[LINK] "China's Huawei Backs Apple Stance in Phone Unlocking Dispute"

[rfmcdonald]

Bloomberg's Caroline Hyde notes Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei's support for Apple. This will be interesting to watch.

Huawei Technologies Co. will back Apple Inc. as it contests a U.S. government order requiring the unlocking of a terrorist’s iPhone, taking the side of the industry’s biggest names in a clash over the balance between law enforcement and consumer privacy.

China’s largest smartphone maker joined Google Inc. and other technology companies in supporting Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook, who last week vowed to fight a court order compelling the company to help investigators break into the phone used by one of the shooters in a California terrorist attack.

Consumer privacy is key for smartphone makers, Richard Yu, the CEO of Huawei’s fast-growing consumer devices division, told Bloomberg Television on Sunday. Huawei becomes one of the first major Asian technology companies to speak out on a debate that has galvanized an industry long resistant to government efforts to gain access to data in criminal cases.

[. . .]

“It’s the top one, the most important thing to the consumer. We should really protect the consumer’s privacy and security,” said Yu, who was at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to unveil Huawei’s first laptop. “Personally, I support Apple’s, Tim Cook’s idea.”

Huawei showed off the laptop -- which is powered by Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 10 and comes with a detachable screen -- to help fuel its rapid ascent in consumer devices. Now the world’s No. 3 smartphone maker, behind Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple according to IDC, Huawei has aspirations of becoming the No. 1 brand in five years.