There are signs of a thaw in the ongoing US vs Huawei saga, with President Trump announcing that Huawei will once again be able to buy technology from US suppliers – with certain limits.
"US companies can sell their equipment to Huawei," Bloomberg reports Trump as saying at a G20 news conference. "We're talking about equipment where there's no great national security problem with it."
It would appear the US and Chinese governments are prepared to press pause on the ongoing trade war happening between the countries, which should give companies on both sides of the Pacific some breathing space.
- The future could be scooter-driven
- Huawei Android updates are under threat
- Microsoft patents a folding device
As yet it's not clear exactly what the change in policy will mean: Huawei remains on the Commerce Department's Entities List, which means any deals will need approval from the US authorities. Further talks are planned this week.
Details to follow
It would appear the US is prepared to give Huawei some concessions when it comes to developing smartphone and laptop devices, while still keeping the Chinese company out of its 5G infrastructure.
Whether or not the deal means Huawei can carry on developing phones as normal, Android and all, hasn't yet been established. The fine print is still being discussed, and we should hear more this week.
Huawei has been scrambling to respond to the threat of having its US software and hardware suppliers cut off – even going as far as developing its own Android replacement in the event that it can't use Google software any more.
The full effects of the ban weren't due to come into effect until August anyway, so with President Trump's announcement at the G20 conference, it could now be business as usual for Huawei – at least for some of its products.
