And yet, the company remains tight-lipped on its plans

May 22, 2019 08:15 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is one of the American companies expected to cut their ties with Huawei following the order signed by President Trump last week and imposing new restrictions on Chinese firms.
 

After Google banned Huawei from using the licensed version of Android, and several other companies deciding to end their partnerships with the Chinese tech giant, Microsoft is expected to do pretty much the same thing sooner or later.

And by the looks of things, it has already made the first step towards a suspension of its collaboration with Huawei by pulling devices manufactured by the Chinese company from official stores.

The Huawei MateBook X Pro, which has often been described as one of the top MacBook rivals, is no longer up for grabs from Microsoft’s online store. The Verge writes that the device is still available in physical stores, but this could change sooner or later as Microsoft decides to stop working with Huawei.

What happens with Windows?

In the meantime, the software giant has remained completely tight-lipped on everything related to Huawei. I have reached out to the company asking for a statement on its plans regarding the collaboration with Huawei following the new US restrictions, but no answer has been provided until now.

The bigger question, however, concerns Windows licenses. If Microsoft bans Huawei from using Windows on its devices, the Chinese firm might have to turn to an alternative, which can be either Linux or an in-house operating system.

Huawei already said it was developing its own replacements for Android and Windows in order to be prepared for a US government ban, but specifics on these remain sketchy at this point.

Meanwhile, Huawei has recently been provided with a 3-month window during which it can continue to work with American companies for existing devices. However, it’s not allowed to buy new components that could be used for the manufacturing of new products.