Keaton On: Attack of the (iPhone) Clones
Lots of crazy things from Asia have been coming to the US lately. Smaller cars, Toilets that clean and warm your butt, and that very very strange show Hole in the Wall to name a few. One other thing that is making it’s way west isn’t as good: Knockoffs *Queue the scary music*. Engadget has a recurring blog series called “Keepin’ it real fake” which features all of the hilariously awful knockoffs people have spotted around the world (although, to be fair, or unfair as the case may be, it’s mostly from China).
We sit there and wonder how anybody could ever fall for those terrible knockoffs that probably barely work, then rush out to the Sprint store to pick up our ‘brand new’ Instinct or Bold or Xpressmusic or Xperia or G1 or Voyager or whatever else they’re churning out.
I doubt anybody could deny that these phones are are a direct response to the success of the iPhone. Were it not for the iPhone, a lot of these clone-phones would not exist, or would be very different. I mean, sure, you could definitely argue that Apple was not the first company to put a touch screen in a phone, but look at all of the clones. They all have screens that are about 3” diagonally with a small bezel around the edge, buttons at the bottom, a volume rocker on the side, very iPhone-esque dimensions, very iPhone-esque colors, very iPhone-esque home screen, and so on and so forth.
These tech companies just don’t get the tech world. The tech world is a lot like the food world, the way you get people to like things is to make them metaphorically (or, in my, and many other geeks case, physically) drool a little bit when they see your product. Unlike the food world, people drool over innovative new stuff that will make their life just that much cooler (I say unlike the food world because innovative and cool new food means stuff like blue ketchup and I really don’t want that). If Blackberry came out with a new phone that had a 3D screen on it, I would be saving up for one in an instant. If Blackberry’s big new innovation is making the screen of their iPhone clone click when you touch it, then the only people who’re going to buy it are people who are either so loyal to blackberry that they’re willing to ignore the iPhone all-together or people who are obsessed with the sensation of clicking things.
I’m not saying the iPhone is perfect, not at all. Of course there is room for improvement and there is a slight chance that some of these phones might actually be good, but they would all be better if they could quit saying “Hey, me too! Look, it’s just like the iPhone!” and start saying “We’ve got an idea that we think is even better than the iPhone”. These people are making it boring to follow tech news, right now Apple seems to be the only company coming up with cool new ideas, while everybody else blindly follows like lemmings, which means they will always be behind.
So, here’s my note to Samsung, LG, Blackberry, Sony, HTC, and all the other phone makers out there: Try to get ahead of the game, not just on par with it, give Apple a run for it’s money (that may be the only time you ever hear me say that, in general I like that Apples sales numbers are currently pretty much through the roof, but the predictable onslaught of clones is getting so boring I really have no other choice.)
Coming next Tuesday – Keaton On: Creating Custom Websites
Well written, and I agree. (Except for the blue ketchup, my mom developed a dislike of it years ago and so naturally, being eight at the time, I developed a great fondness for it.)
And I’m impressed you have a schedule! Hope it works out better than the early days of iEye…
lol, or the modern days of iEye, and I honestly had no idea there even was such a thing as blue ketchup, I just made that up as something totally ridiculous :p
Keaton,
I’ve done my share of arguing about the iPhone, and against Apple with you. And every time you and others have told me that you folks *aren’t* the stereotypical Apple fanboy — you “realize” Apple makes mistakes.
Well, quite honestly, this post proves otherwise. This *is* the stereotypical Apple fanboy post.
* iPhone is made in Asia, just like every other phone. Microsoft is based in America. Google and T-Mobile USA are based in America. But regardless, just because something comes from Asia doesn’t mean it’s a clone of something else (last time I checked, companies producing products for Americans accounted for some 25% of China’s economy).
* The only phone I would call an iPhone knockoff is that Meizu one.
* In case you haven’t ever read any site other than AppleInsider, know that Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian (yes, I will defend Windows Mobile and Symbian — you are being as unfair to them as to Android) are -not- direct copies of iPhone OS.
* Not every single phone that has come out since the iPhone is an iPhone clone. Look at the BlackBerry Bold. No touch screen. It *does*, however, have an updated theme, though — ooh, and you can have icons shown on the screen. Must be an iPhone clone.
* No one — not even me — is going to argue that most, if not all, advanced phones produced in 2008 have taken design ideas from the iPhone. However, a volume rocker? Really? Apple didn’t invent that… they’ve been in phones for years…
* How does one create a home screen that you -don’t- think copies the iPhone? Anything with icons is, you claim, cloning the iPhone, so I’m very interested in your answer to this.
* These companies do get the tech world. If they didn’t, Keaton, they couldn’t have survived this long, and there would be signs that they won’t be around in the future (hint: there are none of these signs). And if you’re trying to tell me that none of these companies ever innovate, you’re just being ridiculous. Steve Jobs once said something with the introduction of the Macintosh along the lines of, “One day everyone will be using graphical computers.” Well, he was right. They just weren’t *Apple’s* graphical computers.
Touch is a new interaction model that didn’t gain any traction until the iPhone. Now, before you start screaming at Microsoft, they’ve been working on Surface since 2001 — Apple didn’t start working on the iPhone until mid-2004 (which is around when Google, T-Mobile and HTC began working on Android and the beginnings of the HTC Dream/T-Mobile G1).
* The BlackBerry Storm’s clicking thing actually is quite an innovation. As Ari is pointing out on your Xcode rant post, it’s harder to make actual software that works and accomplishes a task than you think (and the same applies on a much larger scale to hardware). One person I know (who is not at all interested in technology) is switching to Verizon -solely- because that clicking thing makes using touch keyboards usable for him.
* “Slight chance” that some of these phones are actually good? The G1 -is- good. Many Samsung and LG phones -are- good. The E71 and N95/96 -are- good. RIM’s devices -are- good (I would know; I had a BlackBerry Curve as my primary phone for 6 months). Read the reviews of these devices — it’s not like they’re unusable (except for some of the Windows Mobile ones).
* These companies -do- recognize that blindly copying the iPhone wouldn’t work. That’s why they they try to differentiate their product from all of their competition (for example, the G1 has a full QWERTY keyboard that slides out) — including the iPhone.
* COMPETITION IS GOOD. Ask -any- sane person. Competition is good. All advanced phones have copy and paste. All have MMS. All allow third party apps to have background processes. The iPhone doesn’t — Steve Jobs apparently just doesn’t those features available. Flash was demo’d on the G1 yesterday at the Adobe MAX conference, and they hope to ship it in a few months. The iPhone doesn’t have Flash, and won’t have Flash because Steve Jobs doesn’t want it.
Apple is getting serious competition. You may not want to admit it — but it’s true. Yes, Apple’s sales are through the roof, but HTC’s sales are, too. RIM isn’t doing too badly either.
* Every average person I know who I have shown a G1 to — including one who has an iPhone — has told me that they think the G1 is on par or is better than the iPhone. Now, about half of the people in that group own Apple laptops. Take from that what you may — take nothing, if you choose.
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When Apple ships iPhone OS 2.2 with Street View and possibly a Compass Mode-like thing (it’s unclear if that’s in there or not), come talk to me about stealing features and being a lemming. If, in the future, Apple copies Android’s notification window shade, come talk to me about stealing features and being a lemming.
As much as you may not want to admit it to yourself, Apple has copied others, and continues to do so today. -Everyone- copies from everyone else. Spaces in Leopard? Those have been in Linux and other workstation OSes for years. The GUI? Invented by Xerox along with Ethernet, the mouse, Smalltalk, and a ridiculous amount of other things — not by Apple. Widgets? Stolen from Konfabulator.
Similarly, don’t bother thinking that Microsoft doesn’t innovate. They do. Again, look at Surface. Look at the Windows 95 interface. That was leaps and bounds better than anything Apple (or, for that matter, NeXT) had at the time. Heck, Microsoft practically invented the idea of a smartphone (that can go on the Internet, access email, etc.) with the Pocket PC.
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Open your eyes, Keaton. There is innovation all around you, by every single company. None of the large tech companies you mention are putting out iPhone knockoffs or even iPhone clones.
I’m interested in your response to every one of my points, as I responded to every one of yours.
Oh boy, here it goes again, Let’s see:
I acknowledged that the iPhone is in no way perfect, I realize the post portrayed it a little bit as the perfect phone, it’s not really about how the competitors compare in quality to the iPhone, it’s the fact that they’re not trying very hard to make something completely new.
I know the iPhone is made in Asia, and I know that Asia != Knockoffs (Sorry, I’ve been working in Xcode). As I said in the very beginning of the post, a lot of great things come from there (with the exception of Hole in the Wall), but you’ve gotta admit, China is pretty much the world-capitol of knockoffs.
Knockoff is a bit of a harsh word, I mentioned in the post that the phones I’m talking about are clones, not knockoffs.
I know that Android, Windows Mobile, and Symbian came before the iPhone OS (Well, not Android, but they don’t seem to have copied too much from it). I never said the OSs were copies except for the homescreen remark (which I’ll get to later).
I don’t consider the blackberry bold a clone at all, that was a typo, I meant the Storm, sorry, my bad.
Ok, ok, the volume rocker comment was a little unfair, most phones have that.
I never saw a homescreen quite like the iPhones before it came out, there were always just lists of apps from what I can remember (although back then I didn’t pay much attention to smart phones, so I can’t be sure of that). It seems to me that the homescreen is one of the most iconic things about the iPhone (no pun intended), and so of course that’s going to be one of the first things that everybody else tries to copy (with the exception of Android, which has a pretty nice alternative)
I didn’t say none of the companies innovated, I said compared to Apple, their innovations are quite minor. Alright, Apple didn’t do all that much, sure, Microsoft beat them to Multitouch, but not in a phone. Before the iPhone, when people thought of touch screen phones they thought of styluses for treos, or even the Apple newton, the iPhone was the first of it’s kind of phone, and so it’s has been very very successful just because of the ‘drool factor’, and somehow the other companies don’t get that. Also, about the Steve comment, Apple was the first major company to release a graphical OS, if it hadn’t been for some clever tactics on Bill Gates’ part, Apple would probably be in the lead.
“Clicking the screen” really isn’t a big innovation, maybe technology wise it a hard thing to do, but it’s by no means a game changer. The iPhone started a whole new style of smartphone, adding clicking to that is just an evolution, not a revolution.
The “slight chance” comment was just my being snarky, although, having used both the iPhone and a lot of the other phones I talked about (although not the G1 yet, which is no doubt the best of the pack), they’re okay phones, but compared to the years of polish that Apple put into the iPhone, they’re rough around the edges and just don’t provide the same experience (I’m sounding like an Apple ad, aren’t I?)
Nobody is completely copying the iPhone, they’ve all changed some things about it. The G1 and the Voyager both have slide out keyboards. The Storm is clickable. The Instinct has voice recognition. Still, other than their little tweaks, they’re all trying to be as similar to the iPhone as possible.
Yes, competition is good for the reason that it pushes Apple to make their product better. The thing is, competing with very different phones is a lot better than competing with things that are almost exactly the same. Now Apple just has to add little features here and there (MMS, Copy and Paste, etc) to compete instead of perfect and refine all of their technology the way they would have to if they were competing with other technologies.
As I’ve said, the G1 is the best of the pack, it ads a lot of new things. I almost didn’t include it on my list of clones at all, but it is still clearly a direct response to the iPhone.
As you’ve said, competition is good, it’s specifically pushing apple to add some of the features that their competitors have. I’d be on Apples case if we suddenly saw an iBlackberry. Basing an entire phone off a competitors phone is a lot different from borrowing a few features.
And last, but not least, I know Apple didn’t invent multi-touch screens or graphical user interfaces but in both of those cases they were the first to get it into consumers hands, and that gives their stuff the drool factor. Going back to my 3D screen example, companies like Sharp have invented 3D screens, but nobody has put it in a phone and gotten it to consumers yet, so it doesn’t really matter.