Huawei's US Expansion Hopes Crushed After Best Buy Stops Selling Its Phones
Huawei might be one of the largest smartphone OEMs in the world, but the company is having a very hard time breaking into the U.S. market. The reason for the difficulty is that Huawei has very close ties to the Chinese government, and the U.S. government is balking over fears of spying that could compromise national security. Huawei has now taken another significant blow in its plans to enter the U.S. market.
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CNET quotes a Best Buy spokeswoman saying, "We don't comment on specific contracts with vendors, and we make decisions to change what we sell for a variety of reasons." A Huawei spokeswoman said, "as a policy, we do not discuss the details of our partner relationships."
The most likely reasons for Best Buy to make such a move include pressure from the U.S. government and the fact that Huawei openly encouraged users to post fake reviews of the Best Buy website for the Mate 10 Pro. The NSA, FBI, and CIA have all warned Americans to stay away from Huawei smartphones. This is the reason why Huawei deals with AT&T and Verizon have been killed.
As for Huawei's shady tactics with Best Buy reviews, the company ran a Facebook contest encouraging users to review their Mate 10 Pro on the Best Buy website before the device launched in exchange for a chance to win a free smartphone. Huawei tried to keep its fake review solicitation a secret by using a closed group to ask for the reviews, but images of its request in the group were posted publicly. Soliciting fake reviews is against Best Buy policy and could certainly be part of the reason why Best Buy is kicking Huawei to the curb.
