Future Huawei devices can't use microSD cards

With mounting effects of the US Huawei ban, the company is now prohibited from obtaining membership to the SD Association (the trade group agreeing on standardised specs for SD and microSD cards).

Henceforth, Huawei can no longer include official SD and microSD cards in its future devices, according to 9to5Google. However, MicroSD and SD cards installed in existing Huawei devices will continue to work as before.



According to Android Authority, the SD Association confirmed that Huawei’s membership being revoked was a direct result of Trump’s executive order, making it the latest consequence the company has had to face as a result of the ban.

The SD Association has jumped on the bandwagon after a number of other companies also cut ties with Huawei, including Google, ARM, Intel, Qualcomm, and Broadcom.

In addition, the Wi-Fi Alliance (setting standards for Wi-Fi across the industry) has placed a temporary restriction on Huawei’s membership due to the US ban. Nikkei Asian Review also reported that Huawei voluntarily left JEDEC (a semiconductor standards group best known for defining RAM specifications) over problems arising with the US. All of this could have a severe restrictive impact on Huawei’s ability to produce hardware, let alone compete in the US market.



This loss of SD cards may not be the biggest problem facing the company at the moment. Huawei has seemingly prepared for the microSD card outage by developing its own, just like potentially developing an operating system to replace Android on their devices.

The company has its own, proprietary Nano-Memory Cards that are physically smaller than microSD cards and which have replaced the more universal standard.

This article originally appeared on The Verge.