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Samsung is South Korean, a US ally and SIGINT partner. Modify the argument to, "the government is saying not to use any phones that are not from the US or its p
by user982 9y ago
Samsung is South Korean, a US ally and SIGINT partner. Modify the argument to, "the government is saying not to use any phones that are not from the US or its puppet states."
- eridius 9y agoAre Huawei and ZTE the only phone manufacturers from a non-SIGINT partner state? That doesn't seem correct. Hell, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mobile_phone_makers_by_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mobile_phone_makers_by... lists 29 different mobile phone makers in China, 2 of which are Huawei and ZTE, one of which is a subsidiary, leaving 26 independent manufacturers. But the government isn't telling us not to buy e.g. a Xiaomi phone.
- michaelmrose 9y agoWhich of those other 27 are big enough in the US to be worthy of mention?
- eridius 9y agoHow about Xiaomi? Wikipedia says that as of 2017 they're the world's 5th largest smartphone company. I don't know how popular their products are in the US, but I have at least heard of them before (which is more than I can say for ZTE).
- prklmn 9y agoI’d venture to say 98% of the US population couldn’t tell you if Xiaomi was a tech company or a Chinese food dish.
- eridius 9y agoThat's true of Huawei and ZTE too, and yet the government thought it was worth saying don't buy their phones, so I'm not sure what your point is.
- prklmn 9y agoMy point is that Xiaomi phones are not popular in the US, at all. Xiaomi had zero official distribution in the US up until recently when they started selling directly on amazon. ZTE and Hauwei phones have been sold through official distribution channels for a while. ZTE phones are given away or nearly given away for free to every cricket wireless customer.
- free652 9y agoI am more aware of Xiaomi than Hauwei. ZTEs were around, but those are garbage phones. I know that Xiaomi makes phones, smart bands and a smart tv. I literally had no idea what Hauwei was making until I looked up right now.
- emodendroket 9y agoHuawei made one of the Nexus phones.
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoConsidering that the name literally means little rice, they wouldn't be necessarily wrong. (at least it isn't 小蜜, which has a different meaning...)
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoXiaomi has almost zero presence in the US market, you can't get their phones here unless you go via a grey market importer.
- Retric 9y agoOr Amazon.com...
- ajoy 9y agoFYI, Xiaomi is very popular in India, because they offer perceived good value for the cost.
- sbrm1 9y agoXiaomi now has the largest market share amongst phone manufacturers in India.
- ENOTTY 9y agoThe witnesses only answered the question in front of them. Sen. Cotton only asked about ZTE, Huawei, China Telecom, and China Unicom, so Director Wray responded only about ZTE and Huawei. This is standard practice when testifying in front of an oversight committee.
- s73v3r_ 9y agoCalling South Korea a puppet state is quite a stretch.
- jiggunjer 9y agoEven if it was a puppet state, apparently Samsung is above the law there. They are like 70% of its GDP.
- Clubber 9y ago1/5th of exports, 17% of GDP. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung
- jiggunjer 9y agoI stand corrected. I shouldn't try to pull statistics from my failing memory anymore. Still big enough to intimidate a government from messing with them.
- praneshp 9y ago> Still big enough to intimidate a government from messing with them Nope, per recent incidents.
- kurthr 9y agoUm, well Samsung's president hass been released from jail, but the countrie's last president hasn't... http://fortune.com/2018/02/05/samsung-j-y-lee-released-south-korea/ http://fortune.com/2018/02/05/samsung-j-y-lee-released-south... I'd say that is a LOT of influence.
- praneshp 9y agoReleased from jail necessarily implies the government will "mess" with them.
- xtrimsky1234 9y agoWhat about OnePlus then? It is a Chinese company, and I'm sure they sell more phones than Huawei.