Huawei has to find an alternative that doesn't really exist

Friday, 24 May 2019

OPINION: A week is a long time in technology. In the past seven days, Huawei has potentially lost its entire smartphone division.

The Chinese smartphone maker was dealt a massive blow earlier in the week when Google confirmed that it would abide by the recent US ruling that banned American companies from working with Huawei. In short, this meant that future Huawei devices will not be able to run an Android OS.

That news alone was likely substantial enough to end the company's future smartphone ambitions.

A man uses two smartphones at once outside a Huawei store in Beijing Monday, May 20, 2019. Google is assuring users of Huawei smartphones the American company's services still will work on them following U.S. government restrictions on doing business with the Chinese tech giant. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Amazingly, things have got worse for Huawei.

* A smartphone without Google may seem absurd, but Huawei might survive

* Google says Google Play and other services will still work on Huawei phones

* Let us into 5G and we could pay millions for NZ cyber lab, says Huawei**

ARM has just severed ties with Huawei too. This is brutal news. Without access to ARM technology, there is no high-end Huawei smartphone.

Forgive me while I get technical here, but ARM's RISC Architecture (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) is used by the entire high-end smartphone industry.

Apple, Samsung, Google, and until this week, Huawei, are all reliant on their ARM architecture licensees.

Specifically, Huawei uses ARM designs for its Kirin SoCs (System on a Chip). And without Arm's continued support, Huawei is literally back at square one for a vital part of its smartphone's design.

What does this mean in plain English? Huawei now has to find an alternative that doesn't really exist.

It's a setback that is likely to take the Chinese tech company years to compensate for. If it ever does.

Interestingly, ARM UK company that's owned by the Japanese SoftBank Group and it's headquarters based are Cambridge, England.

Yet, the company's Intellectual Property has 'US-origin technology' which ARM feels forces it to abide by the Trump administration's ban.

The company released the following statement about the ban 'ARM is complying with the latest restrictions set forth by the US government and is having ongoing conversations with the appropriate US government agencies to ensure we remain compliant.'