Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order that effectively banned Huawei from conducting business with the US, and firms based in the US. That was a big deal, but its real repercussions started showing up over the next few weeks, and day by day, Huawei has been hit with bans and restrictions from US technology giants, and even non-US firms; restrictions that could cripple the Chinese technology giant, and restrictions that show just how dependent manufacturers are on US technology, especially in the world of consumer electronics.
When you think about operating systems, there are basically only two in the world of smartphones — Android and iOS. Both of which are developed, maintained, and controlled by US technology giants Google and Apple respectively. Without access to operating systems that are ruling the market, it’s nearly impossible for a product to survive, let alone compete in the global market, no matter who built it.
But there’s more.
I know what you’re thinking, Huawei makes its own processors, and that’s true. The Kirin chipsets in Huawei phones are their own, but the architecture they use is designed by ARM — a UK based company. Not just Kirin, Snapdragon processors also use ARM architecture cores. Any time you look at the specs for a processor, you’ll see Cortex mentioned there — that’s ARM.
Storage
Take a look inside the P30 Pro, like iFixit did, and you’ll find that the storage Huawei is using is made by a company called Micron — one that’s based in the US, and one that has also suspended shipments to Huawei.
More importantly than storage, the world’s top two smartphone brands — Samsung and Huawei — both use LTE and 3G modems that are made by US companies. That obviously means that these modems are probably the best that are available in the industry, and without access to these modems, Huawei’s phones might not be compatible with a whole bunch of networks.
Speaking of networks and connectivity, the WiFi Alliance has also suspended Huawei as a member, if only temporarily, but if the US imposed ban isn’t sorted out quickly, Huawei might have trouble with its future phones not being able to support WiFi standards.
Most of the consumer electronics we see and use are made in China, but many of the technologies that make these devices what they are, depend on US companies, either directly, as is the case with operating systems, or indirectly, as is the case with ARM and processor architectures. Clearly, a US ban on any brand can easily put a big dent in the company’s future prospects of even existing in the global consumer electronics market; Huawei just happens to be the company Donald Trump chose to make his target.
