Google is one of the biggest names among the companies that have imposed an embargo on Russia. The company, which announced that it would not accept customers from the country to Google Cloud after Russia was banned from making money from Google platforms in the past days, is on the agenda this time with a different sanction.
BQ, seen as Russia’s General Mobile, is having a hard time with Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. In addition to Google’s sanctions, the Russian company BQ stopped certifying its smartphones, and the company began to look for new solutions.
Android phone unavailable in Russia?
In order to use Google Services (GMS) on Android phones, companies must have these phones certified by Google. Google has also signed one of the biggest sanctions Russia has ever imposed by stopping certifying BQ smartphones. Although this does not seem to affect currently licensed devices, it creates a big problem for BQ’s new Android models. At the same time, Google’s ban on the provision of services in Russia dealt a major blow to exports in the country.
Although this move of Google does not affect Android phones currently in use, it means that companies cannot launch phones with Android operating system, looking forward. While the duration of this sanction is uncertain, Google Service certification is not currently issued for new phone models in the country. After the cancellation of the Android certificate of BQ, the largest smartphone manufacturer in the country, the company started different studies for its new models.
BQ started testing to use Huawei’s operating system HarmonyOS
Launched by Huawei in 2019, HarmonyOS is currently in many smartphone models is being used. This system, which does not take up much space in the memory of the phones and is used as the operating system of more than 220 million Huawei devices, can also be a way out for BQ.
It is claimed that BQ, which started working to use the HarmonyOS operating system, will launch smartphones with the new operating system until the second half of 2022. Huawei’s enforcement of sanctions on this issue is not on the agenda. While Russia continues to look for ways out against many sanctions, BQ seems to have found it.
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