartphones rather than Huawei releasing an Android-less smartphone.

But with the Google Play Store no longer an option, Huawei faces the same challenge it does on a Google-less Android as it does on HarmonyOS: how exactly do you deliver third party apps to end- users in a reliable yet convenient manner? The answer to this question rests with AppGallery, an app that Huawei had the foresight to develop for EMUI for quite a few years now.

Huawei AppGallery

AppGallery was officially launched in China way back in 2011 before any of these political situations came into the picture. AppGallery was, and is, essentially an application distribution platform, or an app store as these services are more commonly referred to. In China, recognizing the different needs and expectations of the market, AppGallery performed and continues to perform functions beyond what we outside of China expect out of an app store. For instance, Chinese AppGallery integrates features related to forum-based social networking spaces for specific games which can serve as a resource for users. Functions like these served the target audience very well, and continue to be present in the solution for that region. AppGallery also flourished in China without the presence of Google and its Play APIs, but that has been an inarguably unique situation.

With the launch of the series in the first half of 2018, Huawei introduced AppGallery to the world outside of China. Huawei’s app store came pre-installed on the Huawei P20 and the Huawei P20 Pro, but it was later on rolled out to other existing smartphones within Huawei and Honor’s lineup. While the content on the app store at launch was primarily targeting users in Asian markets with featured apps like Amap and WeChat, AppGallery can now be considered as a global store with a coverage spread of over 170 countries. Over the months and years, AppGallery evolved to include complete billing capabilities, in addition to allowing in-app monetization, subscriptions, and ad-based monetization solutions for developers. The evolution story for AppGallery finds similarity with that of the Huawei Consumer Business Group — at the very beginning, Huawei focused its efforts on early budget phone segments. But over the years, the company did go on to occupy top spots in segments like SoC, camera, hardware, and design. With the impending launch of new Huawei phones, we explore the current state of AppGallery with regards to its merits towards developers and consumers, as this could very well shape up to be the future of the App Store on Huawei and Honor devices running on Android.

For Developers

AppGallery is of particular interest to app developers because of the impending fragmentation within the Android ecosystem as a repercussion to the trade war and resultant political decisions. In an ideal world, a second app store would be redundant in many ways if the primary app store performed its job well. But in our current situation, the lack of the Google Play Store on Huawei and Honor devices means that AppGallery no longer watches from the sidelines, but instead, plays an active role as the primary means to distribute apps on these devices moving forward.

The app also comes preloaded on existing Huawei and Honor devices that also bundle in the Google Play Store, so the presence of your app on this medium presents an additional surface for discovery for end users. As a developer, you do want to reach out to as many users as possible for your app with as little effort. While getting on to AppGallery does take effort, even if just a little, we still need to keep in mind that this might be the only way to reach future Huawei and Honor devices. Plus AppGallery is based on Android so developers will find themselves using a different (but still familiar) SDK. If your app doesn’t reach users, something else will take its place, and that is a situation that established apps would like to avoid as much as possible. Shipment figures from Huawei indicate that the company has shipped as many as 400 million smartphones over the last 2 years — these EMUI/Magic UI based phones still have unhindered access to Android. This means that you still have an existing userbase to tap into, even if you roll with the (rather insane) presumption that no one will buy any more Huawei or Honor devices.

There is also a case to be made for the presumption that Huawei’s ban is lifted in the future and the company is allowed to preload the Google Play Store again, and all status quo is restored. Huawei and Honor devices running Android through EMUI or Magic UI will likely continue to come with AppGallery preloaded alongside the Play Store. In such a case, developers could decide at that stage whether they need to continue maintaining their app on this store, depending on how their app performs. Keep in mind that AppGallery also provides an opportunity for developers to publish their apps in China, something that the Play Store currently misses out on. This decision would thus vary from app to app, and from developer to developer because of its intrinsic commercial nature — it just might turn out to be financially viable and even profitable for certain developers to maintain their app across both distribution channels, especially if your app does not make use of a lot of Google Play APIs. For game developers, especially those who rely on , the quantum of work to maintain both Google Play and Huawei AppGallery versions would be even lower.

AppGallery also comes with some of its own selling points. By mid-2019, Huawei claims that it has had over 370 million monthly average users, with a growth of 195% year-on-year, and over 350 billion cumulative app downloads up from 180 billion in July 2018. Unfortunately, we do not have the means to verify such claims; nor does Google release similar statistics for the Play Store for us to compare. Nonetheless, past, present and future Huawei and Honor devices are a significant chunk of smartphones to target, if you so decide.

Huawei also claims that they are using a “global SDK” for services like billing and monetization, which essentially facilitates developers in western regions to launch their apps in China without needing further country-specific development. This is a two-way street, so developers in China can also target users in other western regions with relative ease. There are also claims of Huawei attempting to be more (app) developer-friendly, with support teams being present to aid developers through the publishing process. At least for Huawei, it is in the best interest of the Chinese giant to attract more and more developers, unlike Google and its established Play Store, so there just might be enough substance behind these claims. Huawei is also attempting to follow a contextual discovery model for content discovery on the store, instead of a “Top Grossing” model where the pole positions enjoy a positive feedback loop for discovery. So if you do not know exactly which app you need, Huawei’s AppGallery may just present a solution that is superior to the one presented by the Google Play Store.

For Users

As previously stated, AppGallery might just be the only way an average user could reliably and easily install third-party apps on future Huawei and Honor devices, with “official” backing. There won’t be much choice at play in this situation, which is an unfortunate consequence of the mess the smartphone world is in because of political decisions. While one would obviously prefer having the established Google Play Store as the primary option, Huawei AppGallery isn’t that bad of a choice in this particular situation and has been in development for years, prior to the current political situation.

Huawei AppGallery is a first-party solution for Huawei and Honor devices, so users need not worry about compatibility issues with the Store itself. All the content is claimed to be curated, and everything goes through a thorough review before it is launched in order to guarantee the safety of the app for its users. This curation activity also aims to remove the duplicate, low-quality clones that tend to clog search results, which thereby helps users by giving out better content and also protects the intellectual property of the developers. AppGallery also claims to be family-friendly, and Huawei is also working on a better “kid-friendly” section within the store for more kid-centric content. AppGallery also features feature localizations that are unique to the local region, based upon the needs and expectations of that particular region.

AppGallery also has elements that reward users in various ways — a gift section within the store features free in-game rewards like coins and unlocked exclusive content like Fortnite skins; a “Play and Win” section which rewards user loyalty for the store with Huawei smartphones as rewards. There will also be a “Lucky Draw” section which will allow users to earn prizes by downloading and trying new apps. All of these “features” are designed to keep users engaged and satisfied with the store in a way that they would prefer it over a competing solution. The intention is pretty clear here — AppGallery wants to be your top choice, and it is willing to make efforts towards that end.

What I disliked about AppGallery is the fact that at the very start, the app presents users with a list of apps that they are recommended to install on their device. This list is reminiscent of the list that I have seen on Xiaomi’s MIUI in the past, a list that most users just mindlessly tap through and then subsequently end up with a host of unnecessary apps. The Home button is on the left, and the Install button is highlighted and on the right, indicating that this is where users should tap to proceed. In Huawei’s defense, this screen appears only once to the user and never again, and only half of the displayed apps are pre-selected, and those pre-selected can be deselected with ease. The list appears to be showcasing popular apps in that region, which should theoretically work for the benefit of less tech-savvy users who would otherwise not be comfortable with (or even capable of) exploring curated lists and hunting for apps.

Concluding Note

Huawei’s AppGallery is the direction that the Chinese company will adopt for the future. We still expect Huawei to deliver some exceptional hardware in the form of the Mate 30 series and other future devices within Honor as well. It remains to be seen how much of an impact not shipping Google’s Android will have on Huawei. Will users find the hardware appealing by itself to overlook the lack of Google support? If they do, AppGallery is ready and in position to deliver on their app content needs. The store still has a long way to go — like for instance, delivering more diversified content than just apps and games, and making it easier to find paid content — but it needs to start from somewhere for the Western market, and where it is right now is a good position, even if not the most ideal. AppGallery in China already sees such diversification with other content like quick apps, eBooks, online courses and more — we hope to see similar efforts and results for the Western market too in the near future. For now, it would be a mistake to write off AppGallery without giving it a fair chance.

Developers interested in signing up for Huawei AppGallery can do so by following the instructions in this instructional video, or by following this link.

Xiaobo, W. (2019, May 21). After the US ban, Google will make up for the knife again. Is Huawei "ready"? Retrieved, May 4, 2020, from: https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1634098456490903753&wfr=spider&for=pc

After the US ban, Google will make up for the knife again, Huawei is "prepared"? The United States lacks "heart" and China lacks "core".

After the US Department of Commerce ban, Google shot first. The latest news is that according to Reuters, Google has stopped all business with Huawei except open source. The report also pointed out that Huawei will not be able to obtain the latest Android version of the operating system, and Google will no longer provide any technical support to Huawei. Huawei will not be able to install Google apps on phones targeted at overseas markets. Yesterday, Google responded: comply with the order, review the impact, the Chinese market services are not affected. Android response: Existing Huawei devices can still use services such as Google Play.

Since then, Huawei has responded: Huawei has the ability to continue to develop and use the Android ecosystem, and its products and services will not be affected in the Chinese market. At a regular press conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday, spokesman Lu Kang said: "We will continue to pay close attention to developments and support Chinese companies to take up legal weapons to defend their legitimate rights. Before that, Huawei had already faced tremendous pressure. On May 15, the U.S. Department of Commerce stated that it would include Chinese company Huawei and its 70 affiliates in a controlled "entity list." At more than 2 a.m. on May 17th, He Tingbo, President of Huawei Hisilicon, released a "letter to employees". The letter wrote: Huawei has made the assumption of extreme survival many years ago. Chips and technology will not be available, and Huawei will continue to serve customers. He Tingbo said that Hisilicon will launch a "spare tire" plan to fulfill Huawei's commitment to continuous customer service to ensure the strategic safety of most of the company's products and the continuous supply of most of its products. At this point, "spare tires" for many years, "normalized" overnight! So, what impact will Google "break supply" on Huawei? What problems does Huawei's spare tire system encounter? Faced with such a situation, what should Huawei do? Let's take a look at the big head analysis.

The reason why the United States dares to be so mad is that although China is already the world's largest information and communication power and mobile communication power, the lack of "heart" (chip) and "soul" (operating system) in the field of information communication has not been fundamentally improved. . Google's suspension of Huawei-related businesses and services will have an impact on Huawei's continued production and sale of mobile phones for use overseas, and how much impact has yet to be assessed. However, Huawei's self-developed mobile operating system "Hongmeng" is on the line, and I believe that in the future, we will try our best to minimize this adverse impact. Of course, the operating system is ecologically linked. Can Huawei ’s self-developed mobile operating system "Hongmeng" seamlessly connect with Android overseas, connect with all Android applications and update in real time, and allow users to try it seamlessly? The real test of Huawei and China's strength. At present, it is very important that all spare tires of Hisilicon become normal, which is the best opportunity to test the strength of Hisilicon chips. The difficulties are of course, such as chip performance, reliability, compatibility with existing software, and chips designed and developed based on the existing ARM architecture. The security of foundry production, what to do after the future upgrade of the ARM architecture ,and many more. But the method is more difficult than that. After all, China has such a large market and the most complete ICT industry chain. As long as we are united and support Huawei at the 2B or 2C level, we will definitely be able to survive the dark moments. There is a bright future. This incident reminds us once again of the importance of autonomy and control. In the coming era of the Internet of Everything, all connected nodes are inseparable from the chip. At the same time, except for a few special application cases, almost all nodes are inseparable from the operating system. Therefore, it is more important to develop independent chips and operating systems in the 5G era. And urgent. It is too early to assert that in the 5G era, we can completely get rid of the lack of "heart" and "soul". However, whether it is Huawei's plan or other self-controllable national forces' self-improvement, it will undoubtedly strive for us in the 5G era. To the right to speak. China has announced the commercialization of 5G in 2020. In fact, the industry is more positive about 5G. 5G chips, 5G networks, domestic smart terminal operating systems, we are becoming more and more powerful. China's lack of "heart" and "soul" counterattacks is beginning with Huawei.

The news that Google has suspended some of its business with Huawei has greatly affected foreign Huawei mobile phone users. After all, Google Mobile Services (GMS) is a series of applications and services provided by Google, including Gmail, Chrome, Google Maps, etc., which are not open source, and are subject to Google testing to obtain authorization. Many Android phone functions abroad need to call these underlying services. If the service is cut off, many applications will be unavailable on Huawei phones, and not just the Google App Store, Gmail email service, and YouTube video application. Wait for Google products. Obviously, in the foreign market, how to deal with Google's supply cuts is Huawei's top priority. In this regard, the media widely quoted Yu Chengdong, head of Huawei Consumer BG, on social media a few days ago: "In addition to its own chip, (Huawei) also has the core capabilities of the operating system." This reference has a metaphorical color. In addition to the spare tire in the chip field, Huawei also has a spare tire for the operating system-starting from 2012, it planned its own operating system "Hongmeng". But Hongmeng and Hisense are very different. All the essentials of Hisilicon's "spare tires" are technical, that is, to achieve comparable performance in technology, Huawei phones can have "core" protection. Hongmeng's "spare tire" is set with both technical and ecological attributes. In addition to technically replacing Android, it also needs to be able to quickly complete the absorption or compatibility of a large number of mobile applications. Obviously, the ecological meaning of the latter is by no means a task that can be achieved in a short time.

In this regard, Huawei has also been transmitting a message internally: the self-developed system is a backup plan under extreme circumstances, and will not be used unless necessary. The current situation is quite grim, but it is clearly not inevitable. According to statistics, Huawei's overseas mobile phone shipments now account for more than half of the total shipments; meanwhile, Huawei's shipments in 2018 were 206 million units, accounting for 14.8% of global shipments. In other words, if Google cuts its supply, Huawei's existing overseas market share will encounter a huge setback. This is not something that can be solved by starting an operating system from scratch. If a spare tire is started, the application ecology involved is too complicated and requires long-term digestion. In the short term, what can really make Huawei break through the barriers is still the domestic market that accounts for half of its shipments. After all, its impact is minimal. Deeply tapping the potential of the domestic market, and marketing to some countries and regions where Google ’s ecological coverage is not strong, will allow Huawei to build a "strategic buffer zone" and win some time.

Next, Huawei may have three breakthrough directions: 1. Using the self-developed system and the domestic mobile phone manufacturers under the same pressure as Huawei to work with the ecosystem to gradually build an ecosystem different from Google, the most difficult, but the best solution to the problem. 2. Wait for the wind direction to change, restart the cooperation with Google, the most variable, but the most trouble-free. 3. Through China's smart phone market and the increasingly complete and relatively independent Android ecosystem, stepping out of the cage of calling Google services through radiation and market penetration, its synergy requirements are high and its success is difficult. However, Huawei has been building on the related soft ecology, and the various layouts that more smart phone ecological chain companies in China have been pursuing, may form a more independent operating system ecological chain, although it is still based on Android. Perhaps, in a global collaborative market, no company, including Google, can really withstand the various hidden dangers caused by a lapse in supply. The suppliers who are under pressure from Huawei should also be under pressure. Therefore, cooperation will still be reopened, but it will take a while, not too long.

The news of Google suspending some of its business with Huawei will have some impact on Huawei's business, including affecting the experience of using the Android system, and it will cause some problems in the system update in the future. Although Hisilicon chip spare tires are turning positive, the system lacks sufficient developers, and the system has not yet been used on a large scale. There may be lack of verification in fluency and the need to upgrade, and some users may not adapt. At present, Huawei is more difficult, and it needs to be observed for a period of time in the future. The short-term impact of inventory is not great, but if the problem is not solved for a long time, it may affect customer retention. In addition, Huawei's situation may also spread to other areas. In some areas with core technology companies, especially those involving 5G, AI and other core areas, Chinese companies may also be suppressed. But American companies will also be affected, so we need to continue to observe in the future. Or there will be some room for transition, and we must have confidence in the Chinese economy and enterprises.

Yuan, Z. (2020, April 1). Huawei was not strangled by the United States in 2019. How to fight in 2020? Retrieved, May 4, 2020, from: https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1662746654653988616&wfr=spider&for=pc

How did Huawei fight in 2020 without being strangled by the United States in 2019?

On March 31, Huawei announced its 2019 annual report. The report shows that Huawei's operating income in 2019 was 858.833 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19.1%, net profit was 62.7 billion yuan, and cash flow from operating activities was 91.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.4%. This annual report makes history. On May 16, 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce listed Huawei and its subsidiaries in the "Entity List". Without a license, Huawei will not be able to purchase software and hardware products and services from U.S. companies (hereinafter referred to as "5 · 16 sanctions "). In today's world, integrated circuit as the core of information technology originated in the United States. The core chips, operating systems and key software of various technology products are all "made in the United States." However, Huawei did not “die instantly” but instead maintained a multinational technology company with 100 billion US dollars in revenue to continue to survive. This is due to Huawei ’s deepening of the sense of anxiety in research and development, commercial strength, and business continuity management. There is deep accumulation. However, Huawei's rotating chairman Xu Zhijun said that the next 2020 will be Huawei's most difficult year. Xu Zhijun said that the U.S. sanctions on Huawei have been close to one year, the company's core parts reserves have been consumed more than half of the time, and the U.S. has been reporting the sanctions escalation from time to time. In addition, the new crown epidemic Black Swan not only impacts production, but also may cause the global economy Declining demand is shrinking. Adding multiple factors, Xu Zhijun said, "In 2020 (Huawei) strives to survive and to issue an annual report next year." Chinese individual consumers contributed 86% of performance growth Geographically, the annual revenue in 2019 increased by 137.631 billion yuan, of which China's revenue increased by 134.57 billion yuan, which indicates that 97.8% of the company's 2019 revenue growth came from the local market. Although the overall overseas market has been relatively flat, the US sanctions have indeed pressed the pause button for Huawei's overseas expansion. In 2018, the company's overseas business is in a state of rapid growth. Huawei's 2018 annual report shows that the company's annual revenue was 721.202 billion yuan, of which overseas business revenue was 349.04 billion yuan, accounting for 48.4% of the total revenue, an increase of 19.9% compared to 2017, and also exceeded the company's overall revenue growth. The rate is 19.5%. In 2019, it quickly fell to a flat state. However, Huawei has basically ensured that the company is in the most important regions overseas- "Europe, the Middle East, Africa." Huawei's overseas business is subdivided into four regions, namely "Europe, Middle East, Africa", "Asia-Pacific", "Americas", and "Other". "Europe, Middle East, Africa" has always been Huawei's largest region outside China, with revenue accounting for 24% of overall revenue (2019 data). “Europe, the Middle East, and Africa” was also the region where Huawei ’s overseas business grew the fastest. In 2018, Huawei ’s “Europe, Middle East, Africa” and “America” experienced the fastest growth, increasing by 24.3% and 21.3% respectively, exceeding the growth rate of China (19.1%) in that year, and exceeding the overall growth rate of Huawei ’s 2018 revenue (19.5 %). By 2019, Huawei had barely achieved a 0.7% growth in "Europe, the Middle East, and Africa", maintaining the stability of Huawei's overall overseas business, "Americas" maintained a 9.6% growth, and "Asia- Pacific" plunged 13.9%. In Huawei's annual report, the company attributes both the surge in overseas business in 2018 and the stagnation in 2019 to consumer businesses, which are dominated by smartphones. Before the U.S. sanctions, Huawei's mobile phones have penetrated the high-end market in the European market, competing with Samsung and Apple. At the end of 2018, the company stated that 50% of Huawei's mobile phone revenue in Europe comes from high-end flagship models. U.S. sanctions have prevented Huawei phones from using Google's GMS service anymore, which quickly led to a sharp drop in sales. According to the statistics of Canalys, a third-party agency, Huawei ’s mobile phone shipments in Europe in the second quarter of 2019 were 8.5 million units, a decrease of 1.6 million units from the 10.1 million units in the same period last year, and a decrease of 16% year-on-year. Although Huawei mobile phones have fallen significantly overseas, they have created a sales miracle in the local market. In 2019, Huawei's smartphone-based consumer business revenue was 467.304 billion yuan, an increase of 118.452 billion yuan compared to 2018, and the company's annual revenue growth was 137.631 billion yuan (and 97.8% came from domestic), which means that In 2019, Huawei's 86.1% revenue growth came from the consumer business, and it was the consumer business in China. The real contribution of China's mobile phone business is likely to exceed 86.1%. Although Huawei has not announced the revenue of specific businesses in different regions, IDC data from third-party market research institutions show that Huawei ’s overseas shipments of mobile phones have decreased from 101 million in 2018 to 100 million (2019 data), a decrease 1 million units, the Chinese market shipments increased from 105 million units in 2018 to 140.6 million units (2019 data), an increase of 35.6 million units. Overseas has fallen to China, so Huawei ’s mobile phone consumer business in China should actually contribute more than 118.4 billion yuan, and its contribution to Huawei ’s revenue increase also accounts for more than 86.1%. However, the Chinese smartphone market was sluggish in 2019, and the overall plate fell by 7.5% year-on-year. While the Chinese people supported Huawei, other Chinese smartphone manufacturers suffered double-digit declines, and Apple's shipments in 2019 also fell by 9.7%. In the next year, the space for the consumer business to continue to rise has been very limited. Huawei is currently stepping up its own operating system, Hongmeng, and may be able to redeem the overseas market for consumer business, but in the short term this is a huge for Huawei Put in. If the consumer business contributed absolute strength to Huawei's performance growth in 2019, then Huawei's second largest business, the operator business, is another "ballast stone" for the company to maintain stability. Huawei's operator business has been at the threshold of nearly 300 billion yuan for three consecutive years. In 2018, the carrier business dropped slightly by 1.3% year-on-year, and in 2019, it achieved growth, an increase of 3.8% year-on-year. Moreover, the consumer business best reflects its technological strength, and Huawei has already ranked first in the world in this field. After the May 16 sanctions, Huawei quickly announced to the outside world that the "holes" in the operator's business were first filled. Xu Zhijun revealed that about $ 3 billion in revenue came from 5G services. 2019 is the first year of 5G construction. It will accelerate in 2020, which will bring opportunities to Huawei. The business that has been relatively affected is the enterprise business. Although the business business accounted for only 10.4% of the total revenue, since the customers it faces are global enterprises, from the perspective of growth potential, this business is very important. Future performance growth points. In 2018, Huawei's enterprise business maintained a growth rate of 23.8%. In 2019, the growth rate fell to 8.6%. A senior employee of Huawei's Enterprise Business Group stated that, like consumer business, the main reason is that China's revenue has maintained overall growth. How to withstand the double blow of sanctions and epidemic situation? Huawei's non-listed company has created a rotating chairman system. At present, the company has three rotating chairman Xu Zhijun, Hu Houkun and Guo Ping, and the founder Ren Zhengfei is hidden behind the daily management. Zhijun Xu graduated with a PhD degree from Nanjing University of Science and Technology. He has always been famous for his frankness within Huawei. At the annual report conference, Xu Zhijun did not use public relations to "play Tai Chi" on major issues related to Huawei's future survival, such as the news that the United States may increase sanctions against Huawei. "I think the Chinese government will not let Huawei be dominated or ignored by Huawei. I believe the Chinese government will also take some countermeasures." Xu Zhijun responded. He also asked why China could not ban 5G chips and devices in some countries for the same reason. This is the first time the company has closely linked Huawei to the Chinese government in public, and it also shows that the new US sanctions regulations that may be upgraded are more lethal. Since last fall, there have been reports of US plans to change rules and escalate sanctions. The latest news is that some senior US officials have proposed new measures, and foreign companies using US chip manufacturing technology and software must obtain US licenses before selling the chips to Huawei. The current rule is that only US companies are required to apply for a license. Foreign companies need only meet the US technology ratio of no more than 25% in their products and technologies, and no license is required. Several industry sources interviewed by Caijing reporters said that if the new regulations are implemented, it will be more deadly for Huawei. It is mainly targeted at Taiwanese company TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) to further cut off Huawei's chip supply chain. . TSMC is the world's most advanced chip foundry, occupying more than 50% of the global chip foundry market. Huawei's semiconductor subsidiary Hisilicon has strong chip design capabilities, and chip manufacturing is handed over to TSMC and other foundries. As a result, the United States' "chip outage" has a much smaller impact on Huawei. At present, Huawei has launched mobile phone chips Kirin, The five self-developed chip series including server Kunpeng chip and AI rising chip basically cover all key business of Huawei. However, once TSMC is restricted, Huawei will not have a foundry to produce advanced chips in the short term, which will further limit the company’s smartphone business and enterprise business. Although SMIC is the most powerful chip foundry in China, the company only put into production a 14-nanometer chip production line in the fourth quarter of 2019, and its technology lags behind TSMC two generations. On March 29, China Daily published an editorial entitled "The U.S. Government Cannot Kill Huawei." The final paragraph of the editorial is "Unless Huawei loses its competitiveness, the U.S. government will not have the opportunity to stifle this Chinese company. If the new measures are implemented, the Chinese government has no choice but to take the same measures against certain U.S. companies. " Another key issue is that even if the United States does not increase sanctions, 2020 will still be very difficult for Huawei. At this annual report press conference, Xu Zhijun said that Huawei is expected to be on the "Entity List" in the United States throughout the year. He also actively mentioned that "the outside world has reported that our spare parts reserves are running out", but did not give a clear denial. It just means that Huawei has a difficult future. Many industry sources had previously estimated that Huawei's key parts and components reserve could maintain one to one and a half years of operation, and the sanctions have been close to one year. A sales director of a foreign chip agency that requested anonymity revealed to Caijing that Huawei is currently looking for US product replacement companies around the world. The supply source is not a problem, but the cost is much higher than the original purchase channel. Increase operating costs. Chip self-development and industrial ecological self-development are the core means for Huawei to fight sanctions. For the first time, Huawei has written its computing strategy into the company's annual report, stating that the company has since established a "connection and computing" dual strategy. Many viewpoints show that the US government's sanctions against Huawei are all double-edged swords that "damage the enemy for one thousand and damage eight hundred." On March 9, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a well-known consulting organization in the United States, released a report "How Trade Restrictions with China Will Suspend the US Leadership in the Semiconductor Industry" (hereinafter referred to as "BCG Report"). The BCG report states that the United States has long been the global semiconductor industry leader, occupying 45% -50% of the global market share, but if the United States continues to comply with the restrictions imposed by the current "Entity List", it will lose 8% of the global share and 16 % Of the revenue; if the United States completely bans semiconductor companies from selling products to Chinese customers, global market share will be lost by 18 percentage points, and its revenue will be lost by 37%, which will actually decouple technology from China; these declines in revenue will inevitably lead to Significant reductions in research and development and capital expenditures, and lost 15,000 to 40,000 high-skilled direct jobs in the US semiconductor industry. South Korea may overtake the United States as a world semiconductor leader within a few years. The US government has made high-level rulings but has not closed all its doors. After the "16 May" sanctions, the United States has been issuing temporary permits, which have been renewed every three months. The latest validity period is May 1 this year. Some US companies can apply for temporary permits for a single business of Huawei. Britain is the United States' most important European ally. The British House of Commons voted earlier this month to allow Huawei to participate in Britain's 5G network construction. A number of industry sources told the Caijing reporter that as long as Huawei continues to stream parts and components, Huawei will not show high growth in 2020, but it will not be so pessimistic. In terms of specific services, in 2020, the acceleration of global 5G network construction is good news for Huawei, especially despite the emergence of the new crown epidemic, China's three major operators have not lowered their 5G network construction goals. Huawei's 2019 revenue of about $ 3 billion comes from 5G network revenue. The best situation for consumer and enterprise businesses in 2020 is to maintain the status quo and even grow slightly, but Huawei ’s R & D and market investment for consumer and enterprise businesses will increase significantly because the company is pushing HMS (Huawei Mobile Services) The mobile phone ecology (to make up for the absence of Google's GMS system) and Kunpeng's computing industry ecology all require urgent investment in both research and development and the market. In 2019, Huawei invested 131.559 billion yuan in research and development, accounting for 15.3% of annual revenue, an increase of 29.7% compared to 2018. In a recent media interview, Ren Zhengfei said that Huawei 2020 invested 20 billion US dollars in research and development (about 142.1 billion yuan). In addition, the outbreak of the new crown epidemic at the beginning of the year brought a huge risk of uncertainty to the global economy. The industry is generally worried that it will cause demand to shrink. Xu Zhijun said that it is difficult for Huawei to predict too much. The company's current goal is to ensure the health of employees. To meet the needs of governments and customers under the conditions. Table 1: Huawei's 2019 revenue distribution (by region)

Yuqing, N. (2020, April 1st). The first annual report came under the containment of the United States. Huawei made a net profit of 62.7 billion yuan last year. Retrieved, April 17th, 2020, from: http://finance.sina.com.cn/chanjing/gsnews/2020-04-01/doc-iimxyqwa4421372.shtml

The first annual report under the US containment came to Huawei's net profit of 62.7 billion yuan last year Every year, Huawei's financial report attracts much attention. This year, everyone is even more concerned because this is the first annual report under the weight of the list of US entities.

On the afternoon of March 31, Huawei released its 2019 annual report online. Last year, Huawei's sales revenue was 858.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19.1%; net profit was 62.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.6%. To the outside world, the growth of key indicators is not easy, but Huawei will face greater challenges in 2020. Because the business in the first half of last year was stable, business inertia has also hedged against the sanctions in the second half of the year, and in 2020 Huawei will completely survive the US entity list. Therefore, Xu Zhijun, Huawei's rotating chairman, told the media, including the 21st Century Business Herald, at the financial report communication meeting: "2020 is the most difficult year for Huawei."

Xu Zhijun said: "2019 is a challenging year. We have a lot of reserves to meet customer demand. This year, the industry predicts that our reserves will soon run out, and it is also a crucial year to test whether continuity can play a role. The new crown epidemic is Another situation that we haven't predicted has brought about a global economic downturn, turmoil, and expected slowdown in demand, which are new challenges we haven't predicted. " When the external strike changes from a black swan to a gray rhino, is Huawei ready? From the first three months of 2020, the comprehensive three-dimensional attack in the United States has never stopped: suing Huawei, dismissing Huawei's lawsuit, pressure 5G under the name of security ... The most serious thing is the media report. The new export control measures, which will change the sanctions technical indicators to a stricter 10%, may limit the supply of chips to Huawei by chipmakers including TSMC. In this regard, Xu Zhijun also responded very directly, Huawei will not let anyone be slaughtered, Huawei can also buy chips from Samsung, Taiwan MTK and Spreadtrum. At the same time, he also pointed out: "I expect this information to be false, otherwise there will be endless troubles. It is difficult for any player in the global industry chain to survive alone. Once the Pandora's box is opened, it may be a devastating chain damage to the globalized industrial ecology. It is possible that more than one Huawei company will be destroyed. We hope to cooperate with the global industry chain. " Performance growth is not easy, and the structure continues to change Xu Zhijun said at the communication meeting: "(We) strive to survive in 2020 and can also release financial results next year." This is Huawei's long-standing sense of crisis in survival, and the energy it emits is also great. In 2019, Huawei's total revenue still maintained a double-digit growth (19.1%), which was almost the same as the 19.5% growth in 2018, holding the first external blow. However, it is unrealistic to have no impact. In terms of net profit, Huawei's growth rate has slowed down.In 2018, Huawei's net profit increased by 25.1% year-on- year, and in 2019 it reached a single-digit growth (5.6%). It can also be seen from the region. In 2019, Huawei's China revenue increased by 36.2% year-on-year, the Americas increased by 9.6%, while Europe, the Middle East and Africa increased slightly by 0.7%, and the Asia-Pacific region fell by 13.9%. Regarding the decline in the Asia-Pacific region, Huawei said that it was affected by the fluctuation of the investment cycle of the operator market in some countries and the inability of the consumer business to use the GMS ecosystem. Let's look at the three main businesses: operator business, enterprise business and consumer business. In the operator business area, Huawei achieved sales revenue of 296.7 billion yuan, an increase of 3.8% year-on-year; corporate business achieved sales revenue of 89.7 billion yuan, an increase of 8.6% year-on-year. Consumer business maintained steady growth, with shipments of more than 240 million smartphones and sales of 467.3 billion yuan, an increase of 34% year-on-year. Among them, Huawei's mobile phone shipments in 2019 surpassed Apple to become the world's second largest mobile phone manufacturer. Gartner's report shows that Huawei's global growth rate in 2019 will reach 18.6%. In addition, although the United States has extended its ban on Huawei, Huawei's active implementation of its smartphone strategy in China will increase the company's Chinese market share in 2019 by 37%. On the whole, the revenue of the three major businesses has maintained a growth trend, and the financial report does not announce their respective profits. However, from the perspective of the previously disclosed gross profit margin in the first half of 2019, it has been relatively stable. In the first six months, Huawei ’s operator gross profit margin was 54.71%, enterprise business was 43.68%, and consumer business was 30.24%. It should be noted that when the 2020 financial report is announced, Huawei ’s main business will become four major sectors, joining the Cloud & AI business, and upgrading from the original cloud business. This is Huawei's change at the beginning of this year, raising Cloud & AI to Huawei's fourth largest BG. Before that, "Cloud & AI products and services" belonged to the BU (Business Unit) department within Huawei, but now it is officially upgraded to an independent BG, which together with the operator BG, enterprise BG, and consumer BG form the four major BGs of Huawei. At the same time, the 21st Century Business Herald reporter also noted that Huawei ’s long-established smart car business is also reflected in the financial report for the first time. In the second half of 2019, the smart car solution BU was officially established and became part of Huawei ’s ICT business organization. In 2020, Huawei will continue to seek development, make organizational changes, and continue to invest in research and development. In 2019, Huawei's R & D expenses reached 131.7 billion yuan, accounting for 15.3% of the annual sales revenue. In the past ten years, the total investment in research and development has exceeded 600 billion yuan. According to reports, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei said in an interview recently that this year Huawei will increase investment in research and development, and that research and development expenditure will increase to more than 20 billion US dollars in 2020, up from 15 billion US dollars last year. The black swan becomes a gray rhino, The summit road is more difficult There is no doubt that the US blockade will continue, especially the blow to Huawei's chip supply chain. According to Gu Wenjun, chief analyst of ICwise: "The threat of the sword of Damocles is indecisive. If the United States is now completely cutting off the supply to Huawei, the impact on Huawei will be less In particular, the period of psychological panic has passed. It is estimated that the United States will continue to do so this year: on the one hand, it will contain high-profile containment, while on the other hand, it will allow supplies, especially in the case of poor economic conditions this year. Gu Wenjun told the 21st Century Business Herald that this "sword" should not fall this year, because this year is the US election year, and companies want performance, coupled with the outbreak of the epidemic, the pressure on business operations is even greater. It is expected that stability next year may increase Stricter requirements. The most affected are the two key services of Huawei terminals and 5G. First of all, the terminal faces the challenge of shrinking overseas markets. Xu Zhijun also said that after being included in the list of entities on May 16, last year, it is increasing its research and development efforts to "fill holes" and is committed to restructuring the supply chain. Revenue is at least about $ 10 billion. "After May last year, our new machines sold overseas could not be pre-installed with GMS. In order to protect the interests and experience of Huawei smartphone users worldwide, Huawei launched HMS. But we also look forward to Google Apps in Huawei's application market APP Gallery On the shelves, we hope that Huawei's 5G mobile phones can be sold more overseas, but we cannot make more accurate predictions now, which actually depends on the construction of our HMS. "Xu Zhijun told reporters. Today, Huawei ’s newly released P40 flagship has been equipped with an HMS system, which has become a key model for expanding overseas markets. In the second half of the year, the flagship Mate series is also very important. However, the construction of the mobile terminal ecosystem is a protracted battle, and more developers and software partners are needed to join. According to the latest Counterpoint report, in February 2020, the top three global mobile phone sales were Samsung, Apple and Huawei. The report pointed out that under the epidemic, Huawei, which was most affected by China's supply and demand, performed much better than expected. In February, smartphone sales exceeded 12 million, and its global market share fell by only 1%. Looking at 5G again, Xu Zhijun said: "Pragmatically speaking, the US crackdown has greatly affected our global 5G business, at least it has added a lot of workload to us. We need to spend a lot of time with customers, partners and Relevant government regulators explained. In addition, we still have a few customers who have chosen Huawei 2G, 3G and 4G technologies, but have not continued to choose our 5G technology; or some regions have not continued to choose Huawei's technology. " However, in the eyes of industry insiders, 5G will have considerable development, and everyone sees the need for communication technology from the epidemic situation. Even for the future, it is a major positive. The next epidemic may come again, but in addition to medicine, the method of confrontation also includes communication science. The human conquest of nature may not be achieved by direct confrontation. It may be achieved by other civilizations. For example, we can all work online without having to go out. The epidemic has nothing to do with us. 5G progress may slow down, but only in the short term, long-term 5-10 years will make a big and violent change in our lives. Last year, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei once said: "American companies rushed up from the south slope, we rushed up from the north slope. When meeting at the summit, we do n’t fight bayonet, we have to embrace and cheer, we cheer for the digital human information service It's a big trend, and multiple standards will eventually win. " It now appears that this road of has become more difficult. Now that the United States has no fundamental change in Huawei's attitude, and there is no possibility of embracing it, it is a positive response.