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While imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I find these copycat designs offensive. My guess is that the "look" of a phone cannot be patented. Otherwise, Apple would be sending "cease and desist" warnings to all of these "me too" clowns.

Unfortunately Macdailynews – most customers are REALLY ignorant.

By the way, am I the only one that thinks the guy in the photo is about to get hit by a truck while taking a picture of himself?

"our own steve jack" as i am our own ralph, the one and only one.

@steve

Actually the "look" can be protected. It is called "trade dress", and Apple successfully went after a few companies that were copying the look of the original iMac.

However, I think it may be a bit harder to defend on a phone, as they are all pretty much the same size, shape, color, etc.

Apr 08, 08 - 10:12 am Comment from: Predrag

Nokia's phones are sold with a razor-thin margin (well, most of them). Just like Dells, that barely make profit (mostly thanks to crappware pre-installed by OEMs). It is obvious that Nokia must make statements such as this to redirect the attention away from the fact that Apple caused a seismic shift in approach. How else can they explain that they (the single largest handset manufacturer in the world, dominating all markets) have to compare their devices with a virtual unknown (in the handset world, at least until last year), who's been on the market for merely nine months, with one single device, and is already stealing market share from long-established, well recognised players? And as 'Factorguy' said, proper comparison is with Nokia's smartphone devices, such as N95, and of course, that we won't hear from Nokia's executives...

Apr 08, 08 - 10:14 am Comment from: mks1

MDN removed my post

I thought all those losers said, nobody wants a touch keyboard!!!!!!!

Apr 08, 08 - 10:18 am Comment from: Petey

God damn copycats.

A classic sign of a company who is shit-scared of the competition.

Copy, copy, copy....

Well, if Nokia "innovate" so well on the outside, I guess it will be mess inside...

Apr 08, 08 - 10:21 am Comment from: ken1w

Tube??? As in, going down the...?

Apr 08, 08 - 10:22 am Comment from: Ampar

"Nokia has confirmed that it’s developing a touchscreen-equipped handset to take on the Apple iPhone, and has shown off pictures of the upcoming phone to drooling onlookers."

Only to a handful of the unfit and Finnish. Perhaps the drool was from overmedication?

Yes, I want to be the guy that people come up to and ask "Wow, is that an iPhone ? They're really cool!" and I have to say "No, it's a Nokia. It's better than an iPhone" and they give me that look.

When people ask to see my iPod Touch they usually are a little skeptical of my enthusiasm. After a minute of swiping photos and watching YouTube they look astonished.

These knock offs get the same reaction as other knock offs. You must feel like a chump.

Apr 08, 08 - 10:29 am Comment from: Petey

It must be bad at Nokia HQ having to adopt M$ tactics and ripoff innovation.

Boy this is a bad sign for Nokia, and one that destroys any creative credibility that the company once had with its forward thinking handset designs.

If I worked at Nokia I would be embarresed like hell to show this design to anyone because the first thing people will say when they show it is "looks like and iphone, so how come you didnt come up with an original design?".

They might as well sack all their creative teams if all they are gonna do is copy Apple.

Just thinking how most phones have the branding on their face like this. My iPhone sits on my desk most of the day. Anyone coming into my office wouldn't know it was made by Apple unless they already knew what it was. I find it creates a kind of intrigue that other manufacturers don't notice.

Apr 08, 08 - 10:37 am Comment from: dd

Just like the iPod, customers will first buy the similar phone because "it's the same thing." Only after they get stuck in a contract with a crappy phone will they realize that "next time," they'll get an iPhone. And they will. Give it time. Nokia had 15-20 years to get it right. Their time is over.

zune - rune - rube - tube. That's how they came up with the name.

Apr 08, 08 - 10:49 am Comment from: Zune Tang®

Looks fantastic. Much better than Apple's dumpy I-Phone. Too bad it doesn't run Windows Mobile—otherwise this is a great achievement by Nokia. Apple has its work cut out for them.

And if by "dismisses Apple" MDN really means "courageously telling the truth about Apple" they might finally be on to something.

Your potential. Our passion.™

How come the death-to-innovation suits run the f***ing world?

What's their secret? Are they MIBs sent to p**s us all off?

Is Nokia a pride-free zone?

Gawd, it makes me feel quite, quite ill with sheer ennui, irritation, and boredom.

OK, rant over. S**t like this is roadkill.

Apr 08, 08 - 10:53 am Comment from: lurker

I was looking a an iPod Nano in Best Buy, standing next to a guy and his college age daughter, who was shopping for an iPod Touch. I made a comment about how great the iPods were. The dad said he really like his SanDisk iPod. The daughter and I looked each other in the eye. I could tell she loved her dad anyway.

If there's one thing I hate is when a company marginalizes a product (the Nokia's sold more than iPhone since dinner crack) and then goes on to totally copy it.

The iPhone is a great product and I don't expect competition to just give up and hail the mighty Apple but I do expect them to try harder, not copy faster

Notice that none of these iPhone knockoffs have been released. Don't forget, Apple has patents filed up the wazoo to protect the iPhone, so all of these knockoffs will have to produce a phone which doesn't infringe upon Apple's patents.

That will be tough to do, especially with Apple legal scrutinizing every knockoff that comes out. Expect the patent litigation to fly fast and furious!

I will bet that people will want a real keyboard after typing on one of these iPhone wannabes They will never get them to work as well as the corrective system on the iPhone where the letter pops up so you can see what you are typing. Imagine trying to type a password on a touch keyboard where the letter doesn't pop up and give you a visual? these wannabes are going to make people who have them not want to buy another touch device. The iPhone just works and I can type quite fast on mine and it auto corrects.

I Love my iPhone

Just when Nokia releases that thing, Apple releases theire next gen. iPhone and as allways blows the competitors out of the water

Hmmm. I guess one thing in defense of companies making phones that look a lot like the iPhone is, what other form factor could you use for a large touchscreen phone device. The device is roughly the dimensions of the screen.
On the other hand, I do believe that these folks are focusing heavily on Apple hardware design, where really it is the software and interaction of the device with other devices like computers and peripherals such as boom boxes and car interfaces that make the Apple iPhone and iPod special. Heavy integration is what makes the iProducts sell, and also it's what keeps folks in the fold once they buy one.
I'll be buying an iPhone and switching from Verizon to ATT because Verizon in their infinite wisdom inhibits my ability to synch my address books and calendars with most of their devices. I don't need a spectacular phone, I just need one that does a few tasks well without purchasing additional accessories, software, and spending several hours to get it to work. You'd think that would be obvious to these companies!

Apr 08, 08 - 11:23 am Comment from: Wun Dum Gai

@SteveJack
Actually, the public is pretty stupid.

They bought into the WinBlows nightmare didn't they?

Apr 08, 08 - 11:24 am Comment from: Ampar

" . . . what other form factor could you use for a large touchscreen phone device (?)"


Something a bit less obvious as trade dress infringement?

Apr 08, 08 - 11:24 am Comment from: feral

they should call themselves Noidea...

@ZT - not quite so Tangy this time... I expect better from you!

Apr 08, 08 - 11:39 am Comment from: Ray

You think this is bad....There used to be this company called Apple Computers...They went off and copied Nokia's idea for a partable phone product. Now they do not even acknowledge their links to computing in their company name anymore....them telephone posers!

Just my $0.02

@Predrag

Please show me a link where you can confirm that most Nokia phones are sold with a razor-thin margin, Nokia has had and increase in profits and an excellent operating margin for years and years (usually > 20%, it was 25% in Q4/2007).

Nokia has made *much* more money (on average) per phone than its rivals for as long as I can remember (excluding Apple) - yes I know that the company sells very cheap (with low margin) phones particularily in Asia (and soon even cheaper in Africa) but they still make more than 20c on the dollar on average.

Yes Nokia is becoming another iPhone-derivative-copycat, but let's keep the facts straight shall we

Just a clarification:

Nokia makes more than 20c on the dollar for the whole volume (> 400 million phones per year), not with respect to these 30-50e entrylevel cheap phones.

Apr 08, 08 - 11:48 am Comment from: LordRobin

Those who make iPhone-killers are just like those who made iPod-killers. It's deja-vu all over again. By the time their pathetic iPhone knockoffs hit the market, the iPhone software will be upgraded and doing things these companies can't even dream of imitating.

Chasing Apple is a losing game. Apple never stops running. They don't allow you to catch up. The iPod competitors never learned this lesson, and Apple crushed them all. (Yes, there are other MP3 player brands out there, but when was the last time you heard of one seriously trying to knock off the iPod?)

The iPhone copiers will suffer the same fate. Their only hope is to innovate ahead of Apple, and I seriously don't think they're capable.

------RM

Apr 08, 08 - 11:50 am Comment from: shen

"I was looking a an iPod Nano in Best Buy, standing next to a guy and his college age daughter, who was shopping for an iPod Touch. I made a comment about how great the iPods were. The dad said he really like his SanDisk iPod. The daughter and I looked each other in the eye. I could tell she loved her dad anyway."

lol lurker! i have had the same conversation....

"There used to be this company called Apple Computers...They went off and copied Nokia's idea for a partable phone product"

hey Ray, you wanna back that up with facts, or just keep rewriting history until someone buys it?

Apr 08, 08 - 11:56 am Comment from: shen

"Yes, there are other MP3 player brands out there, but when was the last time you heard of one seriously trying to knock off the iPod?"

actually i saw one in the store the other day and took me a minute to figure out what it was.... "OMG there are still people making music players besides Apple? you never hear much about them do you!"

went with my daughter to the bookstore the other day and was looking at teen/tween books with her. had an interesting conversation with the bookseller about all the teen books with kids listening to iPods on the covers. even if it has nothing to do with the story, there it is. why? it is a symbol. having a teen NOT listening to an iPod is like having a teen girl not wearing some jewelry or any teen not wearing jeans, or not talking on a cell phone. those kids are not cool enough to be real kids. an iPod using teen on your book cover sells books.....

how long till that is true of the iPhone?

oh wait, how many appearances has the iPhone made in shows over the last 6 months?

the other phone makers either have to change, or they are already dead and just don't know it.

Apr 08, 08 - 11:58 am Comment from: Buster

The guy in the picture looks like he is pinching a loaf......

"It's a series of tubes!"

Apr 08, 08 - 12:10 pm Comment from: flappo

last i heard finland's biggest export was yak sh*t

nuff said

iPhone is a flop everywhere except in the US.

I was to Germany last month and nobody gives a rats ass about the iPhone, nobody has it, nobody even knows anybody who has it.

One week in Berlin and I didnt see even ONE iPhone, there is absolutely no hype about it there, nobody is talking about it..I am absolutely sure that iPhone sales have been downright pathetic between january-march, propably closer to 50k than 100k, no wonder T-Mobile reduced the value of the iPhone to crapstatus.

Face it Mac fanbois, Apple has a crappy marketing strategy in Europe.

Apr 08, 08 - 12:21 pm Comment from: ron

Tube? Hahahahaha. As in - down the tube.

Apr 08, 08 - 12:22 pm Comment from: Petey

"iPhone is a flop everywhere except in the US'.

Well I live in the UK AND THAT IS TOTAL BULLSHIT.

The iPhone is the best selling phone in the UK.

Go suck on that you wanker.

Apr 08, 08 - 12:25 pm Comment from: Petey

If the iPhone sales are soooo crap - how come every mobile phone maker in the business is shit scared of Apple and copying its design?

Surely if it was such a flop they wouldnt even bother copying all Apple's hard work.

Answer that then you loser....

Apr 08, 08 - 12:25 pm Comment from: Ampar

"One week in Berlin and I didnt see even ONE iPhone . . ."

But you made bail?

This MDN piece is posted under "Nokia exec shows Apple iPhone lookalike ‘Tube’", starts "The flood of iPhone lookalikes continues, this time from Nokia ... " and contains a picture labeled "Nokia's Tube - iPhone lookalike".

You might assume that the picture is Nokia's unreleased Tube which was shown by a Nokia exec.

But this is MDN.

Actually it is a picture from August 2007, when Nokia demoed at GoPlay their touch UI concept, on ad hoc piece of hardware looking like iPhone. As you can read here and see the good old picture:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/29/yeah-about-that-nokia-iphone-it-was-really-about-symbian-s60/

Again..Mac fanbois twisting facts (as usual), I said that the iPhone sales are crappy in *Germany* or are you saying that they have been especially good in Germany? Well, we will find out for sure soon enough, but cmon, the signs of shitty sales are there - you are just to blind to see/admit it.

Like Anders said, that's an old photo, it is not the new Tube model hehe and everbody gets all excited, accusations flying here and there, just great.

Dont you ppl know that assumption is the mother of all fuckups?

This was sloppy of me, naturally MDN covered the engadget article with the pic already in August 2007.
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/14736/

And after 7 months MDN shows the picture again, now relabeled as Nokia's unreleased Tube shown by a Nokia exec.

That's Tom Libretto in the photo, hatching another great Nokia idea in the usual way, blowing it out his arse!

Apr 08, 08 - 02:27 pm Comment from: It's About Time

>The question I'm left with for [all] of these companies rolling out imitation iPhones this year is: Exactly how stupid do you think your customers are?"

We'll know in 6 months. Never underestimate the depth of stupidity or the lengths people will go to get there.

Has anyone ever thought that perhaps this is a good thing. Other phone corps are actually trying to compete with Apple in their court. Apple took the phone to a flat LED device with very few buttons, now it is going to be who has the best and most feature rich UI.

And we all know who wins that contest.