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Nokia previews blatant Apple iPhone knock-off (with video)
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - 02:00 PM EST

Alongside the introduction of Ovi, the portal for Nokia's Internet services and would-be "iTunes killer" (good luck with that), Nokia today unveiled four new mobile devices designed for entertainment, music and games. The devices range in price from 225 to 560 EUR and are expected to begin shipping later this year.

Also presented during Nokia's GoPlay event was "a glimpse into the future of Nokia interface design... due out next year," Thomas Ricker reports for Engadget. Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's Executive VP & General Manager of Multimedia, was asked about the stunning similarity to Apple's iPhone. Vanjoki said, "If there is something good in the world then we copy with pride."

Mobile user interface design by, ahem, "Nokia:"
;/param>

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Sunlokyee" for the heads up.]

MacDailyNews Take: Nokia reinvents the phone with Apple's iPhone!

It doesn't get much more blatant than this one; cheap Chinese knock-off outfits included. Nokia has just clearly and unequivocally branded themselves as derivative losers. That would seem like a losing branding strategy, but it's worked quite well for Microsoft in the past. Lately, not so much.

With this video, if actually from Nokia*, whatever respect we had for Nokia has gone "poof!" Dragged off the Dock forever. Dumped in the Trash and securely emptied.

It's tIme to start vigorously defending those 200+ iPhone-related patents, Apple.

Apple should tell Nokia to "GoPlayInTraffic."

*We're currently slogging through hours of really bad accents to find out if this video is actually from Nokia via the company's "GoPlay" site here.

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Reader Feedback: ( = registered)

Aug 29, 07 - 01:06 pm Comment from: little tiny niche guy

Lead, follow, or get out of the way..

Aug 29, 07 - 01:07 pm Comment from: Tripp

Who is surprised that the iPhone was going to be copied? The mobile phone designs has become stagnant anyway. They need a change.

Aug 29, 07 - 01:08 pm Comment from: Gandalf

By the time it's out iPhone will be on version two. The one to watch out for is Google Phone (aka gPhone - with hot spots)
grin

Aug 29, 07 - 01:09 pm Comment from: Peach Picker

That is some sincere flattery

Aug 29, 07 - 01:11 pm Comment from: Grigori

What a crummy accent - "Nahkia", "simplar"... that, plus the usual buzz words (e.g. "elegant").
Rubbish.

Aug 29, 07 - 01:11 pm Comment from: Kev

Well I'm sure the new Nokia phones are running OS X.

Aug 29, 07 - 01:13 pm Comment from: Georgy Porgy

At least make the outside look a little different...Nokia...do you have any class at all? Seems you just took apart the iPhone and copied each little part note for note. Do you have any pride at all?
Billions of dollars, and you just copy it?
Never thought I would say it, but the Zune has at least a little image of its own compared to this!!

Aug 29, 07 - 01:13 pm Comment from: Macromancer

Here come the morons with their "Apple ripped off LG first" nonsense.

Aug 29, 07 - 01:14 pm Comment from: att sucks

i bet you can use this nokia phone with verizon, unlike att's monopolistic agreement to make it the only official carrier for the iphone

Aug 29, 07 - 01:17 pm Comment from: the real steve jobs

Good artists copy, Great artists steal.

Aug 29, 07 - 01:20 pm Comment from: theloniousMac

So I guess Apple will actually have to do something to differentiate the iPhone? The UI (basically the iPhone's only feature) is too easy to duplicate.

So, how about unlocking the potential of the OS X that's under the hood.

Otherwise, my guess is the Nokia's and others to copy the "style" of the iPhone will be offering much more substance as well.

Aug 29, 07 - 01:21 pm Comment from: Shoeman

It's a big market. At this moment Apple is the main player with this interface.

The secret will be seeing how much more the design will advance with V2 and whether Apple will introduce other models (like they did with the iPod)...

Apple has a head start as they did with the PC GUI, let's see if they can hold it this time.

Aug 29, 07 - 01:22 pm Comment from: Wingsy

Why didn't they just show an iPhone and say, "This is what we're gonna make some day" rather than some video full of special effects?

Aug 29, 07 - 01:23 pm Comment from: NSFY

"unlike att's monopolistic agreement"

Inigo Montoya: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Aug 29, 07 - 01:23 pm Comment from: Core 3

it's not an iPhone

Aug 29, 07 - 01:24 pm Comment from: Robo

Too expensive ..and no keyboard!

Aug 29, 07 - 01:25 pm Comment from: Salvation

In the same page you can read this:

This was done with a REAL Nokia N95, using a Nokia SU-W8 Bluetooth Keyboard and was filmed by a Nokia N93. It was of course, done as crudely as possible (No video effects, no pre planning, no post editing, no fake nokLa, no preloaded video) just with an out of shot wireless keyboard that controls the phone.

For more details, click the link on this video's description. The same video description that's been there since this was uploaded telling explicitly this video is a spoof.

Aug 29, 07 - 01:29 pm Comment from: Macaday

Trouble for Nokia is they are just a mobile phone maker. No wider ecosystem, no OS, just Symbian and anything else they can knock up, and of course, no innovation.

But they must take 'pride' on being able to copy at least as fast as the Chinese do..

Aug 29, 07 - 01:29 pm Comment from: G4Dualíe

560 Euros is $765 US. It will be interesting to see what the carriers will be willing to subsidize.

By the time Nokia's phone line hits the market, won't iPhones be even cheaper?

MDN MW: coming... not even a wet dream!

Aug 29, 07 - 01:35 pm Comment from: NSFY

Speaking of blatant rip-offs:
http://www.engadget.com/tag/minione

Aug 29, 07 - 01:38 pm Comment from: Abdullah

How the hell did they get that touchscreen? That's got to be daylight robbery of an Apple patent!

Aug 29, 07 - 01:46 pm Comment from: JRA

Hmm, my first thought was, I wonder how many of Apple's patents have been violated for this.

Then MDN beats me to the punch, "It's tIme to start vigorously defending those 200+ iPhone-related patents, Apple."

With crap like this, the iPhone hackers will have Apple's legal department protecting much bigger things than people figuring out how to get a phone working on a decent wireless network.

Aug 29, 07 - 01:49 pm Comment from: paddywack

Come on. Those were superimposed videos on top of the iPhone. None of that was real. Look closer!

Aug 29, 07 - 01:52 pm Comment from: R2

Apple's 200 patents are mostly centered around the technology behind the multi-touch screen. Anybody can copy the design and they all most certaintly will.

Aug 29, 07 - 01:54 pm Comment from: Inquisitive

Nokia ought to be completely ashamed of themselves. Sad thing about it is that most people won't care.

Aug 29, 07 - 02:00 pm Comment from: SoE

Back in january Steve Jobs said that the iPhone was years ahead of the competitors and predicted they would soon try to copy it because they had no better ideas....
Yay, who said that wasn't true and mobile phone companies were doing well and being innovative????

Aug 29, 07 - 02:02 pm Comment from: Worm in the Apple

Touch screen is nothing new. It existed before the iPhone. What Apple patented is the multi-touch screen.

I can only see this as some competition with the iPhone and hopefully a price war which would make the iPhone price go down and the choice of other carriers.

Aug 29, 07 - 02:09 pm Comment from: DLMeyer

"i bet you can use this nokia phone with verizon, unlike att's monopolistic agreement to make it the only official carrier for the iphone"
I could have sworn it was - and is - Apple who is insisting on a single carrier per market, or per model per market. I understand why more than a few people hate AT&T;, but they were the first to agree to Apple's terms - though not the first to be asked.

Dave

Aug 29, 07 - 02:16 pm Comment from: next year hahahahah

next year

apple will kill

Aug 29, 07 - 02:24 pm Comment from: Mr. Burns

Smithers... Release the Lawyers

Aug 29, 07 - 02:34 pm Comment from: Grifterus

I wonder what's going to happen when Apple enforces its patents....

Aug 29, 07 - 02:38 pm Comment from: shiftOpt k

when you can't think for yourself, why not let others do it for you

Aug 29, 07 - 02:45 pm Comment from: anti-creative cretin

..not sure but isn't that about the same thing Richard and Dominic just tried to do but took a run through the woods instead. When you run people in helicopters start chasing you but if you're boldly cavalier about it then no one's really sure how far over the line you stepped so they wonder ..so Nokia is just standing there staring down at the pit bull knowing that if they start running they're going to lose some of their ass ..I think, what the f*k do I know ..the knock-offs just seem such a slimey thing to do ...slimey and dirty ...makes me want to look away ..but I can't. I have to look at the slime.

Aug 29, 07 - 03:07 pm Comment from: Olmecmystic

Nokia:

"My name is Inigo Montoya (a.k.a. Steve Jobs). You ripped off my iPhone. Prepare to die."

Peace.
Olmecmystic cool smile

Aug 29, 07 - 03:11 pm Comment from: Islandgirl

Per Gizmodo, Nokia says its demo was strictly for the interface, and the hardware is fake.
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/vaporware/nokias-future-iphone-killing-concept-like-a-fake-vaporous-picasso-294730.php

from the tech site: "Nokia presented some cool cells today and also slipped this concept video of a future iPhone-clone. Nokia has confirmed that this demo is strictly for the UI, not the device: the hardware is not real and the LCD's images are overlaid. Yes, it's not even a working prototype, as you will see after the jump."

Aug 29, 07 - 03:16 pm Comment from: MrO

Differentiation? I'd be willing to bet that that Nokia demo was a real bear to develop, and that developing the individual component services on a Symbian phone will likewise be a real exercise.

Apple's using the Cocoa environment, with a UI kit simple enough to use that people have already managed to figure out for themselves, without documentation, how to develop against it.

If this Nokia is coming out next year, imagine the distance Apple can put between itself and it with the powerful tools used to develop iPhone apps.

Imagine also how active a third party development community each phone would have were Apple to officially open the iPhone APIs - there'd be a hundred small shops delivering iPhone customizations for every one shop shipping Nokia customizations, just by virtue of the ease of developing iPhone apps.

Aug 29, 07 - 03:26 pm Comment from: therepguy

Looks like it time to let go with Apple's Legal Department....

Those guys must have lots fun doing there jobs...

Aug 29, 07 - 03:51 pm Comment from: DRM sucks

The only problem is that it doesn't have one of those little buttony QWERTY keyboards. Otherwise, BRILLIANT!

Aug 29, 07 - 04:39 pm Comment from: @Gandalf

"The one to watch out for is Google Phone (aka gPhone - with hot spots)"

gSpots? wink

Aug 29, 07 - 04:56 pm Comment from: Suomi!

I wonder what One Guy from Finland thinks? Seriously, I think Apple, Google, VW, and Nokia should collaborate and conquer the world.

On an off topic, but none-the-less topical subject, at this point I am a little pissed. Apple voted for OOXML. Shame on Apple. At least IBM voted with principle.

Aug 29, 07 - 06:51 pm Comment from: originalrecipes

Wow. With all the current features on the N95 on this machine. I don't think V2 of iPhone will even come close to it. Looks like a winner here for N95. I love my iPhone, but I'm dumping it if this new Nokia really comes out next year with that huge screen and all the bells and whistles Nokias are known for. Very nice.

Aug 29, 07 - 07:05 pm Comment from: MAc_ATTY

APPLE Needs This... the iPhone is incomplete: no MMS, Video Recording, GPS, Built in IM, Video IM ... I hope companies like Nokia succeeds which will force APPLE to push even further... competition like this is good for all of us.

Aug 29, 07 - 07:33 pm Comment from: One guy from Finland

Nokia = Mobile phones
Ericksson ≈ Before
USA? Nokia rules and Ericsson kicks ass. Qual..kökö... well... you know...

Don´t forget the NMT,GSM and UMTS.

Aug 29, 07 - 08:09 pm Comment from: Majikthize

"It's what Nokia always has, and always will, deliver."

Always has... deliver?!

Verb tense disagreement. Their ad agency needs to learn English grammar.

Aug 29, 07 - 09:37 pm Comment from: TowerTone

NSFY
You remebered! (the quote)

Also, I don't recall anyone saying Apple couldn't sell iPhones to Nokia, and THEY sell them to everybody......

MW:far, as from likely

Aug 29, 07 - 10:57 pm Comment from: Matt Skreen

Looks like an iClone to me, the knockoff from China, except the iClone works grin

I never did care for Noka. Prepare for the interface patent wars. Apple has plenty of cash and lots of staff lawyers on crack to defend their design.

Aug 30, 07 - 02:37 am Comment from: MachineMan

Nice take MDN, but..Apple copies the UI for Mac from Xerox, then M$ and Nokia copies Apple.

They are all derivative losers in some respect..

Aug 30, 07 - 03:09 am Comment from: marcos

When you pronounce it, put the accent on the NO in nokia and then you've gotten it right. Kia means 'I don't know my ass from a hole in the ground' in sinoscandieuroasiatic jibberjabber.

Aug 30, 07 - 03:18 am Comment from: WMA Agent

The new Nokia will only play WMA files

From thei press release

Tracks are typically delivered in high quality 192Kbps audio in Windows Media Audio (WMA) format. You can easily transfer your purchased songs to your Nokia device using Windows Media Player or with the new Nokia Music PC client available later this year. The Nokia Music PC client enables reverse synchronization of playlists, ripping from a CD to your device and PC simultaneously, as well as auto-synchronization of your purchased music and direct access to the Nokia Music Store.

Aug 30, 07 - 09:10 am Comment from: zachcube-iphone problem

OK, The problem with the iPhone is that it is only 8 gig and it only works with ATT. I won't buy until it gets at least 60 gig and is with a phone company that doesn't suck. Guess I won't be getting an iPhone so back to my flip phone.

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