On March 27, according to the Russian Satellite News Agency, Google has stopped certifying the smartphones of Russian BQ company running Android due to US sanctions, and the company will switch to using the Harmony OS system built by China's Huawei.
BQ General Manager Vladimir Buzanov said the company received a notice from Google that they were barred from providing services to Russian companies, including U.S.-origin software and technology, under U.S. regulations. Buzanov said all of the company's certified devices will continue to function normally, but the Android system of new devices may have problems.
Xiao Lei learned that BQ is already testing China's Huawei's Harmony OS operating system, and the new machine equipped with the system may be launched in the second half of 2022. The company's experience is not much different from Huawei's in previous years, and it has become Google's "blacklist customer" and is banned from providing GMS certification. After the cessation of certification, all BQ mobile phone products may not be able to obtain Android system updates, and future models will not be able to use the GMS service suite.
The inability to use Google's GMS service suite is undoubtedly a huge blow to most mobile phone companies. As we all know, most Foreign Android mobile phone users are highly dependent on Google PlayStore, Google Pay and other GMS functions, just as iPhone users rely on services such as Apple Pay. The mobile phone company's lack of this kit means that its mobile phones are difficult to be accepted by consumers around the world, unless the company has a service chain similar to GMS.
Coincidentally, the Harmony OS system can not only provide complete software and post-maintenance services for BQ's mobile phones, but also preset Huawei's own HMS service suite. Google stopped providing services to BQ, which is equivalent to giving Huawei the opportunity to develop HMS and gain a large number of users. With more user base as a support, Huawei's Harmony OS and HMS services have greater convincing power in overseas markets.
Then again, after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, many well-known overseas companies have announced that they will stop providing services to Russia, and digital giants such as Apple and Google have "withdrawn" from the Russian market, allowing our domestic products to "take advantage of the void" and occupy the blockbuster market. BQ turned to Harmony OS, and the opportunity for Huawei to show its fists also came.