By now, you’ll have read that Huawei is going through a Very Bad Time. Recent restrictions imposed by the United States government have led to a deluge of American tech companies — including Google, Intel and Qualcomm — shutting the Chinese electronics giant out of their hardware, software and services.
With the future looking grim for Huawei, Singaporeans are already panicking. Mothership noted that there has been a sudden influx of users putting up their Huawei phones for sale on online marketplace Carousell.
Despite Google confirming that its Android operating system and other services will continue to function on existing Huawei devices, users seem to be afraid that their phones will be bricked in the future. But the alleged bum-rush to offload Huawei products appears to have made such an impact that local mobile phone retailers have stopped accepting Huawei phones for trade-ins for now.
In other words, you can’t march up to your local “Ah Beng handphone shop” and get a good price for your used P30s and Mate 20s anymore — they don’t even want it. There’s just no resale value anymore.
For existing owners who aren’t parting ways with their Huawei smartphones, you can continue to use Google apps and services (Google Maps, YouTube, Gmail, etc). Upcoming security and software updates on their devices are assured, too. Plus, there's nothing wrong at all with keeping a device that's considered one of the best camera phones around.
While this means that future Huawei devices will no longer have access to Google’s software and services (in addition to not getting established chipsets), things could change once the Chinese company manages to patch things up with the Trump administration. If it ever does.
ilyas@asiaone.com