T-Mobile chief executive John Legere intended to use Twitter to direct attention to Samsung Mobile's latest Note 3 phablet, but inadvertently did so via his new iPhone 5s, joining a list of major figures who have made the same mistake.
Legere tweeted "Glad @SamsungMobile decided to bring phablets to the states. I don't know what I'd do without my #Note3!" The tweet attached a link to a story explaining how Samsung "conquered the 'phablet' market."
It also noted that it had been sent via Twitter for iPhone (above), metadata that is attached automatically. Notified of that, Legere responded within minutes, "oops. I carry both as you may know! That was funny."
He then followed up with a photo (below) of a gold iPhone 5s alongside a Note 3 and a Galaxy Gear watch, indicating that Samsung's big screen phablet isn't a suitable replacement for a standard sized phone, even when paired with the company's new wrist-attached $299 Bluetooth headset.
In the photo, the Gear watch wasn't on his wrist and the Samsung phablet phone was on its lock screen, plugged in to a power adapter, with a generic carrier background wallpaper image. The iPhone was logged in and appeared in active use, with pending phone, email and Facebook notifications. It also had multiple pages of apps installed and a personalized background photo.
If you see me these are the devices I am using #today and I am on twitter on a different one :) pic.twitter.com/IgiK77XI6P
— John Legere (@JohnLegere) October 21, 2013
This all happened before
Sending promotional tweets about other products from Apple's iOS devices seems to be quite popular.
Last year, Oprah Winfrey used an iPad to send out tweets endorsing Microsoft's Surface, using the hashtag "#FavoriteThings" to say she had bought a dozen of them for Christmas gifts.
After BlackBerry paid Alicia Keys to serve as its Creative Director, she sent a personal tweet from her iPhone in February, then removed it and claimed her account had been "hacked."
In March, after the Chinese government's CCTV propaganda channel began airing reports stating that Apple was "biased against Chinese consumers in its warranty and customer service policies," a series of orchestrated tweets on China's Sina Weibo from various celebrities and other well known personalities voiced unison disapproval of Apple on cue after the broadcast, many of which were sent from iPad and iPhones.
Shortly afterward in April, Spanish tennis player David Ferrer tweeted his satisfaction with his #GalaxyS4 and that he was "configuring S Health on my new #GalaxyS4 to help with training @SamsungMobile," all via Twitter from his que contento estoy con mi iPhone.