“Head of LG Mobile Handset R&D Center insisted on an official occasion that Apple copied LG’s handset design,” Telecoms Korea reports. ” The handset maker announced its official position on Apple phone at press conferences with the presence of Scott Ahn, CEO of LG’s mobile phone business division held on February 12 in Barcelona, Spain.”
Telecoms Korea reports, “Mr. Woo-Young Kwak, head of LG Mobile Handset R&D Center said to the press, ‘We consider that Apple copycat Prada phone after the design was unveiled when it was presented in the iF Design Award and won the prize in September 2006.'”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Jeffrey” for the heads up.]
Boy, there’s nuts and then there’s truly deranged. Apple should win awards for “copying” LG’s phone (the phones are actually quite dissimilar) in just 3 months. LG just committed phonicide. Goldstar, er… LG should be doing all they can to avoid anyone making comparisons between their hollow device and Apple’s iPhone. Unfortunately, they’ve now made the colossal blunder of doing just the opposite. LG would’ve sold more of their pretend iPhones had they just kept their mouths shut.
Related articles:
Apple iPhone vs. LG Prada KE850 – January 23, 2007
LG unveils iPhone-like Prada mobile phone – January 19, 2007
LG undecided about lawsuit against iPhone over similarities to LG’s Prada phone – January 16, 2007
What? No pants dirtying joke for this item?
Um, ok LG. I look forward to using Mac OS X on your phone. Wait…. what? Your phone doesn’t run OS X?
Hmmmm, then I fail to see how it’s a copycat.
In fact, LG, I think YOU are the copycat, since you made your number pads on all your phones look like everyone else’s number pads… even put the numbers in the same order from top to bottom.
Right, LG. I smell FEAR. And you should fear, for I, too, will be buying an iPhone.
One has to wonder how many patents the LG Prada phone has. I sure would like to know.
I have to go with MDN take on this. It’s nuts for LG to draw attention to any comparisons between its Prada phone and iPhone.
When the iPhone is released it will truely make the Prada phone look much worse than it already is. It’s all about the user experience which is dependant on software. The Prada I believe is based on some form of “Flash Lite” you do the math and tell me if a “lite” version of Flash is what you want running your “smart phone”.
Does the new Prada phone come with shoes and a purse for an additional $3000?
What a Kwak.
Of course everybody knows that LG have patents and are the rightful inventor of everything that is rectangular, flat and with a large screen, which are the similitudes between the Prada and the iPhone. Some people are simply disillusional and we should have pity on them and let the professionals take carre of them.
Wow, they really think it took only 3 months to design the iPhone? Does the Prada phone have motion sensors? WiFi? MacOS X? Sleek, curvy design? I’m going to have to say no. personally, I’m thinking Prada only won the iF Design Award, because Apple didn’t enter. Looking at them side by side, there’s really nothing about the Prada phone that keeps my attention. My eyes always stray back to the iPhone. It just looks gorgeous.
MDN: LG just committed phonicide.
Another brilliant line!
They showed this phone on the BBC’s news programme yesterday and Apple has nothing to worry about given that I watched someone ‘pressing’ a button half a dozen times and the phone still didn’t respond.
I gotta say, when the iPhone came out, it didn’t look that Apple-ish in its design. I wondered if Ives had actually had any input.
Who knows, maybe Apple just used some Samsung template for this one, just because it was the only one available.
and the prada phone has a sleep-wake button and a ´home´ button…LG is going lose money on this one.
Just say no to anything Korean !
They have a strong nationalistic movement against buying anything “foreign”. I’m sure this LG CEO yoyo really believes Apple copied….
This is a country where crappy products rule just because they are home grown.
Anyway…it will be fun to compare the two after they actualy ship.
Uh, yes, certainly, Apple copied LG’s design. Because as we all know, Apple doesn’t employ some of the best hardware and software designers on the planet. Yep, Apple never designed anything worth a damn, and there’s no doubt that they’ve had their eye on the legendary design team at LG. And after all, Koreans are certainly known for their originality.
Oh yeah, and Apple ripped off a bunch of Vista technology because MS showed their Vista concepts a long, long, long time ago – but they’re only now coming to market because it took so long to get their “security code base” to the point of perfection.
Yeah, that’s it. Let’s go with that.
Now, where did I put my puke bucket.
5 years minimum of development (if you take that this concept started with the 1G ipod…hundreds of patents and Apple is the copy cat? The first monkey to fling crap against the wall is not the first monkey to make that crap LG. How many patents does the Prada have?
yes, it’s black and it rings… call the lawyers!!!
Just say no to anything Korean <– What…no korean chips on the iPhone?
‘We consider that Apple copycat Prada phone after the design was unveiled when it was presented in the iF Design Award and won the prize in September 2006.'”
Now THAT is English!
Look, we’ve all known (or at least suspected) that Apple was making a touch screen phone and/or iPod device for… how long now, 4 years??? The patents have been around for ages. But we all track this kind of thing and the average schmo who reads this press release probably does not, so they might believe LG’s clam, which is, technically speaking, total and utter bat guano. And they know it, but they’ll say it because they can. I guess if you’re a rival handset maker you can be a lying person and that’s okay. ;P
Liars.
-c
Is it not flash based?
I know that just a few weeks ago a flash based icon that made the pocket pc look the same as the iPhone.
But looks are not what I see in the iPhone, it is a vastly improved widget.
LOST IN TRANSLATION!
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”ohh” style=”border:0;” />
Fine…then I accuse LG of being a rip off Japanese microelectronics companies.
So there…
I am patenting the black rectangle. They will all owe me millions.
MW already
Geez…first Bill Gates lying about hackiong the Mac daily and now LG and the iPhone copycat lie. What a load of Simian feces. But birds of a feather crap ….errrrr. lie together. The heads of MS and LG are…well…crapheads.
MW: didnt, as in “The crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe”.
They all look at the cosmetics of the phone and think that’s the breakthrough. The touch screen is great, but really it’s its fusion with OS X that’s so cool. iPhone is a platform that will grow, not just be another product with feature creep. Plus, it integrates with the most used consumer media software out there– iTunes.
They should have named it Lane Bryant. Prada’s too good.
Rumors are the LG Prada might come in a Windows Mobile 6 variant as well. Would be th perfect combination of crappy hardware and os.
Good ol’ Rucky Goldstah!
LG WISHES that Apple would have copied their design. Geez, to say that Apple copied LG’s phone design is like saying Mercedes copied the Ford Focus. In other words…Not hardly.
LG is just gonna license it to Monopolysoft & re-badge the thing as the Zune Phone-
Squirt.
Mr. Woo-Young Kwak also said:
“KWAK KWAK.. Copycat! Apple has copied us by making a rectangular phone that does 10 times more than what our phone does… the question we (the LG) have is how could they make out phone to work so much better than out own!?”
Stanley Kubrick has the patent on black rectangles, LG. You’re in deep trouble now.
Hey, wall street guy,
“Just say no to anything Korean !”
Please don’t do that. I am a Korean American and you really don’t know what you are talking about.
Anyway, I think LG is trying to get attention, that’s all. Beauty is only skin deep on LG phone… it doesn’t run OSX.
Alche Beltchey at CNN morning business will dutifully report this as gospel and an intro like ” there is more trouble ahead for Apple, Steve Jobs and the iPhone”
It’s funny how many people here claimed that Samsung was copying the iPhone. Typical.
In other news, Mr. Peabody files a lawsuit against Apple Inc. for believing that OS X gives a superior user experience, perceptually and actually. Mr. Peabody claims that he was the first one to believe that, and that Apple Inc. was only using the Macintosh product line to promote it’s other consumer electronics product lines. A PR spokeswoman for Apple says that Mr. Peabody may have a point, the PR representative further stated that, Apple Inc. wishes Mr. Peabody lots of luck with that.”
Mr. Peabody declined any further comment.
I think the guy meant “Korean products”, not “ethnically Korean people”. BTW, if you’re really an American, then you drop that “Korean” before American. Quite a few Korean women are pretty hot.
This is just marketing hyperbole. Like Gates saying OS X is hacked every day.
All their trying to do is bring the focus back on them. After all the iPhone isn’t even shipping so LG want to remind people their phones are still around.
If LG really fell that Apple stole their intellectual property then a lawsuit will happen. Probably can’t happen until the iPhone ships.
thank god apple didn’t copy the price…
and wow.. three months is a short time to develop all the accelerometer tech inside the iPhone..
is this LG’s way of pointing to the market leader about 4 months ahead of time?
The secret is out: Steve Jobs has a time machine in which he regularly visits the future to steal ideas from Microsoft, and now Goldstar, er LG.
No way is LG, Goldstar.
I didn’t know that. I just bought a new LG fridge…damn!
Last post?
I’ve owned 2 LG phones. Their crap. I currently have the White Chocolate, it’s crap. Looks cool, looks kind of like an ipod, oh wait. Who’s copying???
I don´t think it is so much LG complaining about apple copying them as that last month Steve came out and said he re-invented the phone.
B.S.
Like the article said, this one already won awards in September 2006 – iPhone debuted its demo 2-3 copies 6 months later.
Other companies have been working on the same idea – it is the naturally evolution of the phone.
And so far the iPhone is semi-vaporware…
bruce: “I’ve owned 2 LG phones. Their crap. I currently have the White Chocolate, it’s crap. Looks cool, looks kind of like an ipod, oh wait. Who’s copying???”
It took you two purchases of the same brand phone to come to that conclusion? The first phone is crap, so what do you do – buy another one.
I am calling b.s on this one.
I don;t understand
If Apple copied their design,
iPhone should be as ugly as them.
I’ve owned 2 LG phones
—
wait a sec.. i have an LG.. I love korean stuff..
gettin your butt kicked by Apple is nothing to be ashamed of…
LG still makes very nice $100 phones.. but they are outclassed by Apple’s software prowess
Uh, Why would anyone buy LG? They are low grade products, really low grade. Spend and extra couple of bucks and get something a step up, like a piece of dog ****.
And people were doing Photoshop mock ups well before that of the then rumored touch screen iPod. Whatever.
The touch screen phone design is a product of the limitations of the technology. An all touch screen. So, they use a rectangle. Wow, who invented that? What other shape could you use? A cylender? Is that just a phone in your pocket or…nevermind. Square touch buttons. Uh oh, what other design are you going to use for a fat finger? Triangles?
What is amazing to me is how the iPhone so totally blows away the LG phone in terms of style and functionality. And all that in three months. An incredible engineering feat. Props to Apple.
I remember a while ago (like 2 years or someting), there was a cell phone which copied a bunch of icons from Mac OS X.
Was it LG? Or was it Samsung?
Does anybody remember?
Without revealing names or sources that shouldn’t be identified at this point in time, something really needs to be said here.
Yes copying, and worse IP theft, has TAKEN PLACE HERE.
But NO, Apple did NOT copy LG; nor did the converse happen: LG did not copy Apple.
There was a third, widely unknown, source that was copied by both.
Actually, when the poster above jokingly suggested that:
“The secret is out: Steve Jobs has a time machine in which he regularly visits the future to steal ideas from Microsoft”
his comment has more truth to it than meets the eye, but only in a round about way.
NOT because Steve Jobs stole from Microsoft, but because Microsoft stole from this “third source” and then Steve Jobs, when he had occasion to do so, subsequently also stole from that same “third source”.
Why do you think all of the iPhone clones just happen to run Microsoft Mobile OS’s ? Do you think it’s coincidence?
And what about the Meizu M8 (which runs Windows of course) and looks even more like the Apple iPhone than the LG Prada?
The sudden reversal in LG’s reply to the question of copying by Apple is because Bill Gates asked LG to “play” the accusations of copying to their mutual advatage, after their honest and “bungled” first response of “No, Apple did not copy us”.
Bill Gates has been personally coordinating the theft of technologies Steve Jobs later took interest in, and ALSO decided to steal. But because Bill did so earlier, he had a head start over Apple. You see this with the iPhone.
If any of the parties involved sues the other for “copying” their design of what has been publicly attributed to the iPhone, the facts will be revealed in court. But because what’s involved here goes drasticlly beyond the iPhone, one has to doubt whether Apple or any of the parties Bill Gates sponsored to commit IP theft would dare to take the matter to court: because criminal charges could then be brought against Bill Gates himself, and of course also Steve Jobs (though to a lesser degree than Gates).
kwak kwak!
scooter – keep off the coffee for a few days.
Problem is Apple is toooooooooo slow to bring out product.
Calm down, fanboys.
Believe it or not, the world thinks that the Prada phone is an iPhone copycat. Even though the Prada was unveiled months before, the iPhone is more recognized on a global level care of the hype and news coverage post-Macworld announcement. Steve Jobs pulled it off.
LG right now is under a lot of pressure because they’re perceived as copying the iPhone. Apple swooped in and stole their shine. While I’m glad for this as LG and the Prada phone suck, you must understand that the first question out of everyone’s mouth to LG executives and spokespeople at 3GSM this year revolves around the iPhone in some shape or form. They had a pretty good idea and it’s been trampled on, criticism has taken the place of heaps of praise for an award-winning design. They’re furious, they would’ve probably been the talk of the town in Barcelona had Cupertino not loomed over the event the same way they did CES a month ago.
It was only a matter of time before these guys snapped and started playing the “No! Apple copied -us- first!” role. It’s the only thing they have left and frankly I can’t blame them. But their pleas are irrelevant, drowned out by iPhone anticipation and speculation from now to June.
The world has (wrongly) decided that the Prada phone is a copy of the iPhone. So calm down, fanboys. We won.
NumberCruncher: It’s true. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Unfortunately it’s shame on me. In my defense I needed a new phone pretty quickly and was very busy due to work and the holidays. By the time I had time it was past the return date. Take it for what it is, I’ve had 2 crap phones from the same company, I tried to give them the benefit of doubt, I was wrong. Good thing I got it for free.
Does the LG Prada run OSX? I didn’t think so. They can’t say they copied LG then now can they. Not to mention the screen on the iPhone looks way better than the prada which looks washed out. Does the prada run OSX mail, Safari browser, iCal? Didn’t think so. Does the prada run quicktime? Didn’t think so. I guess then that settles it.
The iPhone is an iPhone and no where near a copy of the LG Prada.
Not only wearing Prada, the devil talks Prada now! Brah ah ah ah
Korean companies are well known to steal technologies and designs from American companies. Creative isn’t a word in Korean language. You dog eaters, you need to create something new instead accusing Apple Inc…
Hasta la vista
The Prada is like $200 more than the iPhone. It also looks more like a cheap knockoff of the iPhone to me. I’m betting the software sucks, but lets wait until we can actually see them wotk side by side. I ‘m sure the iPhone will kick it’s a..
Now this is a real copycat. Incredible!!!
http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/13/meizu-m8-minione-closer-to-production-litigation/
@scooter
what the f***k are you talking about? Your post makes no sense at all. What third party? Apple’s iPhone doesnt look or work like any other phone I have ever seen – and certainly not like one of those cumbersome windows phones…
Mr. Woo-Young Kwak is just trying to raise the profile of his company and his product by making an outrageous statement. I suspect that he will have to reverse his position once again, foolish man that he is.
For a real knockoff copy see this:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/13/meizu-m8-minione-closer-to-production-litigation/
The most truly amazing thing Apple could have ever done is copy even their crappy phone in only 3 months. Anyone who could do that in 3 months deserves their own planet.
You’re right, LG. Apple has only used some of these icons and the same look and feel for, oh, six or seven years. iPhone is an obvious copy of your flash-based phone.
Right.
LG Prada looks like black brick with touch screen. Prada, yeah fscking right… !?!
My Casio fx-115MS has more style than that thing and it’s a function calculator… Probably works better too.
In a few years, all high-end “phones” will look like iPhone (thin, big touch screen, and minimal buttons). The difference will be Apple’s patented or patent-pending interface innovations. You can copy the look but not the useability and functionality. But just as those other phones are coming online, Apple will no doubt release something else that’s completely different.
Hey,
I’m sure that LG and Prada designers have been long time subscribers of Think Secret, AppleInsider and all the Rumor site that have been around the iPhone for at least last 15 months!!
And sorry guys, this is just the reason why, Court or not, industrial secrets should be secret as always has been. Democracy and Free Market are two different things…!! Sorry…
in any case… Go Prada at The America’s Cup!!!
italian guy
It is extremely interesting to do a little bit of research… into the IF Design Awards.
If we DO research the awards we find that the sponsor of the awards for the last three or four years has been …. LG.
I wonder why they won.
How is anyone supposed to believe Apple could rip off LG’s idea and better it and produce several working prototypes in only 3 months. Apple bought the multitouch technology company (from the youtube video) over a year and a half ago. If anything, that probably tipped off LG, and they copied what they thought apple would try to do. i.e. a buttonless full screened phone. (But without the proprietary multi touch and pinch technology}
@ken1w
Great post. I agree totally. As with iPod and Mac, the iPhone will do things “The Apple Way” – and Apple are the current supreme masters of interface design.
something is going on with apple.com. its not loading.
You mean the LG that copied the Motorola phone?
There maybe phones with similar appearance but the actual meat of the iphone is not the shell, the differentiating factor is of course the software. Other manufactures have not come close to the software of the iphone. Its the software, the software,oh did I say the software. Yep!
Look, in the world of product development, the lead times stretch out to months, if not years. The cars that you can buy today were probably initially designed several years ago. The same with consumer products. Knowing Apple’s notorious adherence to style and UI substance, they would have gone through several styling mock-ups. Let’s not forget the not-so-glamorous job of sourcing the components for your product and then negotiating unit terms.
Also, there is such a thing as coincidental discovery when the solution is so patently obvious (how to display a keypad on an LCD screen) that no one can claim it.
All modern push button phones use the same button layout pioneered by Bell Labs when it introduced Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency dialing in the late 50’s, do you expect AT&T to come after everyone who has borrowed the design? Besides, how many ways can you display a keyboard, a hierarchical menu structure and navigation shortcuts on a touchscreen, flat panel LCD display?
For Apple to copy LG (or vice-versa) they would each have to know about the other’s research and development milestones. What’s the likelihood of that happening considering the secrecy of Apple or LG Electronics? Besides, Apple was granted the patents relating to their phone – what’s LG got?
The more important question to ask yourself is who is benefitting from all the FUD surrounding Apple’s device?