Juha Saarinen: US ban a double punch for Huawei

The US has landed a number of diplomatic punches with its ban. Photo/Getty Images.

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In the unlikely event that Huawei didn't think it was dangerous to rely on US technology for its smartphones, the latest Trump administration trade blacklisting should dispel all doubts about that for the Chinese tech giant.

The United States really is serious about keeping Huawei out of telcos, and not just their future 5G networks. Now it's adios Google apps for owners of the popular Chinese smartphones.

What will happen next for owners of Huawei devices who use Google services - and that'll be just about every single one who has bought a Huawei phone - is not clear.

Google appears to have been caught by surprise and is unsure what will happen since this is the first time a smartphone maker has had its licence terminated.

Will the Google app suite be deleted or stop working? Google's local spokesperson did not reply that that question, but sent over the below statement:
"We are complying with the order and reviewing the implications. For users of our services, Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices," the spokesperson said.

Although the licence cancellation is said to be immediate, for now at least it looks like existing Google app installations won't stop working all of a sudden.

When news of Google pulling Huawei's license broke, the Play store was thought to be on the hit list along with Gmail, Chrome, Maps and other apps from Big G.

What exactly "will continue to function" remains to be seen though. Existing phones from Huawei and its sub-brand Honor will receive security updates, the Chinese vendor promises.

Huawei was trusted by Google before, to the extent that the Chinese electronics giant built the Nexus 6P smartphone for the US company. Now, Huawei's well and truly out in the cold.

Losing the Google crown jewels for Android is bad enough for the world's number two smartphone vendor, but it's only one part of the massive blow the US has now dealt to Huawei.

The US government blacklist will also prevent suppliers such as Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom and others from selling crucial electronics parts to Huawei. That's a software-hardware double punch guaranteed to hurt because there are no readily sourceable alternatives to US technology.

How much pain this will cause Huawei depends on how far the US follows through, but the blacklisting signals the end of an era in which consumer tech could be (almost) freely traded and it threatens to break up the global IT supply chain.

Huawei meanwhile is correct in saying the blacklisting could hurt US suppliers as well. It's hard to see how it could not, killing off big business with a giant like Huawei.

Over the medium to long term, with trust out of the window it's a safe bet that China and other countries will try much harder to diversify software and hardware engineering supply, to avoid being caught out again; can they rise to that monumental challenge?