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Apple products are popular in China so it is usually not surprising that it is the phone of choice of ost Chinese elites.
Apple products are popular in China so it is usually not surprising that it is the phone of choice of ost Chinese elites. But what should be surprising is when that elite happens to be the CEO of a major phone manufacturing firm in China. Xiaomi‘s CEO Lei Jun was recently caught by netizens on Weibo when he was caught using an iPhone.
Weibo usually detects the smartphone from which a post is made and in the past, that has been a way of knowing an unreleased smartphone is in the works when an exec posts a message using the unreleased phone. So, Lei Jun shared a post encouraging fans to buy a few books which shouldn’t generate any controversy. But it turned out the Xiaomi founder posted the message from an iPhone. The incident generated an uproar as most fans expressed their views about the discovery.
Lei Jun seems to have deleted the post but Xiaomi partner Pan Jiutang spoke in defense of Lei. He described as hypocritical any claim by the owner or product manager of a mobile phone brand not to have tried Apple, Samsung, or other phones from competing brands. He also disclosed that innovations are sometimes copied and then improved upon. That isn’t far from the truth as Huawei founder has said before that he admires the Apple ecosystem. Even Realme’s CEO was spotted tweeting with an iPhone last year. Li Nan, former Meizu exec was discovered to have switched to an iPhone after leaving Meizu.
In all fairness, Lei Jun is reported to have stated in the past that officials and staffs of Xiaomi are not banned from using competing brands. But some hold the opinion that it is distasteful and disrespectful to fans for the Xiaomi founder to use an iPhone.
Guess we don’t have to wonder anymore why the MIUI interface looks so much like iOS.
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