Listen. Can you hear that noise? It’s the sound of a collective sigh of relief. It’s coming from the staff at Chinese super-company Huawei and it’s in response to the reprieve which is expected to be announced in the next few hours.
Update: As predicted, the extension has been granted, with some complications. Read all about the result and why it has one big benefit for Huawei, here.
Last year’s Huawei Mate 20 Pro: has Trump just saved the Mate 30 Pro?
According to Reuters, the U.S. Commerce Department will announce Monday that Huawei will be allowed to buy goods and services from American companies for another 90 days.
The writing was on the wall last week when the President postponed a series of tariffs on goods arriving in the States from China. Those tariffs now won’t apply until December 15. After all, why would you offer tangible positive benefits to China one day and then punish its biggest technology company the next?
Anyway, the temporary general license which permits Huawei to buy components and services from the U.S. is now expected to run until the middle of November.
The sources who spoke to Reuters said the situation is very fluid, so there’s still a chance the reprieve might not occur. That would leave Huawei unable to launch its next flagship phone, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, with Google’s Android operating system on board. The company has said that in that case, the phone launch would go ahead as planned, perhaps as early as next month, but with the new Huawei operating software, called Harmony OS, replacing Android.
Having Android on that phone is definitely Huawei’s preferred choice. Harmony OS is Plan B.
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