Using Apple's iPhone may not be good all the time, especially if you're a co-founder and chief executive of one of its competitors. On Tuesday, May 12, an exclusive report from GizmoChina caught Xiaomi's CEO and one of its co-founder, using Apple's iPhone to post something online. Xiaomi officials immediately explained the situation and said that no one is prohibited from using iPhone-- even their CEO.
BUSTED! Xiaomi CEO found using iPhone instead of his brand
If you're an owner of a certain product, it is expected for you to use your own product before anything else. This is what Weibo users also expected when Xiaomi's CEO Lei Jun posted online. However, it is the other way around.
Apparently, the CEO posted online using one of its competitor's devices, Apple's iPhone. The post, then, was quickly deleted from his account. But, thousands of Chinese social media users already took screenshots of the post saying, "come from iPhone."
Of course, its not known what iPhone model he used, but this revelation received a backlash from the Chinese users themselves.
Tech Radar reported that the fans of the brand might have thought that this revelation is a sign of disbelief for their products. Since the CEO perhaps uses an iPhone in its everyday living, Chinese users criticize the company.
Xiaomi explains the situation with the iPhone controversy
After Jun deleted his post from an iPhone device, Pan Jiutang, a partner of the Xiaomi Industry Investment Department, still released an explanation regarding what happened.
He said that there was no problem for Jun to use a competitor's phone, such as the iPhone. In fact, using other brands despite a person connected to a certain product means nothing when it comes to Xiaomi.
"...the owner or product manager of a mobile phone company claims not to try Apple, Samsung, and other competing products. It is either hypocritical, incompetent or does not care about the product/away from the frontline and technical innovations," saidJiutang on his follow-up post.
In all fairness to Jun, he stated in the past that officials and staff of Xiaomi are not restricted to use their brand exclusively--supporting the statement of Jiutang.
Other brands also caught or admitted using iPhone
Though it was kind of embarrassing for Jun to be caught using a different brand than his, a lot of other CEOs and officials from other phone brands were also caught using iPhone or admitted to using the device.
Huawei founder has said before that he admires the Apple ecosystem. Even Realme's CEO was caught tweeting with an iPhone last year and said that he only uses the brand for testing. Even Li Nan, former Meizu exec, was discovered to have switched to an iPhone after leaving his company.
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