14 DAY TRIAL // Making fun of others when they’re down isn’t something that you typically see happening in the tech industry, but for some reason, LG believed it was a good idea to try to capitalize on Huawei’s legal trouble.
So after the United States banned Huawei from working with American companies, pretty much making it impossible for the Chinese manufacturer to use the licensed version of Android and Google apps, LG took to Twitter to celebrate.
“LG and Google: a relationship that’s been strong for years,” LG tweeted along with the #TheGoodLife hashtag. A photo that the official LG Mobile SA included in the tweet shows someone asking Google Assistant “who is your best friend,” only for the assistant to answer:
“I don’t want to be too forward, but I think you and I get along quite well.”
Trying to capitalize on others’ problems
But while the South African Twitter account of LG thought it’d be fun to mock others in trouble, the whole thing backfired immediately, with most of the answers to their tweet actually blasting the company for the way it ships software updates. For the licensed version of Android, that is.
“Now if only you were able to update the phones on latest Android in time,” one of the tweets reads. “Such a good relationship that your phones barely receive any software update,” another user posted.
“With no updates on your phones… You’ll be closing down like Sony Mobile,” someone else added. “You should give your license to Huawei based on updates you release you don't need it,” Twitter user Filipe Silva concluded.
LG hasn’t yet removed the tweet, albeit I wouldn’t be too surprised if the post goes dark all of a sudden given that the joke wasn’t very well received by the user community.
Meanwhile, I think it’s important to recap LG’s mobile sales numbers posted in January this year.
LG’s mobile division recorded a drop of no less than $700 million in 2018 because of what the company described as “lower sales of mobile products.” Meanwhile, Huawei increased its market share to 14.7% in 2018, becoming the third largest mobile phone manufacturer worldwide. Huawei sold 206 million phones last year.
LG and Google: A relationship that’s been going strong for years 👌 #TheGoodLife pic.twitter.com/Au2NpxwbVD — LG Mobile SA (@LGMobileSA) May 23, 2019
Now if only you were able to update the phones on latest Android in time... — Jovan (@f4bles) May 23, 2019
You should give your license to Huawei based on updates you release you don't need it. — Filipe Silva (@Dark_Assi7) May 24, 2019