Huawei founder calls Apple conservative and cowardly

Photo by Kārlis Dambrāns

Huawei is having a great year, there’s no doubt about it. It’s the third-biggest mobile brand in the world, and its first-half revenues suggest it’s on track to smash a few records this year. So perhaps it’s no surprise that founder Ren Zhengfei, who tends to stay out of the spotlight, felt confident enough to throw a little shade Apple’s way at a conference in May.

The transcript of Ren’s remarks has now been released, and when an attendee asked his thoughts about the development of the mobile market and Apple’s big Q2 drop, he didn’t mince words:

Apple has so much money, but they’re too conservative. We don’t have money, but we invest it as though we were rich. Even without money, we dare to do things. Apple has so much money; why don’t they dare to do anything [new]?

If Apple wants to continue leading society forwards then we can follow, but if they don’t dare to invest [in innovation] then we can only follow ourselves, and we’ll become a company that has as much money as Apple.

Ren’s comparison may not be entirely fair. Huawei may not have Apple money, but it sold nearly 30 million smartphones in the first quarter of this year alone; Ren and his team are hardly paupers or even a David to Apple’s goliath.

There are also those who would argue that Huawei isn’t really a poster child for ballsy innovation either, but to be fair, Huawei did file more patent applications than any other company on earth last year. Apple didn’t even make the top 10.