Summary

On May 19, 2020, the US embargo against Huawei celebrates its first anniversary. The opportunity to take stock of this very special year for the brand whose smartphones are deprived of Google services and the Play Store.

In reality, Ren Zhengfei and Donald Trump do not happily celebrate the anniversary of the embargo against Huawei. // Source: Editing by Frandroid

As of this writing, the U.S. embargo on Huawei is about to celebrate its first anniversary. It has been a year since this affair has shaken the tech world and prevented the Chinese giant from collaborating with most American companies. Many things have happened since then and the time for a first assessment has come.

Huawei: the Android world without Google

Let's start from the very beginning. The administration of President Donald Trump accuses Huawei of wanting to carry out espionage practices against American citizens on behalf of the Chinese government. To do this, and according to Washington, the firm would like to rely on its 5G infrastructure, a sector where it has settled into the chair of world leader.

Neither one nor two, the United States prohibits the vast majority of American companies from supplying their products and technologies to Huawei. Google is therefore prohibited from certifying the new smartphones of the Chinese brand.

YouTube linkSubscribe to Frandroid

The latter no longer benefit from Google services and the Play Store. In other words, these phones do not offer the usual Android experience for a Western user: no YouTube, no Gmail, Google Duo, Docs or Maps, or even any application using Google services (and there are many) .

False attempts at reconciliation

Faced with this major obstacle, Huawei had to manage this unprecedented crisis combining a large dose of geopolitics, a good shot of trade war between the United States and China and a generous pinch of technological stakes.

Dig deeperWhy geopolitics will help you better understand technology

At the very beginning, Huawei's strategy was to deny all US accusations outright and do everything to show their credentials in order to resume normal ties with Google - despite some bellicose outbursts from founder Ren Zhengfei who nevertheless insists on the innocence of his firm in matters of espionage. However, little by little, the speech of the Chinese giant has evolved.

Seeing the stagnation of the situation, Huawei has increasingly invested in the development of its own mobile services, cleverly named Huawei Mobile Services (HMS), based in particular on an in-house application store: AppGallery.

Long-term HMS, short-term recycling

Tests of several smartphones such as the Mate 30 Pro or the P40 Pro have shown us that Huawei's initiative is very interesting: the company Chinese seems to have the means, in the long term, to offer a solid alternative to the Google ecosystem in the Android universe. However, the experience offered today by HMS is not yet mature enough to assume this role. In particular, there are still too many applications that rely on Google services to work and which, in fact, are not available on recent Huawei phones.

The Huawei P40 Pro and Huawei P40 // Source: Frandroid

The AppGallery store, however, has considerably expanded its catalog over the months, which is rather encouraging for Huawei. Persevering on this path therefore represents a major challenge, but the task is not impossible. However, it takes time. And in the meantime, Huawei must continue to exist on the market.

To go furtherAppGallery: Huawei already sees itself as a competitor to the Play Store and the App Store

This is why the firm is pursuing another strategy in parallel and is recycling several phones released before the embargo to offer them under a new name with Google services. This was the case with the Huawei Nova 5T, which is actually an Honor 20 in disguise. More recently, the Huawei P Smart 2020 and P Smart Pro have also appeared, but these are respectively Honor 10 Lite and Honor 9X with mustaches.

Huawei applies more or less the same strategy with its Huawei P30 Pro New Edition which again only has the color. Thanks to these renamed smartphones and sold at prices that are still attractive in terms of technical data sheets, the Chinese brand continues to arouse the interest of consumers and to exist in the technological landscape.

A boon for the competition

Huawei is implementing its strategies to avoid being deterred by the embargo. However, unsurprisingly, the competitors are also following the case, determined to take full advantage of it. Samsung has thus moved considerably closer to Google in its communication to make it clear that the two companies are working hand in hand.

Samsung, Google's best friend

For its part, Xiaomi does not hesitate to include the mention “Easy access to Google Apps” on the packages of its smartphones. So many initiatives aimed at more or less subtly tackling the colossus Huawei which, for a time, saw itself as the number one in the smartphone market.

Huawei still alive

An important question therefore arises: is Huawei's future threatened? Yes and no. Let's start with the negative answer by recalling that Huawei remains the undisputed champion of the Chinese market. A country where users are used to using Android smartphones without Google services – where these are prohibited – and where the American embargo therefore does not really have an impact. On its native lands, the firm therefore has practically nothing to fear for the moment.

The Huawei flagship store in Paris // Source: Frandroid

In other words, Huawei will survive the US embargo. The whole question is whether Huawei will survive the US embargo in Western markets where Android goes hand in hand with Google services in the collective imagination. A priori, the brand holds up well on the French market. In the first quarter of 2020, its market share increased by a further 6% compared to the previous year in France.

However, everything suggests that this growth is mainly based on the sale of popular smartphones released in 2019, such as the Huawei P30 Pro for example. For the moment, therefore, we must not bury Huawei, but the firm will probably bow down in the coming months in this sector.

Life is not just about smartphones

In this regard, it should be remembered that Huawei does not rely solely on smartphones. Other devices are marketed by the brand, particularly in France. The giant relies in particular on its laptops taking advantage of Windows 10. Microsoft has indeed led successful negotiations with the US government to have the right to deliver its licenses to Huawei.

In its flagship store in Paris, Huawei also wants to showcase the many products it sells in order to make it clear that the embargo will not stop it.

We therefore face a rather mixed picture for Huawei. The company has the opportunity to create a serious alternative to Google's Android and spark a thrilling confrontation between the two giants who would nevertheless like to be able to work together again. However, we are only at the beginning of HMS and it would be premature to predict a bright future for them. If this initiative fails, the consequences will be serious for the Chinese firm, but this would not necessarily mean its disappearance from the European market where the brand exists through other products.

Finally, what we especially remember from this first assessment is that we can't wait to take stock of the next anniversary, in 2021, to see how things have evolved. Note that the embargo has been renewed by Donald Trump for another year. Above all, the American sanction was increased recently to extend even to non-American suppliers of the Chinese giant in order to prevent Huawei from supplying itself with Kirin chips, which are essential for its smartphones. New year, new obstacle.

To follow us, we invite you to download our Android and iOS application. You can read our articles, files, and watch our latest YouTube videos.

Follow the whole affair: Donald Trump, Huawei and Google