It’s no secret that Huawei’s sales have taken a hit ever since the implementation of the US trade ban, and it has resulted in losses on both sides. Huawei’s otherwise excellent smartphones have been dwarfed by its competition because the Chinese tech giant couldn’t bring Google’s App Services to its offerings; case in point, the recently launched flagship Huawei Mate 30. But that is about to change, as a number of US-based companies, including Google, are to be granted licenses that would effectively annul the ban for Huawei.
As per The New York Times, the Trump administration is readying to issue licenses to upwards of 200 US companies. Note that Huawei will still be on the U.S. trade blacklist, but it will be allowed to do business with certain companies as long as they’re not selling them sensitive components – produces that can compromise national security.
At any rate, Google will now be able to approve licenses for Huawei, giving it access to Google Play Services, once again. In simpler terms, this is great news for Huawei because these trade licenses could “save” the world’s second-biggest phone manufacturer since other Chinese smartphone brands have already started to fill the vacuum left by Huawei.
But how soon can Huawei’s customer-base expect to benefit from these updated Google licenses? The short answer is, ‘pretty soon’. Courtesy of Reuters, Wilbur Ross – the U.S. Commerce Secretary, says that trade licenses to sell to the Chinese firm will be approved “very shortly”. The Commerce Secretary further commented that the deal could be signed by the end of November.
Huawei was blacklisted back in May by the Trump administration over concerns for national security, claiming that Huawei was using its smartphones to spy on its users – which Huawei promptly denied. That denial was followed by a temporary reprieve allowing Huawei to explore alternatives to the services provided by the U.S.-based companies it was previously dealing with. Could these trade licenses turn out to be just another reprieve? While that remains to be seen, things certainly are looking up for Huawei.