After Huawei blacklist, 'Boycott Apple' campaign gaining steam in China: Report

The ongoing trade war between the US and China took a nasty turn yesterday after the former’s blacklisting of Chinese tech giant Huawei forced Google to stop conducting business with the company. iPhone maker Apple, which is already grappling with issues of increased tariffs and other fallout from the ongoing trade war, must now deal with a surging anti-Apple sentiment in China.

As per a report by Buzzfeed  it would appear that Chinese consumers are becoming increasingly “anti-Apple” and Huawei’s blacklisting has increasingly fueled a “Boycott Apple” in China campaign.

Users have been taking to the Chinese social media platform Weibo where they have been saying things like “The functions in Huawei are comparable to Apple iPhones or even better. We have such a good smartphone alternative, why are we still using Apple?” or “I think Huawei’s branding is amazing, it chops an apple into eight pieces.”

Another user said “Trump doesn’t allow companies to use Huawei, then let’s not use Apple. We shouldn’t buy any phone that uses Qualcomm as well.”

Apple has been performing quite poorly in China with reports indicating a 20 percent dip in sales last quarter while Huawei has been soaring with a nearly 25 percent increase in sales, as per the Buzzfeed report.

For its part, US has also targetted Huawei relentlessly by rejecting its 5G telecom equipment and also having Huawei CFO Meng arrested in Canada.

Back in December, the “Boycott Apple” campaign had picked up speed where companies in China were boycotting Apple products and threatening to fire employees who were using Apple products.

For Apple, which is selling in saturated markets in Europe and the US, developing countries like China and India are a huge avenue for growth. The US ban on Huawei and the ongoing trade war put paid to these plans.

Read more on the Huawei banning saga:

Huawei is reportedly releasing its own Android alternative called IndeoenOS this fall

Some Huawei Mobile users are considering a switch after Google suspension