Trade ban report: Google Services could return to Huawei

Huawei’s latest announcement that their new flagship, the Mate 30 Pro and the rest of the Mate 30 series, would not be launched in South Africa has left a lot of smartphone users unsure about the future of the Chinese brand.

Up until the announcement that finally torpedoed customers’ hopes of getting their hand on the Mate 30, the handset was one of the most highly anticipated phones of the year.

The Mate 30 series’ technical specs have picked up from the previous P30 phones in receiving acclaim for speed and innovation. The Mate 30 Pro Camera is also said to have smashed all the benchmarks for a phone camera.

And then Trump happened

Sadly, even if the Mate 30 turns out to be superior to its competition across every category, Donald Trump could ultimately have the most significant say in its success.

Huawei announced that we would not see a release for the Mate 30 before the announcement of the next P series phones; unless the US trade ban is resolved and they can use Google Services and apps again.

According to AFP, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters:

“I want to stress once again that the US practices are neither honorable nor ethical. They are also a denial of the market economy principles that the US is always flaunting.”

Trade ban might be reversed

As it turns out, the New York Times is now reporting that Trump’s administration could be granting licenses to companies wanting to do business with Huawei.

Trump had announced that licenses would be granted to let some companies do business with Huawei some months ago, but nothing has materialised until now.

According to Huawei, should they regain access to use the Google apps and services, they’ll be able to deploy the software “overnight”.

While there may be certain valid security concerns about Huawei and its relationship with the Chinese government, one can’t help but see Huawei as collateral damage in Trump’s efforts to secure the US-China trade deal on his terms.

Google services and apps could return to Huawei devices

Huawei had put up a brave face for the longest time, claiming that they had contingency plans in place.

Huawei was doing its best to get a viable product together while actually pinning its hopes for the next round of smartphones on the US allowing them to use Google apps and services again.

It now seems like the US could be looking to issue licenses that grant certain companies exemption, as an olive branch of sorts in its Chinese trade negotiations.

Either way, nothing has been confirmed as of yet, but it will be interesting to see how quickly Huawei can mobilise and get the Mate 30 into stores, should the license to do business with Google materialise.