Huawei sales in China not dampened by Google’s restrictions

GOOGLE’S restriction of key software and technical support to phone maker Huawei is not expected to dampen domestic sales in China as Google services have long been banned in the country, Sin Chew Daily reported.

Citing the International Data Corporation, a Chinese-owned market intelligence firm, Huawei sold 206 million smartphones last year, of which 101 million (49%) were sold outside of China.

Huawei, which overtook Apple to become the world’s No. 2 smartphone maker in the second quarter of last year, controls nearly 25% of the smartphone market share in China, all of which run on the Google Android operating system.

The latest restriction means Huawei will only have access to the basic, publicly available version of the Android operating system.

Future Huawei smartphone owners are expected to be deprived of Google services such as Play Store, Gmail and YouTube.

Citing Chinese business news portal Yicai, Sin Chew also reported that Huawei’s Consumer Business Group spokesperson Yu Chengdong as saying that the smartphone maker has been in the process of creating its in-house operating system known as Hongmeng.

> More firms in China are now penalising their employees for buying American products in the wake of the United States-China trade war, with the latest being a car inspection company in Jiangsu province, according to China Press.

In a memo published last Thursday, the firm said any employee caught buying or using Apple’s iPhone, visiting fast-food joints such as KFC and McDonald’s or going on a vacation in the United States will be “dismissed immediately”.

The company has also banned employees from using products by Procter & Gamble and Amway in a bid to help China “win this war”.

When a photo of the memo went viral, netizens scoffed at the company’s directives, noting that China has stakes in both KFC and McDonald’s.

“Let us altogether stop using computers then since (Microsoft) Windows is also an American product,” a netizen said sarcastically.

Such directives were reported to have begun since late last year.