Hello Huawei, Xiaomi, bye-bye big brands

At the first staff meeting of the year, when everybody seemed to be stealing a glance at their cellphones now and then, I did a quick check on which was the most popular brand with my colleagues.

Apple? Samsung? Nope, guess again. It was Huawei.

Personally, I've been an early adopter of the Chinese brand and I'm using a big, sleek Mate 8 that is its latest flagship product. But only a year ago, I had to explain to almost everybody in my office that Huawei, though cheaper, was almost as good as my old Samsung. They might have found it difficult to understand. They were Apple fans who went gaga over every new iPhone launch.