There might be a tiny light at the end of the tunnel for Huawei, as we just published our Mate 30 Pro review. In a recent Bloomberg interview, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said he was optimistic about reaching a “Phase One” China deal this month.
Additionally, Ross also said that licenses for American companies to allow them to sell components to Huawei should be also coming “very shortly”. While this could be very good news for Huawei, it’s unclear what this Phase One licensing will contain, and how restrictive these licenses will be.
Ross mentioned that 260 requests were already requested. “That’s a lot of applications — it’s frankly more than we would’ve thought“, he added.
Remember too with entity lists there’s a presumption of denial. So the safe thing for these companies would be to assume denial, even though we will obviously approve quite a few of them — U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross
It is also not clear whether Google would get the license. In case it will, Huawei will regain its Android license, and the company will be able to update the Mate 30-series with software that contains Google Mobile Services. That way the device will be able to get access to Google Play and the software titles in the store.
A deal could also mean good news for Apple, as the 15% tax on smartphones could be wiped out.
We’ll update you as more information sees the light of day, as the negotiations progress.