Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
- Huawei’s placement on the US government’s trade blacklist will likely require the Chinese tech giant to rethink the way it develops key products across its smartphone, laptop, and wearable lines.
- Since the US government added Huawei to the list, companies such as Google, Qualcomm, Intel, and others have suspended business with the Chinese firm.
- Here’s a look at the Huawei product lines that could be impacted.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
The US government recently placed Chinese tech behemoth Huawei on a trade blacklist, a move that could require the world’s second-largest smartphone maker to rethink everything from the way it designs its chips to the software that powers its line of smartphones and tablets.
Under the new requirements, US companies must obtain government permission before conducting business with Huawei. Following the announcement, a slew of technology companies have said they are suspending business with the firm. These include Google, which operates the popular mobile operating system Android, as well as chipmakers Qualcomm and Intel among others, as reports have indicated.
Huawei has since downplayed the potential ramifications of these sanctions and severed ties, as founder and chief executive Ren Zhengfei recently said that he only expects the company’s growth to slow slightly when speaking with Nikkei Asian Review. Huawei has also said that it’s been working on its own mobile operating system to replace Android, and the company already develops its own Kirin mobile processors.
Those processors, however, rely heavily on designs from United Kingdom-based Arm, which recently said it has suspended business with the tech giant. The company is also said to have stockpiled enough chips to last for three months as it designs its own chips, according to Bloomberg.
The government has since given Huawei a 90-day reprieve to continue maintaining its current products, but it’s unclear how its product line will change after that window closes.
Huawei may be best known for its line of smartphones, but the company makes a wide variety of products ranging from laptops to smartwatches.
Not every company or supplier mentioned below has said it will stop working with Huawei. In fact, many of them have not spoken publicly about how their business will change if at all given the new government requirements. But the list below demonstrates how large of a role US tech firms play in the development and production of Huawei’s gadgets.
Smartphones
Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
Perhaps the most obvious product line that could be impacted by Huawei’s placement on the US trade blacklist is its smartphones. Popular Huawei smartphone models such as the P30 Pro and Mate 20 Pro were built using a variety of components from US tech companies.
The P30 Pro, for example, uses flash storage from Micron, according to iFixit, which was founded in Boise, Idaho, in 1978. It also uses front-end modules from the Massachusetts-based Skyworks Solutions and California-based Qorvo. The company’s popular Mate 20 Pro smartphone also includes Skyworks modules and a wireless power receiver from IDT, according to iFixit, which is also headquartered in California.
Supplier Lumentum has also said it’s stopped shipping parts to Huawei, according to Reuters. It’s unclear precisely how Lumentum’s components are used in Huawei’s phones, but the components maker said that Huawei was responsible for 18% of its revenue in its last reported quarter. Lumentum is also a supplier for Apple’s Face ID facial recognition technology, so it’s possible that its parts have been used to power the facial recognition features on phones like the Mate 20.
But those are some of the more granular ways in which Huawei’s phones could be impacted by the new requirements. Of course, Google’s revocation of Huawei’s Android license means Huawei can no longer use the firm’s widely popular software. And designs from Arm, which recently told employees to stop working with Huawei, play a big role in Huawei’s line of Kirin chips that power its smartphones and tablets. (However, since firms usually license technology from Arm, it’s possible that Huawei has years worth of licenses stored for future use.)
New York-based Corning’s Gorilla Glass can also be found on a wide variety of Huawei smartphones ranging from its Mate 20 Pro to its less expensive Honor V8, among many other models, according to the glass maker.
Laptops
Huawei
Huawei works with many US-based companies on its laptop line as well.
Laptops like the MateBook X and Matebook 13, among many other models, run on Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Like many other US companies that work with Huawei, Microsoft has not made any public statements about its relationship with Huawei since the company was blacklisted. But it did recently remove Huawei’s laptops from its online store.
Intel, a key supplier of chips for Huawei’s laptops, has also told employees that it will not supply Huawei until further notice, according to Bloomberg. Intel’s chips power a variety of Huawei laptops including the Matebook 13, Matebook X Pro, Matebook X, and Matebook E, among others.
Certain models, such as the Matebook 13 and Matebook X Pro, also include an option for graphics powered by Nvidia, which is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
Corning’s Gorilla Glass can also be found on models such as the Matebook X Pro, Matebook 13, Matebook 14, and Matebook X, according to the company.
Tablets
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Huawei also sells a variety of tablets in different sizes and price points. There’s the MediaPad M5 line, which comes in 8.4-inch and 10.8-inch sizes, in addition to a cheaper "lite" model, as well as its T-series of MediaPad tablets.
But these slates run on Android, which means Huawei may have to use an alternative for future MediaPad products. They also all run on Huawei’s Kirin chipsets, which are based on Arm’s underlying technology. While the company can continue manufacturing existing Arm-based chips, the ban may prevent it from using the company’s designs in new chips moving forward, according to the BBC.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
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- Trump’s Huawei ban may leave the tech giant up a creek without a paddle for its next 2 major smartphones
Source: Business Insider – leadicicco@businessinsider.com (Lisa Eadicicco)