Malcolm Owen for AppleInsider:
Huawei was working with Google to take on Apple’s HomePod and Amazon’s Echo smart speaker range with a jointly-produced device, a report claims, but the close collaboration came to an abrupt end in May, just before restrictions were placed on Huawei by President Donald Trump and the U.S. government.
The speaker would have been intended for markets outside of China, with the United States being a major target for the product.
“We worked on this project with Google for a year and made a lot of progress. Then everything stopped,” an unnamed Huawei employee advised to The Information. The stoppage was likely due to the sudden restrictions laid onto Huawei by the Trump administration, which stopped US companies from using Huawei equipment as well as limiting what Huawei could acquire from US-based firms… Since the change in the relationship, Huawei has reportedly only interacted with Google via meetings and calls accompanied by lawyers, present to ensure compliance with the sanctions.
MacDailyNews Take: Huawei+Google. There’s a marriage made in privacy trampling hell!