Burn! HTC and Samsung Trade Barbs After UK Awards Show
It seems HTC and Samsung's UK branches are forgetting their manners.
We're used to seeing top smartphone makers duking it out in courtrooms all over the world, or trading sly blows in commercials, but it seems Samsung and HTC's UK divisions have taken the fight to Twitter.
Crave reports that HTC's flagship HTC One smartphone recently took home the award for Hottest Phone of 2013 at the Mobile Industry Awards in London. Following the awards ceremony, the HTC UK team tweeted about the win and stuck its tongue out at rival Samsung:
"Last night we won the 'Hottest phone of 2013' at the Mobile Awards," the company boasted, before adding, "Ouch @SamsungMobileUK."
Samsung responded, saying it didn't mind that HTC had won that award because it was too busy trying to juggle the three it had snagged at the ceremony. Clearly a bit wounded by the comment, HTC shot back:
"All those students you paid to write fake reviews of your competitors finally paid off. Pay rise, maybe?"
Back in April, Samsung faced investigation after its marketing division allegedly hired students to post negative comments about the HTC One on a number of tech/gadget websites that linked to favorable benchmark results for the HTC One. At the time Samsung said that "future marketing work would be more in line with its company philosophy of transparency and honesty."
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Clearly, HTC hasn't forgotten that little incident and though Samsung didn't respond to the tweet, LG got in on things with a tweet of its own. Instead of swinging punches, LG decided to offer a bit of perspective, tweeting a photo of Michael Winner with the caption, "Calm down dears, it's only a phone."
So LG, which actually didn't win any awards at all, somehow comes out of the whole thing looking the best.
Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.