Enterprise

Google begins blacklisting Huawei from its services

Biggest blow yet to the Chinese company

Published

May 20, 2019

Marvin Velasco

By now, it should be clear that Huawei hasn’t been doing well on North American soil. Whether it was because of accusations stemming from the US government or threats of banning the Chinese company’s 5G technologies in certain countries, there was always something for Huawei to worry about. In the latest development, we may be seeing their biggest hurdle yet.

Initially reported by Reuters, Google has already cut ties with Huawei, effectively banning them from the “transfer of hardware, software, and technical services except those publicly available via open source licensing.”

If this action holds, Huawei smartphones might soon lose access to Android updates, the Google Play store, and all Google-made apps and services — all of which are “not covered by the open source license and require a commercial agreement with Google.”

“Huawei will only be able to use the public version of Android and will not be able to get access to proprietary apps and services from Google,” says Reuters‘ source.

This move comes after US President Donald Trump added Huawei to the country’s trade blacklist last week. Additionally, Huawei settled a three-year-long patent dispute with Samsung a couple of days ago — probably in anticipation of this larger threat.

Aside from this early information, it’s still unsure how and when this blacklisting will take effect. According to the same source, both Huawei and Google are currently discussing internally how all this will affect their Android partnership.

However, Huawei phones in China may be unaffected, since they don’t rely on Google apps and services in the first place, choosing to use their own homegrown software. Furthermore, existing Huawei smartphone users could be safe from the loss of app access, but there’s no official confirmation on that as of now.

Earlier this year, it was already confirmed by a Huawei executive that the company is building a non-Android operating system for their smartphones. With the way things are going, its development may speed up.

Enterprise

ACMobility Launches ChargeFleet: Seamless solution for businesses

B2B solution for corporate fleets and transport groups

Published

February 18, 2026

GadgetMatch

Ayala Group’s ACMobility has launched ChargeFleet, a new B2B digital solution for corporate fleets and transport groups.

The new service introduces a shareable digital wallet that streamlines charging expenses, reduces manual tracking, and improves cost control.

As more organizations explore electrifying their mobility operations, many continue to face operational challenges — including fragmented payment systems, reimbursement delays, and limited visibility over charging usage.

ChargeFleet addresses these gaps by introducing a centralized, shareable digital wallet. Here, fleet managers can allocate and monitor charging credits across multiple drivers across a single platform.

The system is a seamless process designed for long-term usage and easy deployment across any organization.

Once integrated, ACMobility assigns charging credits to the client’s fleet manager. The manager then can distribute these to multiple drivers. Meanwhile, the latter will be able to see and use their assigned credits via the Evro app.

ChargeFleet is available as a prepaid product through the ChargeFleet Store. Users can buy offers via GCash or credit card. No application process is required.

Looking ahead, ACMobility will continue to enhance the ChargeFleet experience with exclusive value-added perks integrated through Evro and Power on Wheels.

The upcoming features highlight ACMobility’s ongoing push to provide a future-proof support system for the evolving needs of their customers’ businesses.

Enterprise

Sony teams up with 13 companies for sustainable global supply chain

Sustainability through introduction of renewable plastics

Published

February 9, 2026

GadgetMatch

Sony, along with several companies, have established the world’s first global supply chain for the production of renewable plastics that can be used in Sony’s high-performance audiovisual products.

The supply chain consists of 14 companies across five countries and regions. The various plastic materials manufacture through this supply are slated for use in Sony’s products that will launch worldwide.

High-performance products such as audiovisual equipment involve a wide variety of plastics. The result is a complex supply chain that makes it difficult to visualize and manage the entire flow.

Additionally, plastic components that require high performance in terms of flame resistance and optical properties cannot be fully replaced with plastics from material recycling.

To address these challenges, these 14 companies have collaborated to visualize the existing supply chain for Sony’s products:

Sony Corporation
Mitsubishi Corporation
ADEKA CORPORATION
CHIMEI Corporation
ENEOS Corporation
Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corporation
Hanwha Impact Corporation
Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd.
Mitsui Chemicals, Inc.
Neste Corporation
Qingdao Haier New Material Development Co.
Ltd., SK Geo Centric Co., Ltd.
Toray Industries, Inc.
Toray Advanced Materials Korea Inc.

Sustainability through renewable plastics

The new supply chain created will enable the production of multiple types of renewable plastics from biomass resources with a mass balance approach.

This allows Sony to proactively source raw materials for its products with quality, as well as properties equivalent to virgin fossil-based plastics.

Defining the supply chain also helps the companies track and document GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emissions data in a verifiable way.

This allows participating companies to leverage the data to advance efforts to reduce their carbon footprint going forward.

Sony’s initiative with a wide range of global partners is part of the “Creating NEW from reNEWable materials” jointly launched by the electronics giant and Mitsubishi.

It aims to achieve zero usage of virgin fossil-based plastics through the introduction of renewable plastics.

Enterprise

realme is reportedly going back to being an OPPO sub-brand

All scheduled phones will still launch on time, though.

Published

January 9, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

A popular story among Chinese smartphone brands is whenever a sub-brand spinning off into its own independent entity. A less common one is when an independent entity suddenly merges back into the main entity. And yet, that’s the story we have today. realme is reportedly going back to being a sub-brand of OPPO.

If you don’t remember realme’s time as a sub-brand, then it’s hardly your fault. It’s been a long while since realme was considered a sub-brand. In 2018, the brand spun off on its own to form one of the most popular names in the Chinese smartphone space.

Today, via Leiphone, realme will return to OPPO as a sub-brand. Current realme CEO Sky Li will still retain his responsibilities heading the brand. Plus, all products on the current release schedule will still come out as planned.

However, starting this year, realme will start reintegrating back into OPPO, particularly through the latter’s after-sales programs. OnePlus will also follow the same structure going forward.

Currently, realme has not officially announced the move. That said, we also don’t know how the brand will address the reported change. It’s possible that the shift is just internal and has no effect on how the brand faces the public. For now, only time will tell.