“When asked about similarities between the design of HP’s new Ultrabook and Apple’s MacBook Air, an HP executive dismissed concerns that Apple could sue,” Katie Marsal reports for AppleInsider.
“Stacy Wolff, vice president of Industrial Design at Hewlett-Packard, did admit that there are similarities between his company’s new Envy Spectre XT laptop and Apple’s MacBook Air,” Marsal reports. “But according to Engadget, he said that’s more due to the way technology has developed than Apple driving design in the industry.”
Marsal reports, “‘Apple may like to think they own silver, but they don’t,’ Wolff said. ‘In no way did HP try to mimic Apple. In life there are a lot of similarities.’ …He noted that HP’s new Ultrabook is rubber-coated at the bottom, and it is made of magnesium, compared to Apple’s use of CNC aluminum.”
MacDailyNews Take: Because Apple cornered the market on precisely-milled CNC aluminum unibody construction, HP cloners had to settle for an inferior approximation. Like they do with their operating system.
Marsal reports, “He also highlighted a brush pattern on the Spectre XT that isn’t found on the MacBook Air. ”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Slavish.
Oh, wait: They took the black bezel from Apple’s MacBook Pro and slapped it onto their fake MacBook Air. Quelle différence!
Behold, the HP FakeBook Air:
HPsung. Invent.
At least they named it right: “Envy.” Apple envy, obviously.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
“It is not because those guys (Apple) did it first. It’s just that’s where the form factor is leading it.”
Then why did YOU not do it first? Oh, wait…
Good point.
“…more due to the way technology has developed…”
They’re saying they followed the industry; they didn’t lead it.
Looks don’t matter much in the Wintel market.
Too expensive: They sell two of them.
Too cheap: They sell a million at zero profit, and everyone complains about how slow they are.
Repeat.
Yeah and just where was that “technology” developed to begin with a-hole aka disingenuous spokeshole?
Could it beeeee… CUPERTINO!!!? LOVE how the competition dare not mention where their “inspiration” aka copying comes from.
What a douche. Has anyone at Apple said they ‘think they own silver’? It’s HP’s potential customers complaining about HP’s lack of new ideas.
Yeah, no matter with all the puffery, it still runs Windows. It is a counterfeit POS in every way. HP is an empty shell of its former self. It is now a Chinese junk peddler.
Did the master of “Industrial copying” from HP explained why they came out with that “design” AFTER apple pick up that design? it is embarrassing that a big company as HP is so focus on dumb people who believe everything they say.
Envy Spectre XL. – When one name just isn’t enough!
Hewlett-Packard Envy Spectre XT laptop just rolls off the tongue!
MacBook Air is 3 names.
If there’s one company I hate more than Microsoft, it’s HP. What was once a great company has now fallen into the sewer of copying Apple. I don’t think the look and feel of the Envy was arrived at by coincidence. If you believe that twaddle you’d believe UFOs abducted your wife for interrogation. That’s a load of bullshit from HP’s design department.
They consciously copied the look and feel of a MacBook Air, right down to how the keyboard is recessed in the body. If you tracked the evolution of HP laptops, they began looking like run of the mill Dells because that was the most successful model at the time. When the MBA became a best seller, the design gravitated towards that silvery look and feel, thinking that they could fool consumers into buying their rubbish.
There’s two things that HP lacks, no matter how closely they try to copy the MBA, and that is Mac OS X and the legendary reliability of Apple products. HP cranks out low reliability rubbish for the most part that are designed from the outset to break down in a year. Apple’s products are built like tanks and should outlast the crap from HP by a margin of 5:1.
And lastly, have you ever tried getting HP to service their products? First you’d be talking to an Indian helpline in Mumbai who will regurgitate the standard MO from a handbook. Second, try returning a defective product. HP will blame MS for the OS and MS will blame HP for the hardware. The nightmare never ends.
HP…just say no to these bastards….
“HP’s design department.”
As if.
Well-said. I hate Samsung, too. And Android. I wouldn’t buy a tablet from Amazon, but as a company, they’ve served me well.
At this point, neither HP nor Microsoft compare to Samsung’s shamelessness. Microsoft is at least trying to innovate this past period with W8 and WPhone, and it didn’t take a lawsuit to do make them. I don’t know about HP, but I don’t see them playing dirty with Apple. Then again, is anyone paying attention to what HP is up to these days?
Fortune’s assessment of how HP lost its way is enlightening. THey are in far worse shape than I realized.
(http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/05/08/500-hp-apotheker/)
Licensed to steal, lawyered to lie. Gee, what a surprise.
Apple only needs to own originality.
Engadgets credibility has gone to shit after the old staff left and started The Verge. Now they’re the most android humping fan boys in the blog arena. Those clowns make Gizmodo look like real journalists. Apple needs to get a fscking clue and stop inviting Engadget to press events.
It’s obvious that the HP product is not a clone of the Air. what is disconcerting is the way that manufacturers throw around product names; Envy Spectre XT- there’s a product name to get excited about.
“It’s obvious that the HP product is not a clone of the Air.” To WHOM? YOUM? Certainly not MEM!
You know it’s quite a shame too, I believe HP came out with one of the first PC’s to use Unix. It just wasn’t in the GUI form it was the old command line interface and the OS was named HPUX at the time. I think it was back in the 80’s and used primarily for instrumentation control in a ton of industrial and military automation and test projects. Look how far they’ve fallen.
Sure, sure HP. Doesn’t look like you copied anything from Apple at all with this new doppelgänger …. er I mean original! LMAO
I hope HP never has any issues with their batteries in those things.
Because if one of those things ever catches fire……..”and it is made of magnesium”
Cleo McDowell: Look… me and the McDonald’s people got this little misunderstanding. See, they’re McDonald’s… I’m McDowell’s. They got the Golden Arches, mine is the Golden Arcs. They got the Big Mac, I got the Big Mick. We both got two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions, but their buns have sesame seeds. My buns have no seeds.
http://taketotask.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/105/
OMG, TOT, that is freakin hilarious!!!
No, Apple doesn’t own “silver”, but the silver-ish aluminum body, with black keys, with the white back-lit effect clearly makes one think “MacBook Pro”. I loved my Kawasaki Concours for its design and price. It was a bonus that I was frequently asked how I liked my BMW. It was similar enough that the better-known BMW was what people thought I owned.
I would be surprised if Windowheads didn’t buy this just to be mistaken for high-end purchasers. If HP really wanted to create a distinct product, they would do so with black- or bronze-anodize as they have in the past. HP doesn’t own bronze or black either, but in an environment where aluminum has become nearly synonymous with Apple, you’d think a competitor that really believed in its own product enough would avoid similarities as much as possible.
Trade Dress Infringement.
The eOne was less a copy than this and the courts banned that piece of crap.
What a fu#ktard!
HP, They might like to think they ‘invent’, but they don’t
I have the most recent MacBook Pro, and I do not have a black bezel. Which models had it?
Good question. The most recent models shown on the Apple site have black bezels. And my sister’s 13″ MBP (late 2011) bought just a month back has one.. but I did see a larger MBP at the Apple Store with silver bezel.
My early 2011 13-inch MBPro has the black bezel.
Maybe they changed it on the last rev?
You customized your MBP order? Screen perhaps?
You need to make a correction: I believe Stacy Wolff’s title is VP of Industrial Cloning.
Spectre = “something widely feared as a possible unpleasant or dangerous occurrence” – pretty much says it all.
And “XL” = Xerox Lamebrains.
Actually MDN depending on the process used Magnesium can be more expensive than Aluminum.
They both have pros and cons, aluminum tends to be more rigid but magnesium is lighter.
With that said its obvious HP copied the ‘look’ of the Macbook Air. They could have come up with something original and used the same materials but they didn’t. They copied the leader and are claiming innovation. I bet the machine sucks balls.
Who cares what it looks like! Does it have Beats Audio?
Then: HP – INVENT
Now: HP – FOLLOW and COPY
HP fakebook air…lollllz
“Ultrabook™. Inspired by…”
APPLE