Huawei Teamed Up With Google To Develop A Smart Speaker

According to a recent report, Huawei teamed up with Google to develop a smart speaker before the US ban on this Chinese tech giant took effect. However, many sources pointed out that, as cited by The Information on July 29, these companies' development of this product was ceased two months ago, in May.

Back to May 2019, Huawei became one of the Chinese tech companies that were blacklisted by Trump’s government. At the beginning of July, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said that the US companies can continue selling equipment to Huawei in case they have licenses and ensure no threats concerning national security.

A couple of days ago, the US President finally allowed the US companies to get the licensing agreement with Huawei.

According to The Information, the smart speaker manufactured by Huawei would support Google Assistant, and be first introduced in September. This product was expected to be sold in the United States.

A Huawei employee revealed,

In fact, Trump government didn’t just place the Chinese company on its entity list, but also issued an executive order to ban Huawei due to its concerns of national security issues Huawei may pose. Besides, the close relationship between this company and its government was in doubt. However, Huawei constantly denied these allegations.

Following the US ban, Google stopped to allow Huawei products to use its new updates on the Android platform, although the Commerce Department eased the ban on Huawei for 90 days at the end of May.

Right after that, the Chinese company introduced its completely new OS called HongMeng in Peru.

Both Huawei and Google haven’t yet given any comment on the smart speaker project.