People who watched the phenomenally spastic Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice never would have guessed that actor Henry Cavill would promote a phone that didn’t have an apple on its back. But it looks like Cavil is taking the road less traveled and placing his lot with Chinese manufacturer Huawei.
In the launch of the Huawei P9 in London last April 6, 2016, Cavill was present as one of the phone’s big-name endorsers. The phone, which is Huawei’s entry into the premium mobile phone category, does look as stylishly good as Cavil does. The shiny metallic finish looks just as sultry as the dual Leica lenses adorning the front and back cameras of the phone, making it one of the more ultra-posh products produced by the company.
Aside from their partnership with Leica and Superman, Huawei also tapped The Avengers’ very own Black Widow to promote the P9. And while Scarlett Johansson wasn’t available at the launch—probably due to the filming of Ghost in the Shell in New Zealand—you can’t deny the gravity of having two heavyweight superstars in your stable.
And Huawei needs it. IB Times reports that the company’s interested in making its way to the number one spot worldwide. That’s a fairly tall order, considering that they only have around 8% of the global market, against Apple and Samsung’s combined 40.1%.
But the company’s been busy in 2015. They were able to sell a record number of 107 million smartphones, which brought a lot of revenue into Huawei’s war chest. There’s also the patents they’ve been filing throughout 2014 and 2015; in the latter year alone, they filed more than 3000 patents in the US.
And to top it all off, in their home territory of China, they recently knocked Apple out of the number one spot. If this doesn’t show just how serious the company is, then it’s scary to think of what they’ll do when they do start playing the game.
Of course, all this could just be bravura from earning so much during their 2015 fiscal year. The sales of the Huawei P9, which is set to ship in Europe and Asia later this month, will be the real determining factor of whether or not the company has a chance in the world stage.
But if you’ve got Superman and Black Widow in your corner, how can you lose? Just don’t make them fight Doomsday. Or film critics.