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Apple accused of copying iPad design
Summary
The president of Chinese hardware manufacturer, Shenzhen Great Loong Brother Industrial, told reporters that the iPad was a copy of their own tablet PC.
Topics
Chinese hardware manufacturer, Shenzhen Great Loong Brother Industrial, is exploring a possible lawsuit against Apple over allegations the iPad design was a copy of its own tablet PC.
In a news report by Spanish daily El Mundo, the Chinese company's president, Wu Xiaolong, said in an interview that the iPad was similar to its P88, which was commercially launched in October last year.
Read: Special Report: It's an iPad
Wu said he was "angry and flabbergasted" after seeing the news about Apple's iPad.
"It is certainly our design. They've stolen [it] because we presented our P88 to everyone six months ago at the IFA (International Electronics Fair) [in Berlin]," he was quoted in a Shanghaiist article, which cited extensively from El Mundo's report.
Shenzhen Great Loong Brother Industrial is based in Shenzhen, China. The Chinese city is recognized as a location where the manufacture of "shanzhai" or "copycat" mobile phones and other electronic devices is proliferate, Bryan Wang, Springboard Research's Asia-Pacific research director for connectivity and country manager of China, told ZDNet Asia in a previous report.
But Wu, in a separate report by PCWorld, was quoted to say about the company's P88: "For this thing, we are not 'shanzhai' because we were first."
Shenzhen Great Loong Brother Industrial submitted a patent application for the P88 last May, according to Wu, who noted that the approval process can take about a year, making it difficult for the company to sue Apple in the United States. But, he added that "if the iPad enters the Chinese market, we will sue them this spring."
For more on this story, read Apple accused of copying iPad design on ZDNet Asia.
Talkback Most Recent of 130 Talkback(s)
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HypnoToad724th Feb 2010 -
What exactly are you saying?
Can't tell if you are being sarcastic and if so, on which point.
Obviously countries have their own patent processes and laws. Apple and others often release a new product only in the U.S. at first, then Europe and maybe China later on.
He is saying since the iPad's patents were first, in the U.S., they cannot sue here but will when the product is sold in China.
I know that is obvious and I'm not saying he is right, I don't believe apple coud steal a design and get a product to market in 6 months, no how, no way.
The iPad is essentially a large itouch. It looks and acts essentially the same with some new functionality the larger screen can accomodate.
Apple even sort of disses the itouch on their own site under the ipad's features, Safari section saying full page view "as it's meant to be" (the story from Apple and apologists was a bit different when people claimed the touch's screen was too small to be of use) and it continues to say you will get a page "that is actually readable". If that's not talking about their own itouch, and any other small wireless device, I don't know what it is talking about.
Funny they would compete directly with their itouch...maybe it's sales have peaked? Stats showed the ipod in general had peaked last summer I think?...but I'm not sure if the video added in the last iteration has changed that or not.
xuniL_z4th Feb 2010 -
Mr. Wu is trying to get free publicity.
Thats all it is nothing more than that. He might have copied iPad design
from the leaks that they might've gotten from the assembly line workers
in China. Not a big deal.
--Ram--
Rama.NET4th Feb 2010 -
Yeah, that's true.
If I were him I would have avoided free publicity that makes him come off as lying about things and stupidly suggesting Apple pulled off stealing their design and getting a product prototype ready in 6 months.
Publicity is publicity but that actually tells me to not ever bother looking at their product.xuniL_z4th Feb 2010 -
Are you kidding?
China steals designs for chips all the time.
They directly copy them wire for wire (there
have been tests done where companies would put
in components that served no purpose and they
would show up in Chinese chips) in no time. Six
months is plenty of time to copy something.
Personally, I don't think that's what Apple
did.
Beyond that: If a patent was filed before Apple
got to the market (so it seems), then Apple's
in the wrong. It's just how it is.
evilkillerwhale@...4th Feb 2010 -
Oh the irony and MS is enabling China
China has been caught out on many occasions hacking into WIndows
PCs to steal intellectual property.
Many US technologies are being ripped of in China thanks to
Microsoft's bad software design.
Here we have Apple releasing a larger version of some of their existing
products.
Sometime after Apple released the iPhone and the iPod touch a
Chinese company makes something they now are in effect claiming is
similar to Apple's existing product.
If they are correct in saying that their product is just like Apple's and
close enough to the iPad to be covered by patents then they have
copied Apple's intellectual property.
This whole thing stinks - and a world where state secrets and
company secrets go to China thanks to MS also stinks.
Isn't it interesting that Bill Gates supports China at a time when they
have been caught by Google stealing using MS product?
richardw664th Feb 2010 -
some ones smoking the funny bush
You are incoherent and rambling, your point is moot. M$ has nothing to do with this, stay on topic.
Also, Proof to every allegation or you are a fool and a liar. (When I say proof I/we/the world expects credible proof, not your normal tin-hat-dictator M$ is out to get me shtick.)
TL;DR Pics or it didn't happen. (Partial pics are fail.)
ariesghost5th Feb 2010 -
Timing is important too
Steve Jobs and Apple were working on the iPad for 3 years before the iPhone was released in 2007. Apple waited until certain technologies caught up to the requirements of the iPad design. This is not something that is new or even recent in Apple's concept. There will be patents on the iPad that will date back to 2004. It seems this is another attempt to jump on the Apple gravy train.
aj.redmond@...4th Feb 2010 -
Apple or Not?
Hey! Max-i-Pad an exact copy of the P88. There is no doubt, oh! Sorry no it is not, it (P88)has USB, Multi-Tasking, A full OS, larger screen, will play flash, and there is no TOP SECRET info about memory as it has 1gb and is expandable.
Max-i-Pad you would have to be a c**t to buy one and you will look like a T**T when you are sat in a coffee house not seeing a WHOLE PAGE of the internet without Flash, LOL.
Apple stealing a design from another is so funny, shame that in real terms the P88 stole its design from iPhone. Comedy.
Turn to PC's Apple fans buy something that works and is cheaper than your plastic tat.
Take care all.
Horus4185th Feb 2010 -
Markets
Apparently, you've never tried to sell anthing in China. There is indeed aa "Chinese Market".
brichter4th Feb 2010 -
And that is just the stupid outlook that our businesses
use to lose trade with the Asian market. You can't market things the same over there. One case in point, the golf industry is always trying to get a foothold in Japan. They think the Japanese use unfair trade practices, because they usually buy Japanese balls. Here balls are sold in packages of 3, but in Asia, 3 is an unlucky number. They won't buy the American balls because they are in an unlucky pack.
Little things here are huge over there, and things that really make us mad, don't bother them at all. In the US, people would buy something in their color, if it didn't cost more, or much more. In the Orient, people won't buy a color if it is unlucky, it doesn't make any difference how much they could save.
Is there a Chinese market, absolutely, there is also a Japanese market, and a Korean market. These could be tapped very nicely, if we could just look at things from their point of view. That isn't likely to happen, because we know how to run things here.
mjolnar@...4th Feb 2010 -
I think you mean 4 balls.
I think you mean 4. 4 is an unlucky number.
And it is very true about differences in the markets.
The Japanese market does not prefer to buy American products because they are perceived as being lower quality (some exceptions of course - such as Apple products!).
It's the other way in China. American stuff is typically better quality but it's too expensive for the local market.
And sometimes the import expense makes it more costly than an equivalent local product, although some of this could be government protectionism.
khammo014th Feb 2010 -
This is a joke right?
Right? A company from the land of copycats with no respect for intellectual property is claiming Apple copied from them? Sounds like a cry for attention and they're getting it.
dave95.4th Feb 2010 -
Even funnier when you look at the specs:
P88: Atom based running at 1.6 Ghz with 1GB RAM. 90 minutes
battery and internal mechanical 160 GB HD.
iPad: Apple A4 (ARM Cortex A8/A9) running at 1GHz. 600 minutes
battery life and up to 64GB internal SSD.
P88: 10.2" resistive touch screen at 1024X600
iPad: 9.7" capacitive multi-touch screen at 1024X768
P88: Windows XP.
iPad: iPhone OS.
P88: 2.25 lbs
iPad: 1.5 lbs (already a bit heavy)
P88: Ports galore.
iPad: Standard iPod Dock connector
Copycat? These are two different devices that both happen to be
rectangular.
Bruizer4th Feb 2010 -
Sounds like they glued a touch screen on a netbook
I'm disappointed in the iPad, but it is obviously far superior to the clunker these dorks are pushing. 90 minutes of battery life? Seriously? Why bother?
BillDem4th Feb 2010
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