South African Huawei users can rest assured that their phones still work with Google Play and will continue to receive security and Android updates, an executive from Huawei SA told Business Times.
"We will continue to support our customers and there is no need to panic or return anything to retailers," said the executive, who declined to be named.
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"The phones South Africans have already bought are not impacted by Google's announcement and the same is true for all phones in stock with retailers."Frank Kahumba, an equity analyst at Momentum Securities, said consumers would not be hit too hard because if they wanted to dump Huawei they had a range of brands to choose from other than the flagships - Apple and Samsung."The Huawei P30 Pro and OnePlus 7 Pro have brought flagship-level specs and experiences to the market at a lower price point, increasing the competition for smartphones."Kahumba suggested that the events of the week could shift the balance back in favour of Apple, which stood to regain some of the market share it had lost to the Chinese brand and other "flagship killers"."Huawei relies heavily on Android for its operating system and will have to replicate what they are doing in China, given certain costs," he said."Android has a lot of enthusiasts . For a phone manufacturer to lose that [Android functionality], it could be a huge blow," Kahumba said...