Google's Huawei ban exposes an alarming app store duopoly

Google and Apple are app store gatekeepers. That needs to end.

A laptop.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Suljo/iStock, The7Dew/iStock, Screenshot/Huawei, Wikimedia Commons)

Things are looking pretty bad for Huawei at the moment. This month, the Trump administration essentially blocked the Chinese tech giant in the U.S., and Google revoked Huawei's license to use Android on its new smartphones. Concerns about whether China could use Huawei equipment to spy on Americans linger. And even though Huawei denies that allegation, there's no doubt the company is in some trouble.

Still, Huawei has been increasingly praised by the U.S. tech press over the past couple of years. Its Matebook X Pro laptop has been deemed the best available, and its new P30 smartphone has a camera that may well be the industry's best. Globally, the company is the number two brand in smartphones behind Samsung and saw its overall sales jump 20 percent last year. But that success is seriously in doubt. Being banned from the U.S., and lacking the ability to include Android on its phones, means far fewer consumers, especially those outside of Asia, will gravitate to Huawei. Imagine buying a new phone but not being able to use Instagram or TikTok or any of millions of apps available on the Google Play store, or any of Google's services like Gmail or Maps. This isn't a death sentence — non-Android services still thrive in China, for example — but it is a devastating blow.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Navneet Alang

Navneet Alang is a technology and culture writer based out of Toronto. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, New Republic, Globe and Mail, and Hazlitt.