Huawei South Africa has stated that owners of its smartphones in South Africa would not be affected by the US trade ban,
reported.
Huawei SA general manager Likun Zhao spoke to MyBroadband about how this situation will affect those who purchase a Huawei phones in the future.
Zhao acknowledged that SA Huawei owners were concerned about the effect that the trade ban could have, but confirmed that the software and functionality of their devices won't be affected.
“Consumers are worried that if they own or buy an existing product they will have these problems after 90 days,” Zhao said.
“We want to clarify that for all existing products, all of the products launched in South Africa, we can promise that none of them will be affected in terms of Android updates or Google application compatibility.”
Apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook would continue to work as normal.
Huawei's phones run on Android and include the Google Play set of apps in devices sold abroad. Most Google apps are not available on models sold in China, where they are illegal.
Huawei is the world's second-largest smartphone seller, ahead of Apple and behind Samsung. It accounts for about a third of the European smartphone market, but is lesser known in the US market because carriers such as AT&T and Verizon don't sell Huawei devices.
"They were en route to become the biggest smartphone seller in Europe, and not just in Europe but worldwide," said Francisco Jeronimo, London-based associate vice president of IDC, a global market intelligence firm.