Huawei's CFO probably owns more Apple products than you

Posted:
in General Discussion edited March 2019
When Huawei CFO Wanzhou Meng was arrested in December, the one-time heir apparent to the Chinese communications equipment giant and current focus of a U.S. criminal case was carrying an iPhone 7 Plus, iPad Pro and MacBook Air.

Huawei CFO Wanzhou Meng


According to court filings issued on Friday, Canadian police seized Meng's cache of Apple products at the time of her arrest at Vancouver International Airport on Dec. 1, 2018, reports Bloomberg. Of the assortment of other tech items on her person, Meng had but one device manufactured by her company: a Porsche Design Huawei Mate 20 RS.

Word of Meng's apparent proclivity for Apple gear arrived in court filings seeking a copy of the data stored on the devices. Defense attorneys also asked the court to seal the equipment in a hearing on Friday.

Justice Heather Holmes of the British Columbia Supreme Court agreed to the request, ordering the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to extract Meng's data and provide it to her lawyers, reports the National Post. Two copies of the material, along with the resealed devices, will subsequently be stored in an exhibit locker.

Huawei, a fierce smartphone segment competitor that seeks to dethrone industry stalwarts Apple and Samsung as the world's premiere handset vendor, is notoriously strict with employees found using a competitor's products.

In January, for example, two low level workers were penalized for using an iPhone to post a New Year's Day message to Huawei's official Twitter account. The public relations gaffe earned the employees demotions and salary cuts.

Meng, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, is apparently beyond reproach.

While Huawei does not abide employee use of rival products, it supposedly welcomes investigation of the technology that underpins those devices. According to reports, the Chinese firm employs "dubious" strategies to obtain and reverse engineer proprietary tech developed by Apple and other competitors.

Meng is currently fighting extradition to the U.S., where she faces fraud charges leveled by the Department of Justice.
«13

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 54
    mcdavemcdave Posts: 1,927member
    She probably owns you too.
  • Reply 2 of 54
    flydogflydog Posts: 1,123member
    This isn't surprising at all.  It's hard to reverse engineer anything unless you have the original to take apart. 
    lkruppmcdavewelshdogwatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 54
    This article is a bit of a prejudice. Huawei never officially ban employees from using Apple products. Actually in certain departments, they have to. 

    For that poor girl being punished oh come on, you’re the PR department and you post official news with rival’s product? That’s a serious mistake. And that girl done it outside of office hour with her private phone.  
    edited March 2019 tenthousandthingsbshankGeorgeBMac
  • Reply 4 of 54
    I just feel bad for Porsche people having to use this crap.
    racerhomie3watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 54
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,877member
    This article is a bit of a prejudice. Huawei never officially ban employees from using Apple products. Actually in certain departments, they have to. 

    For that poor girl being punished oh come on, you’re the PR department and you post official news with rival’s product? That’s a serious mistake. And that girl done it outside of office hour with her private phone.  

    watto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 54
    This article is a bit of a prejudice. Huawei never officially ban employees from using Apple products. Actually in certain departments, they have to. 

    For that poor girl being punished oh come on, you’re the PR department and you post official news with rival’s product? That’s a serious mistake. And that girl done it outside of office hour with her private phone.  
    What's worse as a PR nightmare? A no-namer in the PR department using an iPhone to send a tweet, or the Huawei CFO who gets arrested with an IPHONE, a MACBOOK AIR, and an IPAD PRO? 
    muthuk_vanalingamcornchipwatto_cobraAppleExposed
  • Reply 7 of 54
    davendaven Posts: 696member
    She may be an executive at a competitor but at least she has good personal taste in her tech equipment
    chiawatto_cobraAppleExposed
  • Reply 8 of 54
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,727member
    daven said:
    She may be an executive at a competitor but at least she has good personal taste in her tech equipment
    Exactly, more than we can say for about resident Google tech journalist.
    cornchipwatto_cobraAppleExposed
  • Reply 9 of 54
    chasmchasm Posts: 3,294member
    Of course she has Apple products. She knows perfectly well where the data collected by Huawei devices goes.
    revenantbshankcgWerkscornchipwatto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 54
    bshankbshank Posts: 255member
    the monk said:
    This article is a bit of a prejudice. Huawei never officially ban employees from using Apple products. Actually in certain departments, they have to. 

    For that poor girl being punished oh come on, you’re the PR department and you post official news with rival’s product? That’s a serious mistake. And that girl done it outside of office hour with her private phone.  
    What's worse as a PR nightmare? A no-namer in the PR department using an iPhone to send a tweet, or the Huawei CFO who gets arrested with an IPHONE, a MACBOOK AIR, and an IPAD PRO? 
    Dude, she had to go cold turkey on the Huawei products to research the competition. Huawei gear is just too f-ng good, it would present an inevitable distraction
  • Reply 11 of 54
    longfanglongfang Posts: 451member
    Witch Hunt!

    or in the words of the Agent Orange

    Which hunt!

    if it’s good for the goose then it must be good for the gander right? You not a bunch of hypocrites are you?
  • Reply 12 of 54
    bageljoeybageljoey Posts: 2,004member
    Seriously?? More Apple tech than me? ;)  An iPhone, an iPad and a MacBook Pro only scratches the surface... :D :D  
    I imagine most others who frequent this site like me have collections of Apple gear that would boggle the minds of the average person on the street!
    foregoneconclusionanantksundaramkingofsomewherehotjohnbsiriuswatto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 54
    When you don’t want to be spied on by the equipment your company manufactures. 
    welshdogwatto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 54
    bageljoey said:
    Seriously?? More Apple tech than me? ;)  An iPhone, an iPad and a MacBook Pro only scratches the surface... :D :D  
    I imagine most others who frequent this site like me have collections of Apple gear that would boggle the minds of the average person on the street!
    Those were the items that she was carrying along with her in person. It does not mean that those were the only apple products that she owns. It is all speculation at the end of the day. It should be taken with a pinch of salt. 
  • Reply 15 of 54
    larryjwlarryjw Posts: 1,031member
    Of course. There isn’t a company in existence which doesn’t own rival products of other companies. 

    There isn’t a sports team in existence which doesn’t scout out their opponents

    I’m certain Apple engineers own the latest foldable Samsung phone and they’ve had many meetings discussing and evaluating the product. 

    You can’t do battle in the market without knowing the strengths and weaknesses of other products,

    Reverse engineering is perfectly legal. 
    muthuk_vanalingamavon b7beowulfschmidt
  • Reply 16 of 54
    larryjw said: I’m certain Apple engineers own the latest foldable Samsung phone and they’ve had many meetings discussing and evaluating the product. 
    My own guess would be that Samsung's folding phone doesn't hold any surprises for Apple. Folding screen tech has been around for awhile, and Apple has always been one of the companies rumored to be working with it. 
    StrangeDayswatto_cobra
  • Reply 17 of 54
    avon b7avon b7 Posts: 7,667member
    larryjw said: I’m certain Apple engineers own the latest foldable Samsung phone and they’ve had many meetings discussing and evaluating the product. 
    My own guess would be that Samsung's folding phone doesn't hold any surprises for Apple. Folding screen tech has been around for awhile, and Apple has always been one of the companies rumored to be working with it. 
    With both the Samsung and the Huawei devices, the screen tech was not really an issue. The head scratching went into the hinges.
    muthuk_vanalingam
  • Reply 18 of 54
    sphericspheric Posts: 2,560member
    Reminds me of back in the day, when high-end audio magazines would give rave reviews to all sorts of products, but the executives would invariably have a Linn system at home…  
    welshdogwatto_cobra
  • Reply 19 of 54
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    In a related matter, the European commission called bull on Trump's attacks on Huawei. 

    From Reuters:
    "The European Commission will next week urge EU countries to share more data to tackle cybersecurity risks related to 5G networks but will ignore U.S. calls to ban Huawei Technologies  ...  The United States has lobbied Europe to shut out Huawei, saying its equipment could be used by the Chinese government for espionage. Huawei has strongly rejected the allegations and earlier this month sued the U.S. government over the issue  ...   The Commission will not call for a European ban on global market leader Huawei, leaving it to EU countries to decide on national security grounds ...   The Commission said the recommendation would stress a common EU approach to security risks to 5G networks. "

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-huawei-tech-exclusive/exclusive-eu-to-drop-threat-of-huawei-ban-but-wants-5g-risks-monitored-sources-idUSKCN1R32K3

    And, the case against Meng is largely in the same status:   she is charged with violating Trump's allegations and sanctions on Iran which the rest of the world (except the far right) rejects as bogus, politically motivated rhetoric.

    muthuk_vanalingam
  • Reply 20 of 54
    revenantrevenant Posts: 621member
    In a related matter, the European commission called bull on Trump's attacks on Huawei. 

    From Reuters:
    "The European Commission will next week urge EU countries to share more data to tackle cybersecurity risks related to 5G networks but will ignore U.S. calls to ban Huawei Technologies  ...  The United States has lobbied Europe to shut out Huawei, saying its equipment could be used by the Chinese government for espionage. Huawei has strongly rejected the allegations and earlier this month sued the U.S. government over the issue  ...   The Commission will not call for a European ban on global market leader Huawei, leaving it to EU countries to decide on national security grounds ...   The Commission said the recommendation would stress a common EU approach to security risks to 5G networks. "

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-huawei-tech-exclusive/exclusive-eu-to-drop-threat-of-huawei-ban-but-wants-5g-risks-monitored-sources-idUSKCN1R32K3

    And, the case against Meng is largely in the same status:   she is charged with violating Trump's allegations and sanctions on Iran which the rest of the world (except the far right) rejects as bogus, politically motivated rhetoric.

    Trump or the US--they are very different are are often at odds with one another.
    sphericGeorgeBMacwatto_cobra
Sign In or Register to comment.