Secretive billionaire reveals how he toppled Apple in China

Oppo mobile phones with a 5x zoom are displayed at the Mobile World Congress on the third day of the MWC in Barcelona, on March 1, 2017. Phone makers will seek to seduce new buyers with artificial intelligence functions and other innovations at the world's biggest mobile fair starting today in Spain. / AFP PHOTO / Josep Lago

Duan Yongping is convinced Tim Cook didn’t have a clue who he was when they first met a couple years ago. The Apple boss probably does now. 

Duan is the reclusive billionaire who founded Oppo and Vivo, the twin smartphone brands that dealt the world’s largest company a stinging defeat in China last year. Once derided as cheap iPhone knockoffs, they leapfrogged the rankings and shoved Apple Inc out of the top three in 2016 – when iPhone shipments fell in China for the first time.