HTC and Samsung begin a Twitter-war; LG jumps in to keep the peace

HTC and Samsung were at loggerheads on Twitter on Friday after the Mobile Awards. @HTC_UK won the deserved title of "Hottest Phone of the Year" and duly rubbed it in the faces of @SamsungMobileUK:

Last night we won the 'Hottest phone of 2013' at the Mobile Awards #HTCOne twitter.com/o_reilly_garre… Ouch @samsungmobileuk
— HTC UK (@htc_uk) June 7, 2013

Samsung responded well, in my opinion, with a funny dig back at HTC:

@htc_uk That's okay guys, our arms were full with the other three awards we took home last night. You can have that one!
— Samsung Mobile UK (@SamsungMobileUK) June 7, 2013

HTC bit at this one, and probably went a bit too far by mentioning the articles that Samsung reportedly paid students to write in a bid to derogate the competition:

@samsungmobileuk all those students you paid to write fake reviews of your competitors finally paid off. Pay rise, maybe?
— HTC UK (@htc_uk) June 7, 2013

I'm all for brands interacting like this on social media. It adds a personality to the brand. I do think the HTC tweet about the paid writers was a little unnecessary and petulant, though. Interaction like this should be light-hearted - and LG are the real winners in this 'social media battle' with their mediation tweet:

@htc_uk @samsungmobileuk lg.com/uk/mobile-phon… twitter.com/LGUK/status/34…
— LG Electronics UK (@LGUK) June 7, 2013

It's all fun and games of course, and great to watch brands be willing to loosen the reins on social media! Who do you think came out on top here? Was HTC's tweet a bit petulant or did they get it right?