Several mobile carriers around the world have begun to suspend orders for Huawei smartphones. This is following the American government’s decision to hinder the Chinese company from buying American software and hardware for its technology products. The US Commerce Department under orders from the Trump administration placed Huawei on their “entity list” to stop American tech companies from doing business with the former except they are licensed to.
The decision of the US government to blacklist Huawei further escalates the ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China.
Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei said the export blacklist will not impact his company’s business in any significant way, and that the US actually underestimates Huawei by the move. However, the recent move of several companies around the world to suspend doing business with the Chinese company until the US whitelists it again shows Huawei is being impacted negatively by the “entity list”.
Several Tech Companies Are Suspending Doing Business With Huawei Until The Storm Passes
As it stands, Huawei is leading the industry in the global drive to build super-fast next generation 5G networks. But it now seems that initiative to launch the world’s first 5G network will be impacted or delayed one way or the other. Huawei is also the Number 2 selling smartphone in the world behind Samsung.
As at now, Vodafone announced that it suspended taking pre-orders for Huawei’s Mate 20X (5G) smartphone in the UK. Vodafone is the second largest mobile carrier in the world. According to a company spokesperson, suspending the pre-orders is only a temporary measure until Huawei’s uncertain stand with the US government is resolved.
Also, EE, UK’s biggest mobile operator, revealed they are postponing unraveling new Huawei smartphones. Just last week, the company flaunted the Mate 20X while previewing its 5G network. But this seems to no longer be the case.
On Wednesday, top mobile carriers in Japan moved against introducing the Huawei P30 Lite. This was a smartphone they had all planned to launch in the country before the end of this month. NTT Docomo, a leading telecoms company in Japan, said they are no longer taking orders for the phone until Huawei resolves its crises with the Trump administration.
KDDI and SoftBank Corp also announced a delay in the launch of the Huawei P30 Lite following the ongoing US-China trade faceoff. SoftBank said they will hold off selling the smartphone until they are sure customers have nothing to worry about. KDDI said pretty the same thing.
Customers around the World Are Considering Ditching Huawei Smartphones
To make matters worse for Huawei, Google announced it is withdrawing its services from the Chinese company until the Trump administration gives the green light. Google said it is cutting off the company from their Android operating system, and hindering them from access core Google services such as Gmail, YouTube, Play Store, Map and other functional smartphone aspects that customers want at all costs.
Thousands of potential customers have also expressed fears of buying Huawei smartphones without Google support and functionalities.
The US Commerce Department has however asked Google to support existing Huawei products, but not new ones, for the next 90 days.
