Apple, Samsung Not Happy with Xiaomi Ads, Warn It to Stop, Report Says

Ads that poke fun at rivals are nothing new. People enjoy them, and in many cases they even expect them. Samsung has often used Apple as the butt of its jokes, and those campaigns became part of smartphone culture. Done well, this kind of advertising can be entertaining and effective.

Apple and Samsung send cease-and-desist notices to Xiaomi

But things don’t seem to be going well with Xiaomi right now. Both Apple and Samsung have separetly sent cease-and-desist notices to Xiaomi for certain advertisements, as Economic Times reports. Neither of these companies have yet acknowledged or denied the claim.

Cease-and-desist notices are formal warnings telling a company to stop certain actions or face possible legal consequences. The publication claims to have reached out to all three, but there’s no response from either at the time of publication.

Apple and Samsung together control about 95 percent of India’s premium smartphone market. Xiaomi, by comparison, has less than one percent. That makes Xiaomi’s recent move feel more like provocation than real competition.

The company ran full-page print ads targeting both Apple and Samsung. The ads compared prices and specifications. They asked whether the devices were really worth it. The tone came across less as a joke and more as direct criticism.

This comes at a time when Samsung has overtaken Apple in India’s super-premium market. The data comes from IDC and Counterpoint Research, two of the most trusted market research firms.