By Star Chang, posted Aug 12, 2012 at 10:34 AM, 2,748 views,

Samsung Copy Apple’s iOS, But Chinese Smartphones are not ?

In the meantime, the battle between Apple and Samsung has certainly drawn a lot of attention. As the lawsuit going on, we knew that Apple accused Samsung Galaxy S copied from their iPhone as leaked documents suggest that Samsung did copy. There are high percentage of similarities between both the iPhone and Galaxy S in term of design and user interface. During the trial, Apple shows three of the smartphones brand that are not copied from their iPhone – BlackBerry Torch, Nokia N9 and Meizu M8. Yes, the Meizu M8, an old Chinese smartphone that is famous for copying the iPhone during 2007. We are surprise Apple took Meizu brand as an example to show the different of icons design …

From these three, we can see the icons do not look like iPhone. The BlackBerry Torch running on BlackBerry OS, Nokia N9 running on MeeGO while Meizu M8 running on Microsoft Windows CE 6 with a modified GUI. With three examples, Apple want to show everyone that other manufacturers can come out with something new and not just copied from their iPhone blindly. The Meizu M8 was popularly regarded as a Chinese ‘iPhone-like’ phone due to its similarity to the features, UI, and physical design of the Apple iPhone. It had drawn attention in the US too, due to its similarity to iPhone, and also because of its unique features. After selling the phone in Chinese market for about two years, it was reported that Meizu had shut down production of the M8 due to pressure from the Intellectual Property Offices and Apple.

While Apple has taken Meizu’s UI design as a reference, most of the Chinese media see this as an affirmation of China’s mobile phone makers. Although the move seems to be a bit contradictory and ironic, it’s still considered the best promotional opportunities for Meizu in oversea market. The latest Meizu android smartphone still borrowing idea from Apple, in terms of both hardware and software. The company has chosen to put a heavily skinned version of Android on its phones, but it hasn’t completely let up on the Apple design references. The new Meizu’s Flyme OS is somehow a mash-up of iOS and Android 4.0. The GUI has drawn a distinction between iOS, but the overall using experience is quite similar to iPhone. From a designing perspective, Chinese handset companies should walk-out from the shadow of Apple product and to aim for a better positioning in smartphone market.

SOURCE: TNW, enet.com.cn (Chinese content)

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