IT Live: Hundreds of millions of smartphone users will be affected by Google’s decision to sever its Android operating system ties with Chinese handset maker Huawei.

The decision, in the midst of a US trade war with China, means that Huawei users will start losing access to Google’s proprietary services such as Gmail and Maps, and be shut out of future upgrades to Android on their phones.

The move by the California internet giant on the software front was compounded by news that US chipmakers have stopped supplying Huawei, hitting the hardware of its phones.

Microsoft offers a salutary example. Between 2010 and 2017, the US company tried to entice users to buy phones built on its own Windows mobile operating system. But the phones never took off and the company pulled the plug on the
OS.

The widespread mobile usage of Maps, Gmail and Google’s other services has helped the US company build a market-leading position with Android alongside its crushing dominance in desktop browsing.

Should Huawei build its own system, it’s conceivable that those companies might join it, in a bid to end their own vulnerability to future actions by the US government or companies.

Dhaka, 20 May (campuslive24.com)//MIH