Huawei Continues To Troll Apple, Interrupts iPhone XS Release By Giving Away Free Juice And Power Banks
Huawei doesn’t appear to be done with its attacks on Apple, as the Chinese phone maker pulled separate public relations stunts in multiple locations. Huawei trolled Apple by interrupting the iPhone XS and XS Max’s official release by sending a message about the devices’ battery life — or lack thereof.
According to CNBC, the Huawei van drove by Apple’s London flagship store on Friday, their representatives giving away actual juice to passers-by. The van was painted with a tagline that referenced the iPhone’s perceived weakness — its poor battery life — by inviting customers to “get juice that lasts,” with the letter “i” in “juice” replaced with the percent sign. A second tagline painted on the van’s doors threw further shade at the iPhone maker by saying Huawei’s products have “no traces of Apple” — featuring a drawing of a crossed-out apple above the text.
Meanwhile, in Singapore, Huawei launched another publicity campaign targeted at iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max buyers, giving away power banks to customers who were lined up outside the island country’s Apple Store on Thursday night. CNET wrote that the stunt took place at 11 p.m. local time, one hour before the store opened its doors to customers, as Huawei hoped to give would-be iPhone buyers “respite from the weather and [the] grueling wait.” A company representative further confirmed that Huawei was able to give away more than 200 Huawei Supercharge power banks rated at 10,000 mAh.
LOL huawei savage tho https://t.co/7RAHxZcECM
— SCOUT (@scoutmagph) September 21, 2018
As quoted by CNET, the power bank’s packaging was another example of Huawei trolling Apple, as it came one day after the company boasted that its P20 Pro has a “looong-lasting” battery.
“Here’s a power bank. You’ll need it. Courtesy of Huawei,” the plain black and white packaging containing the power banks read.
Huawei showed up at Apple stores to hand out battery packs and apple-free juice for people waiting to buy the iPhone XS ?https://t.co/7lknfuIA5V
— Android Central (@androidcentral) September 21, 2018
As noted by CNBC, Huawei recently surpassed Apple as the world’s second largest smartphone maker in terms of market share. Huawei, however, remains far behind the Cupertino-based company when only sales of “premium” smartphones — or those that cost $400 or more — are taken into account. According to data from Counterpoint Research, Apple had 43 percent of the premium smartphone market, or almost five times Huawei’s current share of 9 percent.
The free juice and power bank stunts also came one week after Huawei started its advertising campaign for its upcoming flagship — the Mate 20 — and appeared to be attacking Apple for releasing two devices that represented incremental upgrades over their predecessors. According to a report from the Inquisitr, Huawei posted a tweet hyping up to the Mate 20, but also criticizing an unnamed company implied to be Apple — thanking the company for “keeping things the same.”
A subsequent tweet thanked consumers for “supporting us as innovators,” using a similar graphic to the one found on Apple’s iPhone XS launch invitation.
