Certain tech Journalists in Australia who are having to having to go without their free junkets and handouts from Chinese phone brands due to the COVID-19 epidemic that broke out in China, have now taken to defending brands such as Oppo and Realme, while also indicating that our criticism of these two brands are untruths despite the two Chinese brands (that are from the same Company) failing to defend claims we have made about their products in the past.
Ray Shaw who is labelled Managing Editor at Gadget Guy came out swinging this week after writing a gushing story about the Realme 6 smartphones he then went on to write under a sub headline in the same story ‘A note on unethical rumour mongering’ 
He wrote ‘another media outlet (with advertising income from competitive smartphone brands) has been blatantly spreading rumours about realme not being C-tick approved nor having SARs testing’.
He then went on to gush ‘We find both companies (Oppo & Realme) to practice the highest ethical standards or we would not review their products’
What he didn’t have the guts to do or maybe it was a lack of journalistic skill was to name ChannelNews or myself as the organisation or person he was referring to. Then again, he knowns that we would be sued if he did.
Really, ‘ethical’ this is the same journalist who was sending emails to 4Square Media last year wanting us to have a go at Huawei because he was ‘not in a position’ to take them on. He even sent another email this month.
This is one of several emails that Shaw has sent to 4Square Media because he felt he could not be critical of a brand.
In his latest story he wrote ‘The truth is that at realme’s pre-launch last year it was made clear by MD Andy Yang that the review units were engineering samples only – all units sold in Australia would carry C-Tick and SARS ratings. It is not unusual for the media to review engineering samples prior to release’.
Firstly we were never offered samples by the Chinese brand who weeks before their launch were claiming that they were the ‘World’s Fastest Growing Smartphone Brand” a claim that we researched via research Companies IDC and Gartner and two other Asia based research groups.
All these research groups came back claiming that Realme was basically not on their radar.
Click to open story.
So, what did Realme and Oppo management do, they banned ChannelNews from their launch which is not surprising as Realme and Oppo are into basically bribing journalists with paid overseas trips free phones and entertainment.
After we got hold of the new Realme press release we made a visit to the Companies Australian web site only to discover that there was no mention of C Tick or SARS certification, so we wrote to both their PR Company and senior management in the Company directly.
We got no answers, 12 hours after our request the local Realme web site was changed to include claims that they had Ctick certification.
Click to open story
At no stage prior had Oppo mentioned ‘engineering samples’ or given us access to a device which they claimed at their press conference according to our sources who actually attended the event was set to go on sale in Australia the next day. Their own web site was also selling product in Australia.
What the Company did not realise is that had also put in a question into their online support operation.
They came back claiming that the devices were SOTO certified there was no mention of C tick or SARS certification as per our question to Realme support.
Shaw a former ABC presenter, said that we had also been spreading rumours about Oppo.
No Ray we wrote a story about questionable software appearing on Oppo smartphones, the same story run by Gizmodo, and several other tech media sites around the world.
Unlike Gadget Guy and Ray Shaw, we are a media Company that are not frightened of criticising brands or organisations, even competitive smartphone brands to Oppo and Realme that we have commercial contracts with.
In fact, we have been doing it for decades, it’s called real journalism.
Click story to open.
Unlike Gadget Guy we don’t kiss the backsides of vendors to get advertising we work on delivering big audiences and copy that consumer implicitly trust because we are seen as being impartial.
We are not frightened to take on Chinese brands or any other brands who think that they can say anything and get away with it because they have some tame journalists on a leash.
We question claims in press releases as we have done with Realme, and we don’t take the words of brands as gospel.
I noticed that Ray Shaw never raised the issue of the dodgy Huawei images shown at the Huawei P30 press conference in Sydney despite him discussing it with me at the event.
4Square Media did because the so-called competitive image presented to ‘Authors’ as Ray Shaw likes to be called along with other several leading journalists was an outright lie to try and bolster Huawei’s P30 credentials.
According to my conversation with Shaw last year when he was sending us email information critical of brands such as Huawei who had spent thousands sending Gadget Guy executives overseas he did not want to criticise the Companies clients who were splashing the cash at Gadget Guy and that included Chinese brands.
If this is the case, why don’t they come out and market themselves as an organisation that can be bought.
What is getting right up Oppo’s nose and Ray Shaw’s is that we like a lot of other media organisations have praised the success of Sam Skontos and his team at TCL for taking what was an unheard of brand called Alcatel to the #3 slot in Australia.
This is the market share that Oppo and Realme would love to have. Now Oppo and Realme are struggling to take on a new range of TCL smartphones being released by TCL which will take on Oppo’s main smartphone range later this year.
As for our bias below is the latest issue of SmartHouse with support for an Oppo smartphone along with several other brands in the value smartphone market.
One thing we love at 4Square Media is when PR Companies and brands threaten us and then try banning us over stories that they dont like or as Oppo’s PR Company said “We are only interested in positive stories” .
I have news for them, we also have a base ball bat it’s called the pen is mightier than the sword.
Sonos tried abusing us, banning us and even denying us access to their products. Our mistake according to their so called PR professionals was that we broke a story weeks before the ‘official’ Sonos announcement. For that we never got a review and the press release for the product was sent out to SmartHouse two hours after all other media got it.
What they had in their press release was exactly when we had tipped three weeks prior for their new soundbar.
Click to page 102 to see Oppo story.
