Danger For Google

August 19, 2019

Published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
(Germany) on 9 August 2019
by Alexander Armbruster (link to original link to original)

Translated from by Barbara Finkemeyer. Edited by Elizabeth Cosgriff.

The Trump administration wants to put the brakes on Huawei. It would be a dramatic turn, if, with this, they would accelerate the development process for a global operating system by the tech company from China.

The Trump administration wants to put the brakes on the Chinese tech company Huawei. It warns allied countries against using its components to set up the important 5G cellular network technology standard. And it severely restricts American companies from supplying Huawei with hardware and software. This is a big blow for Huawei. Because the company uses the Android operating system from Google, which is installed on the vast majority of cell phones worldwide, including the functionality that comes along with it. Because they know this digital ecosystem, many people, even outside of China, have opted for Huawei cell phones so far.

The American sanctions endanger this success in the short term. At the same time, they increase the pressure on Huawei to develop alternatives. Executive Director Richard Yu has finally presented the HarmonyOS operating system. How powerful it is, how well users can cope with it, will still have to be seen. It will probably not be able to compete internationally with the Android environment for a long time. Meanwhile, the Chinese have made their claim clear: "We want to build a global operating system, so it will not be used by Huawei alone." It would be a dramatic turn, if, in retrospect, the American sanctions in particular were to have accelerated this development process.

Die Trump-Regierung möchte Huawei ausbremsen. Es wäre dramatisch, wenn sie damit den Prozess eines globalen Betriebssystems des Tech-Konzerns aus China beschleunigen würde.

Die Trump-Regierung möchte den chinesischen Tech-Konzern Huawei ausbremsen. Sie warnt verbündete Staaten davor, mit dessen Komponenten den wichtigen Mobilfunkstandard 5G einzurichten. Und sie schränkt amerikanische Unternehmen stark ein, Huawei zu beliefern – mit Hardware und Software. Für Huawei ist das ein schwerer Schlag. Denn der Konzern verwendet etwa das auf den allermeisten Handys der Welt installierte Betriebssystem Android aus dem Hause Google, einschließlich der dazugehörenden Funktionalitäten. Weil sie dieses digitale Ökosystem kennen, haben sich bislang auch viele Menschen außerhalb Chinas für Huawei-Handys entschieden.

Die amerikanischen Sanktionen gefährden diesen Erfolg kurzfristig. Zugleich erhöhen sie den Druck auf Huawei, Alternativen zu entwickeln. Nun hat der Manager Richard Yu das Betriebssystem Harmony OS präsentiert. Wie leistungsfähig es ist, wie gut Nutzer damit zurechtkommen, das wird sich erst noch zeigen. Mit der Android-Umgebung wird es international vermutlich noch eine lange Zeit nicht mithalten können. Ihren Anspruch haben die Chinesen indes klargemacht: „Wir wollen ein globales Betriebssystem etablieren, das nicht nur von Huawei genutzt wird.“ Es wäre dramatisch, wenn im Nachhinein gerade die amerikanische Blockade diesen Prozess beschleunigt haben sollte.

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