Nokia steals spotlight during Apple’s iPhone event with cheeky tweet

11 Sep 2013

Image tweeted by Nokia UK (@nokia_uk) in response to the iPhone 5c

All eyes were on Apple last night as the iPhone-maker unveiled two new handsets in Cupertino, California. But, when the colourful polycarbonate-encased iPhone 5c was revealed, it was Nokia’s UK team that had a winning response.

Quick off the mark, the Twitter account of Nokia UK posted a marketing image for its brightly coloured polycarbonate Lumia range along with the headline: “Imitation is the best form of flattery.”

Topped off with a cheeky “Thanks, #Apple ;)” in the tweet, Nokia’s response has already seen more than 30,000 retweets and more than 7,000 favourites at the time of writing, less than 24 hours after it appeared.

Perhaps the social media team had this image in the works all along, as rumours of a plastic, colourful iPhone 5c have been circulating for months now. Either way, the move was a spark of genius and helped propel Nokia into the limelight during an event that was all about Apple.

The iPhone 5c directly targets a lower end of the market typically uninterested in Apple’s top-of-the-range devices. In branching out with a lower-cost model focusing on colour, Apple is stepping onto Nokia’s Lumia turf – and the Finnish phone-maker is not about to take it lying down.

The Nokia UK Twitter feed later followed with a response to the iPhone 5s that referenced popular TV show Breaking Bad.

Nokia UK tweets response to iPhone 5S

The iPhone 5c and higher-end iPhone 5s will reach 100 countries by December of this year.

Elaine Burke is the host of For Tech’s Sake, a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. She was previously the editor of Silicon Republic.

editorial@siliconrepublic.com