A mini-controversy arose earlier this week when a Swiss website reported that Swiss Olympians claimed they were told by Samsung to cover up the logos of their iPhones during public appearances. Samsung could supposedly get away with this because it’s an official sponsor of the Olympic games and because it’s given every Olympian their own Galaxy Note 3 to use. The Guardian brings us word, however, that both Samsung and the International Olympic Committee deny that anything of the sort ever happened and that athletes who want to brandish their iPhones in public during the games are free to do so.
Although Apple and Samsung are brutally competitive with one another, it would have been surprising if Samsung had really taken such a heavy-handed approach to stop athletes from showing their iPhones, if for no other reason than the company is PR-savvy enough to recognize such a move would create a significant backlash.
