Visitors passing the stand of Huawei at the 2016 IFA consumer electronics trade fair on Sept. 2, 2016 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo : Getty Images)
Six former employees of Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd were arrested after allegedly leaking photos of the upcoming P10 handset.
The arrested employees include engineers and designers, revealed in a letter released by Huawei's consumer unit. According to Sina.com, the six suspects were accused of disclosing confidential information to Huawei's competitors CoolPad and LeEco.
The unnamed individuals were said to have left Huawei to work for the two companies.
In an interview with China Daily, LeEco denied that it was involved in the case. Huawei likewise confirmed to the news website that neither CoolPad nor LeEco had anything to do with the alleged leakage.
The advent of new players has inspired increased competition in China's already saturated smartphones market.
CoolPad and LeEco unveiled the Cool1 Dual smartphone, which incorporates the same 13MP dual-lens rear camera seen on Huawei's P9 handset. CoolPad's bet, however, did not fare as well as CoolPad had expected. The presence of other big Chinese players, notably Oppo and Vivo, has also intensified the rivalry.
According to Xiang Ligang, CEO of telecoms industry site cctime.com and an expert on mobile phones, the alleged leakage highlights China's position as the most competitive market for smartphones.
"For any new player which wants to scale up rapidly, such as LeEco, it has no other choice but to poach experienced talent from established companies," Xiang said.
Huawei is now the third-largest smartphones maker, with handset sales jumping 29 percent last year, per International Data Corp.
Wanting to repeat Huawei's success, other makers started luring the company's talents by offering attractive packages, China Daily wrote. Last year saw several Huawei executives jumping ships.
The former president of Huawei's Honor, Liu Jiangfeng, became the big boss of CoolPad's mobile phone business in August.
Xu Xinquan, who served as the president of Huawei's e-commerce segment, also transferred to LeEco last year, China Daily reported.
