Re: Stop, just stop
Was thinking much the same myself as I read the article.
"MateBook"? "X"? "Pro"?
That sort of soundalike name and cheesily arbitrary mixing and matching of terms Apple use smacks more of bootleg Chinese game consoles like the "PolyStation III" (an NES clone tarted up to resemble a PlayStation) and other similarly low-rent crap.
This might work when you're trying to exploit people's ignorance or lack of experience to mislead them into buying some borderline legal tat at a market stall, but we're talking about a computer selling for over $1000 here (i.e. one with both the aspirations and price you'd expect from a genuine attempt to compete with Apple).
Yes, we get that it's obvious a MacBook Air wannabe, but at this level, you maintain the pretence that it's a worthwhile computer in its own right. Naming it like this just makes it look very cheap and tacky and (ironically) reduces its perceived value.
Although it's been obvious in recent years that Chinese companies are starting to improve their marketing to match the movement upmarket of their products, missteps like this show that Huawei's marketing department- or at least part of it- hasn't entirely shaken off the mentality of the "bottom-of-the-market knockoff" years.
(Then again, it's also possible that this product is as much aimed at the Chinese market. I'm aware that their perceptions of value don't necessarily tally with those of us in the West. It's also possible they're aiming it at the well-off tier of Chinese nouveau riche who'd previously have bought a MacBook, but might be dissuaded from doing so by their government's increasing social pressure towards buying home-grown brands and against previously-desirable foreign ones like Apple).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
