Huawei may lose Google services

Huawei could lose its grip on the No. 2 ranking in worldwide cellphone sales after Google announced it would comply with U.S. government restrictions meant to punish the Chinese tech powerhouse.

The Trump administration move, which effectively bars U.S. firms from selling components and software to Huawei, ups the ante in a trade war between Washington and Beijing that partly reflects a struggle for global economic and technological dominance.

Google said basic services would still function on the Android operating system used in Huawei’s smartphones and existing smartphone owners would not lose access to its Google Play app store or security features.

But unless the U.S. Commerce Department grants exceptions, the ban announced last week on all purchases of U.S. technology would badly hurt Huawei, analyst say.

Washington claims Huawei poses a national security threat, and its placement on the so-called Entity List by the Trump administration last week is widely seen as intended to persuade resistant U.S. allies in Europe to exclude Huawei equipment from their next-generation wireless networks, known as 5G.

Huawei will likely use its own, stripped-down version of Android, whose basic code is provided free of charge by Google.