Huawei Chief Executive Officer Richard Yu recently took to Chinese social media platform Weibo to admit that the Shenzhen-based consumer electronics manufacturer mishandled the recent controversy related to internal memory performance of the P10 and the P10 Plus, its latest pair of Android-powered flagships that officially launched earlier this spring. Apart from apologizing for the company’s initial response that he described as “arrogant,” Huawei’s top executive reportedly took some new measures aimed at dealing with the ordeal in a more tactful manner.
In an email sent to the company’s employees several days ago, Yu referred to the memory-related issues of the P10 and the P10 Plus as a “wake-up call” signaling that the Chinese tech giant needs to change its ways. Huawei CEO also admitted that he himself bears some blame for the controversy to which he didn’t react with humility at first. In an effort to remedy the situation that’s hurting the company’s public image, Yu established a so-called “Customer Listening Taskforce” that’s meant to accept all feedback and complaints from the company’s customers in person. The newly formed group will visit Huawei’s service centers, brick-and-mortar stores, and stores of its retail partners with the goal of interacting with customers and personally trying to resolve their problems. Likewise, Yu revealed that he’s assuming direct control of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group in order to inspect and improve the firm’s rapport with customers. The company’s top executive didn’t reveal whether owners of the P10 and the P10 Plus that are affected by the memory-related issues that started the recent controversy will be compensated for their troubles in any manner, but more details on that front might be available in the coming weeks.
The problems with Huawei’s latest pair of Android flagships started when some users realized that not all variants of the handsets sport UFS 2.1 storage and LPDDR4 RAM as some models are shipping to customers with LPRDDR3 RAM and UFS 2.0 or eMMC 5.1, all of which are significantly slower than the aforementioned alternatives. The revelation prompted a significant backlash from the general public, but Huawei initially stated that all of its suppliers are credible and have adhered to specific guidelines that ensure a consistent user experience across all variants of the smartphones.