“Meizu’s miniOne will borrow even more directly from Apple’s iPhone interface than expected, even as the company trims its pricing. The handset is to feature a contact list and text messaging virtually indistinguishable from the iPhone, including elements such as the side column of letters for faster navigation,” MacNN reports.
MacNN reports, “The company claims it has established pricing well below the iPhone: a standard edition with a camera and 4GB of storage will cost as little as $310, with an 8GB variant costing $400… A basic version of the MiniOne without the camera will retail for even less — $195 and $285 for 4GB and 8GB, respectively.”
Full article, with more and larger images, here.
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How is this type of rip of possible? Does anyone see a lawsuit coming?
Apple shall ignore the Chinese company and sue Microsoft for licensing it’s pocket PC for copyright infringemnet purposes.
I’ll buy to one that supports CDMA.
What a surprise! An Asian company ripping off other people’s ideas – I thought only Mafia$oft did that.
“Meizu’s miniOne will borrow even more directly from Apple’s iPhone interface than expected …”
Yea, I don’t think The Steve is in a “lending” mood. So what we are talking about here is theft plain and simple.
Cupertino, start your litigation!
Ah, keep rocking on Steve!
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Test post. See claim above.
Well, Pissed@MDN’s Webmaster,
It looks like your theory is wrong. I just posted the “Zune Tang” post above with no problem.
“Who the hell needs a “phone” to do all that shit? And for $600 no less?”
I do, and I’m going to tell my boss I will settle for no less than a $600 iPhone. After all, I’m sure he’ll be glad to shell out the money when I tell him I can listen to music and surf the web all day when I’m supposed to be working…
I suppose they’ll sell 10,000,000 of them though. Between wannabe hipsters and fanboys, there should be enough of a market…
iPhone is a toy… I love my Mac, and iphone is a great overpriced technology demonstrator.. nothing more, nothing less..
I need a phone in my pocket and my Blackbery does just fine for email.. Those who need / want toys will snap up on it or one of the pretty clones…
No amount of lipstick will conceal the primitive underpinnings of the “knock off” iPhones – just as however Mac-like the user interface of Vista appears, it is still built on DOS underpinnings.
The key to iPhone will be in the network integration – otherwise why would Apple have gone to all the trouble to select a single partner?
Windows lemmings are getting more pathetic by the day.
Mac-alufugus = Zune Tang?
I would say so! (or perhaps a close cousin or something)
Whatever. Thank you for amusing us!
Oh, my brother, a long time Windows user got a Mac assigned at work. He came the other day and told me: “Man, you were soooo right, the Mac rocks! Kicks the helI out of Windows! I want one!”
I think I’ll buy a new MacBook Pro and give the kid my good loyal iBook. I know he’ll thank me from now to the eternity.
It’s nice to show people the Light…
So, how many companies rushed to copy the Zune……… ?
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
A knockoff cost less than the original? I never would have guessed. So, those fake Prada bags sold on the street should actually cost less than those in the store? How about we try for a more clever headline next time?
THANK YOU CAPT. OBVIOUS!!
WHY DO PEOPLE CALL THIS A KNOCK-OFF? It takes companies more than a month or two to design a product. If this is more than a ray-traced CAD image and is a photograph of an actual product, then they’ve been working on this for at least year. I’m a Mac “fanatic” but I’m also an engineer. So I’m atune to giving credit where credit is due. I assume that if they aren’t infringing on any of Apple’s patents, that this product will be inferior in many ways to Apple’s product. People should avoid the temptation though, to say that this company copied Apple. They MAY have actually copied Apple with added software features (since that’s easy to add late in the game). But features like text messaging are a no-brainer and one should assume that any company that’s going to develop a product in this vain are going to have that sort of functionality.
Laughing Out Loud…..
I would be embarrassed to release such a clone..
I would be even more embarrassed being caught with one in my possesion,
like some one else said
wanna be -losser
Wow what a copy off the iphone. Even though the iphone and this thing look like basically the same thing. I would still pay an extra $200 for the iphone just so the company that deservs the money gets it!! This company can go to hell as far as i’m concerned.
Well, I’d say this phone is very akin to a Hollywood film set. From the front the buildings look like real houses and business, but when you open the front door and go in – there is nothing there but a thin facade.
Does this phone have all of the options that the iPhone has like the visual voice mail? Movie capability with the rotating screen? And anything else that makes the iPhone what it is. I seriously doubt it.
And as mentioned previously – it isn’t running OS X. It’s just a phony MS front impersonating the real thing.
Mac-alufugus
Mar 02, 07 – 01:50 pm
Face it Mac-Losers, you can’t think fast enough. All your toy phones and silly candy icons can be copied within weeks in the global economy.
Thanks for the retards view, retard.
Let me get this straight. Others only end up copying Apple’s innovation, which means they have to wait for Apple to come with the original ideas, but Apple doesn’t think fast enough?
Obviously, since they are ahead of everyone else, they are thinking faster.
That’s the problem with trolls. They have to go so far with their hyperbole, they end up constantly contradicting themselves, to wit: if it’s a “toy phone” with “silly icons” then why does everyone fall all over themselves to copy everything Apple does?
Moron.
Apple will take in $500m from punk companies like this just in patent infringement lawsuits in the first 2 years alone.
Buy Apple stock now. Other surprises are up Apple’s sleeves.
Watch.
One of the pitfalls of mass-producing products in China. As soon as you hand off the design, it gets copied and sent to the knock off manufacturers.
2007 will be the year of the hi powered Apple legal team. =)
GregL ” It takes companies more than a month or two to design a product. If this is more than a ray-traced CAD image and is a photograph of an actual product, then they’ve been working on this for at least year. I’m a Mac “fanatic” but I’m also an engineer. “
I’m a product designer and I could make a phone that look like this in an afternoon. This is a model, it is a block of polished, spray-painted wood with a colour print mounted behind a bit of polycarbonate plastic, those dull scratches are typical. Note that despite the different photographs the time on the clock never changed.
This isn’t a knock-off, its a publicity stunt.
Engineers, phtt. Always looking for the complicated answer.
Pinto or Lexus… hmmmm…. lets see…
“MDN Magic Word”: run (as in RUN away from this product)
Apple’s legal department is going to be working this week – go get them boys!
A mate of mine had a load of those ipod nano rip off’s from china, there was no doubting the thing was cheap and remarkable for 15 quid, but the interface was totally different and it didn’t have a scroll wheel, so hardly an ipod killer.