GOOGLE AND ARM DROP HUAWEI

Chinese firm is shunned

WHATEVER YOU MAKE of the politics behind the US-China tussle, the ramifications are getting serious. A slew of big companies have been obliged to stop doing business with Huawei, including Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom, and Google. No Google means no Android OS. The bulk of Android may be open source, but crucial parts of it—the Play Store, Gmail, location services, and more—aren’t. Huawei has been working on its own OS since 2012; according to sources inside China, it could be out by this fall. It will be compatible with Android, although recompiling apps makes them considerably faster. The Chinese market is huge, and difficult to break into. Google won’t want to be left out for too long, or it may find it hard to get back. The company is in talks with the US government to try to get an exemption from the ban.

Huawei may be able to live without Google’s Android, but it has also lost access to ARM, and replacing the silicon isn’t going to be so easy. Chips using licensed ARM technology run on about 95 percent of the world’s smartphones. Alternative designs are thin on the ground—a couple of open-source projects (MIPS and RISC-V), and little else. Huawei owns HiSilicon, which makes Kirin SoCs (based on ARM designs), but starting from scratch on new designs would take years. Before the ban started, Huawei stockpiled enough chips for over three months. When this pile runs dry, it’ll be in trouble.

Where does all this leave owners of Huawei phones? Thankfully, you’ll be fine. All the bans only apply to new devices. What happens if the situation hasn’t been resolved before the release of Android Q isn’t clear. For now, the advice has to be to avoid new Huawei phones until the situation settles down again.