As the trade tensions continue to rage between the two world’s biggest economies, the U.S. Commerce Department issued an order that forbids American companies from dealing with China’s ZTE. That restriction which prevents concerned companies from selling parts to ZTE is expected to last for seven years.
While ZTE seems not perturbed by the order, the aftermath effect of such order might be one that will have a grave effect on the company’s future Android phones. While the ban expressly prevents ZTE from using Qualcomm’s chipsets on its devices, it may as well cost the OEM its Android license deal with Google.
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Reuters reports that ZTE executives and Google are currently meeting in an attempt to fashion a way out of the ordeal, but both sides are yet to reach a deal on the use of Android OS by ZTE. Do note that the ban may not stop ZTE from using the Android OS, as it is an open source OS, so ZTE and Google might find a soft landing by using a tweaked version of the Android OS devoid of Google Mobile Services (GMS) package including the Play store, Gmail, Google search and a host of other Google apps.
It is our hopes that both US Department of Commerce, ZTE and other parties involved can reach a deal as failure to do so might be a big blow on ZTE’s upcoming Snapdragon 845 powered Axon 9.