Creepy? iPhone is CLONE of award-winning LG Chocolate phone

I was resisting the urge to write a fourth posting about the iPhone. I think I've done enough "damage" on this topic. But this I really have to mention.

In my long Handicapping the iPhone market chances blog I mentioned that some manufacturer, very possibly Motorola with its Slvr or LG with its Chocolate, could release a clone of the iPhone, and possibly one of the two could have it out about the same time as the iPhone launches in June. I also then responded to a comment and clarified, that clearly nobody could copy Apple's intuitive user interface, but why not a touch-screen application of their own (and by definition as Apple is the world leader in user interfaces, these clones would be inferior to the Apple user experience)

So to my surprise, Engadget has just released pictures of the world's first clone of that concept. It is the Apple iPhone which is the clone. The ORIGINAL is a variant of the LG Chocolate !!!  Yes, large touch screen with similar virtual keypad etc. You have to look at these two side-by-side to get how eerily similar they are (can anyone spell second lawsuit relating to the iPhone)

And wait, it gets worse. How can Apple do this? The LG KE 850 is an international design award winner ! Please go to this site and take a look. This is way too creepy. What is going on with Apple? First Steve Jobs announces a product for which they don't own the name, and praises it from earth to heaven how uniquely innovative and radical it is, and now its a clear copy of an awardwinner? I am getting a nasty feeling that Apple was rushed to this announcement, they are trying to hide something or divert attention or something. Maybe the iPod numbers next week are worse than expected or something, I don't know?

Oh, I also have a great joke here about the iPhone, come back from the Engadget site, ok? But first, go check out these side-by-side pictures...

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/11/iphone-and-lg-ke850-separated-at-birth

Isn't that weird?

Well, to laugh it off, here is the best item relating to the iPhone I've seen. And since I am now into my fourth iPhone posting, its about time for some humour, isn't it. Doc Searls posted a forgotten joke by Peter Hirschberg about the "iPhone Shuffle". Here is the meat of it:

Like the iPod Shuffle, the new iPhone Shuffle has no display. It's an all-white rectangle with a little green light to show that a call is in progress. While the iPhone Shuffle superficially resembles the iPod Shuffle, its user interface is even more spare. In place of the familiar round iPod "wheel", the iPhone Shuffle sports a single square button. When pressed, the iPhone Shuffle dials a random number from its phone book.

"Our research showed that people don't care who they call as much as they care about being on the phone," said Jobs. "We also found that most cell phone users hate routine, and prefer to be surprised. That's just as true for people answering calls as it is for people making them. It's much more liberating, and far more social, to call people at random than it is to call them deliberately."

The full joke is at this link http://doc.weblogs.com/2007/01/10#newsFromTheFuture

And you know, a small part of me believes that this kind of random calling might even work for some people....

RELATED BLOG ENTRIES on iPhone: I handicap the iPhone's chances in American, European and Asian markets, to try to achieve 10 million unit sales in the first year. Read it here:

http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2007/01/handicapping_th.html

And I wrote an Open Letter to Apple urging them to understand the role of SMS Text Messaging as the only true killer application for mobile telecoms (not wireless e-mail like Blackberry) outside of America. The letter is here:

http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2007/01/open_letter_to_.html

Comments

[Sri]

Hi Guys

Hold on. Take a deep breath. Cell phone has been developed by great OEMs like Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson....by doing extra-ordinary hard work in their R&D labs plus in their association with their vendors who supply Antennas and other RF components. Today, Steve Jobs is telling all that hard work is non-sense, my iPhone is great. O.K. Steve, then where is your iPhone in the market? iPhone is NOT even FCC approved. FCC approval means passing of SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) and it is not as easy as Steve thinks. Plus iPhone by Cingular is GSM, then it also means that it should be HAC (Hearing aid compatability) compliant. HAC complaint for CDMA is probably easy, but a challenge for GSM. Yes, you can still pass SAR and HAC, but it will be at the cost of radiated performance. Then does it means, to approve iPhone by FCC, Cingular is lowering the bar?????? And if Cingular lowers the bar in order for iPhone to get approved, then other companies like Nokia, Motorola...will tell "hell Cingular, if you have lowered bar for us, we would have made this iPhone some 5 years ago".

[Arun]

I am referencing your article. Please check

http://beanpicks.blogspot.com/2007/01/gravity-might-pull-apple-to-ground.html

[Carrie Judah]

I love Mac. I'm attached to my MacBook and my iPod but for reasons other than their chic, user-friendly design. If I ever have a problem, a phone call to customer service is all it takes to fix or replace the product and maintain my loyalty to Mac. I bought a LG White Chocolate phone...probably because reminded me of my beloved iPod. However, LG's attempt to copy many of the successful features of an iPod failed miserably. Not only does the virtual keypad have a mind of its own and software that goes haywire but Verizon/LG neglected to make the Chocolates and V Cast compatible with Macs. More importantly, with any phone issue Verizon representatives just shrug their shoulders, point fingers, and say it's Mac or Microsoft's or even my own fault as a consumer. Though it sucks that the iPhone is limited to Cingular, the quality of Mac products and customer service is reason enough for anyone to change carriers.

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Hi Sri and Carrie

Sri - thanks for the mention and link.

Carrie - I hear you, that is very typical of the user experiences all around the world. The carriers (mobile operators) are notoriously bad at customer service. The handset makers are not brilliant at it either. It is where Apple can raise the level of professional marketing in telecoms very much. I am sure there will be millions of customers like you who won't mind paying quite a lot for the iPhone, in part because of their experiences with Apple marketing and brand in the past - like I said, Apple fans are fiercely loyal. Is that enough to make 10 million cellphone users switch in the first year? That is a tall order. Like I said, Apple will have to work very hard to achieve this goal.

Thanks for writing

Tomi Ahonen :-)