The impact of the Trump administration’s threats to choke Huawei reverberated across the global supply chain yesterday and TV manufacturers who use the Google Android TV OS are running scared.
Consumer Electronics retailers in Australia could soon be facing a new problem with the makers of Chinese TV brands using the Android TV OS now concerned that they also face been cut out of getting access to the Google Android Play Store.
ChannelNews has been told by TV industry sources in Shenzhen China where several big brand TV’s are manufactured that they have been told that the ban on Huawei getting access to future Android apps is set to be extended to Chinese TV brands.
Among those brands that could be affected are Hisense, Changhong who trade as Chiq TCL, and Skyworth who make the Toshiba TV which despite having a Japanese name is 100% manufactured by Skyworth a major Chinese TV maker.
The Toshiba TV brand is also owned Hisense.
A key manufacturer of TV’s told ChannelNews that one of the key selling points for these Chinese TV brands is having Android TV as their operating system.
“This gives them access to YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Prime content. If access to these services are removed, then these TV manufacturers have a major problem as consumers today want access to streaming services. In Australia access to Stan is an app download from the Google Play store”.
At this stage none of these brands have commented on the situation with one key observer claiming, “Most of these brands are keeping their heads low as they don’t want to get swept up in the trade war between the US Government and China”.
Huawei who have been stopped from getting access to the Android OS for their smartphones was planning to release a TV later this year with an Android OS. ChannelNews believes that that TV could be rolled out with a Huawei OS but it will not have access to US apps such as Netflix and Amazon Prime or YouTube according to sources.