Huawei celebrates Nikkei iPhone Ban by posting 2019 greeting from an iPhone

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in iPhone
Just days after Nikkei Asian Review contrived the story that 20 Chinese firms were supposedly supporting Huawei in a boycott of Apple's iPhones, Huawei itself tweeted out an official New Years' greeting-- from an iPhone.


Huawei was the first Android maker to tweet from an iPhone in 2019


Despite an international incident involving the arrest of Huawei's CFO Meng Wanzhou on fraud charges related to violating U.S. trade sanctions against Iran, and the supposed Asian iPhone boycott announced by Nikkei, the Chinese phone maker's public relations group continued to use iPhones in the promotion of its brand, as noted by MKBHD video blogger Marques Brownlee.

Screenshots of the Twitter incident were posted to China's popular Sina Weibo social network, where users posted colorful Chinese idioms that still skewer even when machine-translated into English: "Who requires Huawei employees to use Huawei mobile phones? Not to mention this is not the mobile phone department," and "Which mobile phone is good, the employee's stomach is the clearest!"

Fake Ruse

The idea that a couple dozen companies in China were trying to promote the exclusive use of Huawei phones was big news among bloggers trying to perpetuate the idea that Apple was facing big problems in China-- a place where iPhones are actually comfortably positioned as the largest and most entrenched platform among affluent users of premium phone models.

Globally, Apple captured a 47 percent share of the premium segment above $400 in December quarter and was the "driving force" for premium expansion in a market that is otherwise shrinking, according to Counterpoint Research's Market Monitor.

That's an increase over the previous quarter when Apple made up 43 percent of premium phones. In phones priced between $600 and $800, Apple makes up 61 percent of all sales, and above $800, it accounts for 79 percent of units sold.

But while writing about the supposed voluntary boycott of iPhones in China, reports seemed to forget that Huawei itself is flat-out banned from use by the U.S. government and that the U.S. is actively working to prevent its allies from using phones or network equipment from the company.

That's because, as a U.S. Senator stated last February, "Huawei is effectively an arm of the Chinese government and it's more than capable of stealing information from U.S. officials by hacking its devices," adding. "There are plenty of other companies that can meet our technology needs, and we shouldn't make it any easier for China to spy on us."

Despite being the second largest maker of Android phones, Huawei has little penetration in the U.S., one of the largest markets for premium models. Like other Android makers, it largely relies on huge volumes of lower end phones to price-sensitive markets, resulting in marginal profits. That's making it hard for the company to keep up with Apple in silicon, despite the backing of the Chinese government.

Huawei
Huawei's Kirin 980 chip isn't just behind Apple's A12 Bionic, it's also struggling to keep up with last year's A11

Fake Muse

In parallel, the same Nikkei news agency has repeatedly worked to seed the idea that Apple's suppliers are reporting financial troubles and that nobody can afford its premium models. Back in 2016, the Nikkei claimed iPhone 6s production was expected to be cut by "around 30 percent" based on sources attributed only to "Japanese and South Korean parts suppliers."

Last year, Nikki flat out announced that sales of iPhone X were "disappointing"-- a claim that was entirely false. It also claimed Apple was slashing production orders for iPhone X in half, cutting 20 million units "from the figure of over 40 million units envisaged at the time of its release in November," numbers that were ridiculous on their face.

Nikkei
Nikkei has repeatedly staked its reputation on the idea that iPhones are failing


Apple had previously sold 50-60 million iPhones in total in its January quarter and clearly didn't expect to sell 40 million $999 iPhone X models on top of the baseline of iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 models it was producing in parallel. Yet the media continued to carry this "report" as news from a reliable source, despite years of being repeatedly wrong.

Nikkei supported its nonsense with continued claims of "slower than expected holiday sales" the U.S., China, and Europe. This year it repeated the same claims about Apple's new models, with the same "staff" byline and same anonymous sources claiming to be able to interpret Apple's supply chain.

That once again helped fool Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, whose junior writers hired from blogs jumped on the bandwagon to insist that Apple's iPhone sales were in the tank because of their pricing and because the most advanced iPhones ever supposedly didn't involve any "innovation."

Tripp Mickle of the Wall Street Journal claimed Apple "is slashing planned production" of iPhone X "in a sign of weaker-than-expected demand," while Mark Gurman, writing for Bloomberg, was so confident about "lackluster" iPhone sales that he actually stated, "Apple Inc. earnings this week will confirm what most investors have finally accepted: The iPhone X didn't live up to the hype."

Fake Use

Stories about uncertainty in Apple's supply chain are nearly as common as paid Android endorsements from celebrities who are still using iPhones. Companies licensing Android have a long history of eroding their own brand value by preferring to use iPhones to deliver their marketing messages.

Less than a year ago, Huawei itself paid "Wonder Woman" actress Gal Gadot to serve as its brand ambassador for the high-end Mate 10 Pro, but the star posted her endorsement via her iPhone.




The previous May, professional tennis player Sania Mirza tweeted out "Not rly a techie, but totally love using the OnePlus 3T the past few months. More in my story onepl.us/a5 #oneplusstarcommunity." It too was sent from an iPhone.

In March 2013, after the Chinese government's CCTV propaganda channel began airing reports stating that Apple was "biased against Chinese consumers in its warranty and customer service policies," a series of orchestrated tweets on China's Sina Weibo from various celebrities and other well known personalities voiced unison disapproval of Apple on cue after the broadcast, many of which were sent from iPad and iPhones.

At the height of Peak Galaxy, Samsung created a fantasy soccer league in 2013 intended to "combine fans' universal love for football and GALAXY devices," but then the legendary leader of its fantasy team Franz Beckenbauer tweeted his canned endorsement from his iPhone.

Shortly afterward in April, Spanish tennis player David Ferrer tweeted his satisfaction with his #GalaxyS4 and that he was "configuring S Health on my new #GalaxyS4 to help with training @SamsungMobile," all via Twitter, que contento estoy con mi iPhone.

Just prior to that, T-Mobile chief executive John Legere intended to use Twitter to direct attention to Samsung Mobile's latest Note 3 phablet, but inadvertently did so via his iPhone 5s.

It hasn't just been Android getting fake praise from iOS users. In 2012, Oprah Winfrey used an iPad to send out tweets endorsing Microsoft's Surface, using the hashtag "#FavoriteThings" to say she had bought a dozen of them for Christmas gifts.

In 2011, after BlackBerry paid Alicia Keys to serve as its Creative Director, she sent a personal tweet from her iPhone in February, then removed it and claimed her account had been "hacked."
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 39
    wood1208wood1208 Posts: 2,905member
    People from all non-Chinese countries should join the coalition call "Save your future generation from China" and boycott all phones(products) made by Chinese companies. But, most Americans, Europeans and others are idiot and they will do other way supporting Chinese companies..
    edited January 2019
  • Reply 2 of 39
    flydogflydog Posts: 1,123member
    Pretty well established that these twitter messages are sent by publicists, not the company or the celebrity endorsing the company's products. 
    dws-2avon b7cornchip
  • Reply 3 of 39
    1st1st Posts: 443member
    nay, Alicia Key was the real deal - she use iphone (during work out) when still on BB $.  Can't leave the ecosystem to live, even for duration of "hired".  
    ronnwatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 39
    flydog said:
    Pretty well established that these twitter messages are sent by publicists, not the company or the celebrity endorsing the company's products. 

    Pretty bad for someone who calls themself a “publicist” and makes such a simple mistake as this. 
    StrangeDaysronnjbdragonwatto_cobrajony0
  • Reply 5 of 39
    dws-2dws-2 Posts: 276member
    flydog said:
    Pretty well established that these twitter messages are sent by publicists, not the company or the celebrity endorsing the company's products. 
    I think this still really exposes that the message they're sending isn't meaningful. If I owned a company that made a product I really believed in, and that product was used huge number of people, I'd hire a PR firm that shared my belief.

    But, of course, that's one of (many, many) the reasons I don't run a big company. I care about the product more than the profit.
    StrangeDayscornchipwatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 39
    avon b7avon b7 Posts: 7,622member
    flydog said:
    Pretty well established that these twitter messages are sent by publicists, not the company or the celebrity endorsing the company's products. 
    Yes. And that is where the story falls apart - all by itself.
    ronncornchip
  • Reply 7 of 39
    avon b7avon b7 Posts: 7,622member
    flydog said:
    Pretty well established that these twitter messages are sent by publicists, not the company or the celebrity endorsing the company's products. 

    Pretty bad for someone who calls themself a “publicist” and makes such a simple mistake as this. 
    It is, but this isn't the first time it has happened and probably won't be the last. 
    cornchip
  • Reply 8 of 39
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    avon b7 said:
    flydog said:
    Pretty well established that these twitter messages are sent by publicists, not the company or the celebrity endorsing the company's products. 
    Yes. And that is where the story falls apart - all by itself.

    Consider the source. I don’t get why these things are still considered newsworthy. I mean there was an Apple Music tweet that was posted by Twitter for Android. Who cares? Apple Music has an Android app so it was probably an employee who works on that app who posted it. Why is that newsworthy?
  • Reply 9 of 39
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    And yet,it seems every tech Youtuber shills for this company and their products. Like the Huwai Pro 20 or whatever the hell is called is the greatest product ever made. Pretty disgusting, how these sells outs actively encourage people to buy a Chinese, no doubt malware infested phone running a spyware OS.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 39
    avon b7 said:
    flydog said:
    Pretty well established that these twitter messages are sent by publicists, not the company or the celebrity endorsing the company's products. 
    Yes. And that is where the story falls apart - all by itself.

    Consider the source. I don’t get why these things are still considered newsworthy. I mean there was an Apple Music tweet that was posted by Twitter for Android. Who cares? Apple Music has an Android app so it was probably an employee who works on that app who posted it. Why is that newsworthy?

    Yes, because people were just itching to catch Apple doing something that others get made fun of for. Except in this case Apple Music supports Android, so it makes sense for some Apple Music employees to be using devices from both OSes.

    Whereas all the "Twiiter for iPhone" tweets sent out regarding Android companies are actual blunders. Like a celebrity accepting sponsorship money from Samsung (for example) and tweeting out their support from an iPhone. That's actually a huge mistake. As is this one from Huawei.
    StrangeDaysronnjbdragoncornchiproundaboutnowwatto_cobra
  • Reply 11 of 39
    avon b7avon b7 Posts: 7,622member
    slurpy said:
    And yet,it seems every tech Youtuber shills for this company and their products. Like the Huwai Pro 20 or whatever the hell is called is the greatest product ever made. Pretty disgusting, how these sells outs actively encourage people to buy a Chinese, no doubt malware infested phone running a spyware OS.
    The P20 Pro still sits at the top of DX0 Mark list, almost a year after release. Design wise it was the phone to follow this year. It has very fast charging, 3x optical zoom, gigabit modem, AIIS etc. Nothing disgusting about that and, for all the FUD, not a shred of evidence to suggest the phone is somehow spying on anyone.

    With the release of the Mate 20 Pro, its price has come down too.
  • Reply 12 of 39
    tzeshantzeshan Posts: 2,351member
    wood1208 said:
    People from all non-Chinese countries should join the coalition call "Save your future generation from China" and boycott all phones(products) made by Chinese companies. But, most Americans, Europeans and others are idiot and they will do other way supporting Chinese companies..
    This is idiot. What phone do you use? A Nokia phone? A Pixel? How do you know the Pixel is not made from China? 
    ronn
  • Reply 13 of 39
    Dan_DilgerDan_Dilger Posts: 1,583member
    flydog said:
    Pretty well established that these twitter messages are sent by publicists, not the company or the celebrity endorsing the company's products. 
    If it's a publicist, that's even worse isn't it? 

    I mean duh. Huawei's professional PR team? The publicist of major celebrities, fully aware that these are endorsements? That's more significant than expecting that a famous person gives a crap about a Chinese Android model. 
    StrangeDaysronnwatto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 39
    Dan_DilgerDan_Dilger Posts: 1,583member
    avon b7 said:
    flydog said:
    Pretty well established that these twitter messages are sent by publicists, not the company or the celebrity endorsing the company's products. 
    Yes. And that is where the story falls apart - all by itself.

    Consider the source. I don’t get why these things are still considered newsworthy. I mean there was an Apple Music tweet that was posted by Twitter for Android. Who cares? Apple Music has an Android app so it was probably an employee who works on that app who posted it. Why is that newsworthy?
    The pair of you two are so bad at shilling you would do better just to sit it out rather than try to add your "thoughts." 

    Apple Music is promoting itself as working on Android to increase its subscribers. That's not even remotely similar to Huawei and Nikkei inventing an "Apple ban" in China to support the communist party's practice of illicitly selling sanctioned US tech to Iran, then turning out to be iPhone users themselves in a professional, public-facing capacity.

     
    StrangeDaysronnroundaboutnowwatto_cobra
  • Reply 15 of 39
    avon b7 said:
    slurpy said:
    And yet,it seems every tech Youtuber shills for this company and their products. Like the Huwai Pro 20 or whatever the hell is called is the greatest product ever made. Pretty disgusting, how these sells outs actively encourage people to buy a Chinese, no doubt malware infested phone running a spyware OS.
    The P20 Pro still sits at the top of DX0 Mark list, almost a year after release. Design wise it was the phone to follow this year. It has very fast charging, 3x optical zoom, gigabit modem, AIIS etc. Nothing disgusting about that and, for all the FUD, not a shred of evidence to suggest the phone is somehow spying on anyone.

    With the release of the Mate 20 Pro, its price has come down too.

    When will you finally get it through your head that nobody here cares about Huawei and all your bullshit claims about how good they are?
    StrangeDaysronncornchiproundaboutnowwatto_cobra
  • Reply 16 of 39
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    avon b7 said:
    slurpy said:
    And yet,it seems every tech Youtuber shills for this company and their products. Like the Huwai Pro 20 or whatever the hell is called is the greatest product ever made. Pretty disgusting, how these sells outs actively encourage people to buy a Chinese, no doubt malware infested phone running a spyware OS.
    The P20 Pro still sits at the top of DX0 Mark list, almost a year after release. Design wise it was the phone to follow this year. It has very fast charging, 3x optical zoom, gigabit modem, AIIS etc. Nothing disgusting about that and, for all the FUD, not a shred of evidence to suggest the phone is somehow spying on anyone.

    With the release of the Mate 20 Pro, its price has come down too.

    When will you finally get it through your head that nobody here cares about Huawei and all your bullshit claims about how good they are?
    At least the post was pretty much on-topic. It's not as tho the title of the article itself didn't warn you that it concerned Huawei so you could avoid reading it if you were sick of hearing about them. 
    edited January 2019 muthuk_vanalingam
  • Reply 17 of 39
    racerhomie3racerhomie3 Posts: 1,264member
    avon b7 said:
    slurpy said:
    And yet,it seems every tech Youtuber shills for this company and their products. Like the Huwai Pro 20 or whatever the hell is called is the greatest product ever made. Pretty disgusting, how these sells outs actively encourage people to buy a Chinese, no doubt malware infested phone running a spyware OS.
    The P20 Pro still sits at the top of DX0 Mark list, almost a year after release. Design wise it was the phone to follow this year. It has very fast charging, 3x optical zoom, gigabit modem, AIIS etc. Nothing disgusting about that and, for all the FUD, not a shred of evidence to suggest the phone is somehow spying on anyone.

    With the release of the Mate 20 Pro, its price has come down too.
    It should be called China Spy 20 Pro.
    cornchipwatto_cobra
  • Reply 18 of 39
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,834member
    flydog said:
    Pretty well established that these twitter messages are sent by publicists, not the company or the celebrity endorsing the company's products. 
    It’s still noteworthy that the publicity firms these companies rely on use iPhones.
    ronncornchiproundaboutnowwatto_cobra
  • Reply 19 of 39
    tmaytmay Posts: 6,309member
    avon b7 said:
    slurpy said:
    And yet,it seems every tech Youtuber shills for this company and their products. Like the Huwai Pro 20 or whatever the hell is called is the greatest product ever made. Pretty disgusting, how these sells outs actively encourage people to buy a Chinese, no doubt malware infested phone running a spyware OS.
    The P20 Pro still sits at the top of DX0 Mark list, almost a year after release. Design wise it was the phone to follow this year. It has very fast charging, 3x optical zoom, gigabit modem, AIIS etc. Nothing disgusting about that and, for all the FUD, not a shred of evidence to suggest the phone is somehow spying on anyone.

    With the release of the Mate 20 Pro, its price has come down too.
    Wonderful, but how is your wife liking her iPhone XR?

    You know, because not everybody is as excited about the new Huawei P20 Pro or Mate 20 Pro "halo" features that you are always touting, especially here. In fact, some people are more interested in the OS, usability, support, or ecosystem than a few marginally better features that will soon be eclipsed, as even you point out.
    cornchiproundaboutnowwatto_cobra
  • Reply 20 of 39
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,834member
    avon b7 said:
    flydog said:
    Pretty well established that these twitter messages are sent by publicists, not the company or the celebrity endorsing the company's products. 
    Yes. And that is where the story falls apart - all by itself.
    Not at all. It exposes that the emperor has no clothes — even their hired publicity firms don’t think the knockoffs are good enough to replace their iphones with.
    watto_cobra
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