US ban on Huawei hits Australia
Optus, Telstra and Microsoft sell out or halt sales of Huawei phones altogether
US ban on Huawei seemingly hits Australia
Optus, Telstra and Microsoft have seemingly pulled Huawei products from stores in Australia. Gloss has reached out for comment.
Microsoft’s online store returns a 404 error for the Matebook and Matebook Pro X, while Telstra and Optus have no stock of the latest P30 or P30 Pro phones.
Up until now Donald Trump’s ‘Executive Order on Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain’ has left Huawei effectively blacklisted by US companies.
This includes essential hardware and software partners like Intel, Microsoft (Windows) and Google, which pulled Huawei’s Android licence.
Softbank, owner of Arm Holdings, has also cut ties, leaving Huawei without a chip designer. As The Verge says:
Huawei relies on ARM for chip architecture designs for its own Kirin processors, and it pays to license these. Without the licenses, Huawei will not be able to continue manufacturing its own processors using ARM designs and its HiSilicon fabless semiconductor company.
Huawei reportedly has a stockpile of parts from US suppliers, however as the ban seemingly hits Australia, it seems that the company could face far greater challenges than simple supply restraints.