Huawei has reportedly cut back on orders and stalled development of its PCs

Huawei's phone business isn't the only one being affected by the company's legal troubles with the United States. Its notebook line is also in dire straits due to the company's complete lack of access to US-based companies.

Taiwanese outlet DigiTimes is reporting that Huawei's manufacturing partners have recently started receiving communiques from the Chinese tech giant asking them to cut back on production for both its MateBook PCs and the MagicBook notebooks that it sells under its Honor sub-brand. Moreover, its research and development partners have seemingly also been told to put the development of future projects on hold.

As a result of being part of a US blacklist, Huawei has can no longer access the critical technology and support it requires from its American partners, most notably Intel and Microsoft, which provide the processors and the operating system which run Huawei's PCs. Lacking those, the company has very few options when it comes to powering its notebooks and the software to make them usable. The only other big game in town, AMD, is also an American company.

Huawei has been able to adapt somewhat when it comes to its mobile business, with the development of its own mobile operating system and app store. Even with ARM dropping support for the company, it also has some years of experience in SoC design through its HiSilicon subsidiary, which is responsible for the design and manufacturing of the Kirin processors found in the latest Huawei phones.

When it comes to PCs, however, the company has next to no in-house expertise that it could use to leverage to mount a similar counterattack. And if it does, we certainly don't know much about those plans. It has also been unable to stockpile the required components for its PC line in advance, a strategy it has successfully used to ensure things are running smoothly on the mobile side of things.

All that is to say that Huawei's PC business, which grew more than 330% in 2018, may soon come to a grinding halt.

Source: DigiTimes via Gizmochina