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The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android

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Re: The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android

#91

Post by geomark »

NotPaidToPost wrote: post #69
dageshi wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was always China's desire, to basically build home grown tech's that could replace the ones they were using from the west. Unless the Chinese government mandates use of a single os (no android) in the domestic market then it won't work, if they do then they still don't have a viable os for the rest of the world because the rest of the world wants google, facebook and other apps which are banned in china. Faceboo…

Chinese brands have huge market share in many countries outside China (e.g. close to 50% in India). Facebook and others will make apps for them...

Chinese brands also have about 50% of the market in Thailand, followed by Samsung and then Apple. Not as big as India, but annual sales of around 20 million units is still a decent chunk of change.

Re: The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android

#92

Post by snaky »

jmkni wrote: post #77
EGreg wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t Android open source? So why can’t Huawei simply fork it?

The OS is open source, Google Play Services isn't. When you are developing Android apps, you can leverage Google Play Services for all sorts of functionality, such as push notifications and maps, and I would say more apps do use these than don't. Huawei can still put Android on their phones, but not with Google Play Services. This means that many Android apps just won't work. They also can't supply the Google Play St…

Huawei could make their own Play Services, API-compatible with Google, then all apps would work the same. Maybe that's what they actually do now.

Re: The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android

#93

Post by noselasd »

hutzlibu wrote: post #53
dagw wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's part of the US/China trade war. Trump believed the existing tariff situation with China was unfair and wanted to negotiate a new trade deal. When negotiations failed he started to implement a bunch of tariffs and trade restrictions on chines goods and companies to try to force their hand. This is just a part of that 'negotiation' strategy. Google, Arm etc. don't want to stop doing business with Huawei (since doi…

But why is everyone silently accepting that? Also google, are they so bowed down to the government, that they just accept this, or do they know more reasons to declare Huawei a enemy?

> Also google, are they so bowed down to the government,

What choice do they have ? Comply with law or be heavily fined, shut down, executives jailed for compromising nation security.

Re: The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android

#94

Post by joatmon-snoo »

hutzlibu wrote: post #85
disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have no choice except to comply. I worked for a non-Google tech company and there is literally code which prevents users in any sanctioned countries from being able to use the services. Unless Sundar Pichai would like to go to jail, there's very little that they can do about this.

I believe there is something called the legal system? Which companies or people can use to challenge government decisions, if they don't like them. And they can at least openly express their concerns. But I do not see that hapoening, so something (or quite a lot) is going on behind the scene.

The judicial system is for challenging the interpretation of the law.

Changing the law is a different process.

Re: The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android

#96

Post by rickdeckard »

necovek wrote: post #52

The article links to an interesting view on how even AOSP is a no-go for Huawei: https://www.xda-developers.com/analysis-huawei-aosp-google-b... What I find interesting is that Apache Licensed software can be relicensed even in proprietary form (as long as you make it a derivative work, with your derivative bits with a proprietary license), thus the easy way out seems to be to have a non-US entity make a proprietary…

> Getting that camera app on one of the less known platforms and enabling Huawei phones for them would still make them appealing to a large number of customers in eg. Europe.

Except that camera itself is not a killer-app. The major use-case of a mobile camera BY FAR is not just to capture content, but to share the content on social media, also in Europe. So whatever less-known platform the camera-app would be moved to, that platform would still also have to provide a good user-experience for Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, etc. So in the end, that less-known platform would need a SocialMedia app-ecosystem comparable to Android just to match the Android-experience for Camera...

Re: The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android

#97

Post by TsomArp »

noselasd wrote: post #88
TsomArp wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe that is not actually google that cut off Huawei, but but US government prohibits any US company to make business with them.

Both are true. Google cut off Huawei because the US government told them to.

It is not like they had an option. They are a US based company. They must do it.

Re: The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android

#98

Post by Tsubasachan »

In defense of Google none of the smartphone makers have tried to make their own mobile OS based on Android.

Besides I think it more reveals how Google is in the grip of US politics- it might be time for Google to draw up some contingency plans for when America goes completely nuts.

Re: The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android

#99

Post by Jyaif »

mervchan wrote: post #84
dagw wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's part of the US/China trade war. Trump believed the existing tariff situation with China was unfair and wanted to negotiate a new trade deal. When negotiations failed he started to implement a bunch of tariffs and trade restrictions on chines goods and companies to try to force their hand. This is just a part of that 'negotiation' strategy. Google, Arm etc. don't want to stop doing business with Huawei (since doi…

China has disallowed their citizens from using Google, Netflix, Instagram, but everyone's up in arms over Trump stopping the US from doing business with Huawei. I really don't understand this. https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/the-complete-list-of-blocked-...

China is not competitive in tech right now, so it needs to block foreign companies in order to have local companies have a chance of emerging, and one day becoming competitive.

On the other hand, the US is super competitive. They must do as much business with China as possible in order to discourage any new company from spawning over there, because it would create competition.

In other words, Trump is doing exactly the opposite of what is good for the US.

Re: The Huawei Disaster Reveals Google’s Iron Grip on Android

#100

Post by pas »

dindresto wrote: post #70
pas wrote: post #56

“Consumers are attached to the Google products and services that sit on top of the operating system,” I doubt that. Google is pretty bad at keeping users. (Probably GMail is the strongest anchor point, but as we have seen with the G+ real name gotcha, it's better to be prepared to stop using that. Though of course most GMail users are not prepared for that.) Users will use whatever is the default. Probably the YouTub…

I think Windows Phone has shown that "Google/Alphabet/YT would make apps for that platform too" is far from true.

Why and how?

You can look at the difference between iOS and WP. Since iOS was a big market Google wanted [and wants] to be in they made the YT app. And since WP was small and late to the game Google had the upper hand, because MS wanted any users more than G wanted the small number of WP users.

https://www.theverge.com/2013/5/7/4308662/youtube-windows-ph...

Therefore if there were a credible new platform that Google wants to be on, they will develop the necessary apps.

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