Trump’s trade ban: here are 4 popular Huawei products under threat
- While several US companies, including Google and Intel, are severing ties with the tech giant, its own new technologies may mitigate the fallout
The US government recently placed the Chinese tech behemoth Huawei on a trade blacklist, a move that could require the second-largest smartphone maker to rethink everything from the way it designs its chips to the software that powers its line of smartphones and tablets.
Under the new requirements, US companies must obtain government permission before conducting business with Huawei. Following the announcement, a slew of technology companies said they were suspending business with the company. These companies include Google, which operates the popular mobile operating system Android, as well as the chip makers Qualcomm and Intel, according to Bloomberg.
Huawei has since downplayed the potential ramifications of these sanctions and severed ties. The company’s founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei recently said that he expects the company's growth to slow only slightly when speaking with Nikkei Asian Review. Huawei has also said that it’s been working on its own mobile operating system to replace Android, and the company already develops its own Kirin mobile processors.
Those processors, however, rely heavily on designs from the UK-based Arm, which recently said it had suspended business with the tech giant. The company is also said to have stockpiled enough chips to last for three months as it designs its own chips, according to Bloomberg.
The government has since given Huawei a 90-day reprieve to continue maintaining its current products, but it’s unclear how its product line will change after that window closes.
Huawei may be best known for its line of smartphones, but the company makes a wide variety of products, including laptops and smartwatches.
Not every company or supplier mentioned below has said it would stop working with Huawei. In fact, many have not spoken publicly about how their business would change, if at all, given the new government requirements. But the list below shows how large a role US tech firms play in the development and production of Huawei’s gadgets.
1. Smartphones
The most obvious product line that could be affected by Huawei’s placement on the US trade blacklist is its smartphones. Popular Huawei smartphone models such as the P30 Pro and Mate 20 Pro were built using a variety of components from US tech companies.