Former Android VP: Apple’s iPhone 6 is ‘the most beautiful smartphone ever built’

12 years ago

“Hugo Barra was once the public face of Google’s Android division, but today he sounds more impressed by Apple,” Casey Newton reports for The Verge.

“Speaking at WSJD Live today, Barra — who is now vice president for international for Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi — was effusive in his praise for Apple’s latest devices,” Newton reports. “The iPhone 6, he said, is ‘the most beautiful smartphone ever built.'”

“Barra’s comments came in response to a question about the persistent criticism that 4-year-old Xiaomi’s rise has been fueled by blatant copying of designs from Apple and others, an issue that Jony Ive raised again at an event earlier this month,” Newton reports. “Using careful language, Barra suggested that Xiaomi phones and software sometimes resemble existing products because the company is young and its designers lack confidence. ‘It’s a fight, but I think we’re learning and we’re progressing,’ he said. ‘when you look at the stuff that’s coming next from us, you’re going to see some unique new twists.'”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Just as with personal computers, where the only successful PCs are Mac knockoffs, the only successful smartphones and tablets are iPhone and iPad knockoffs.

Apple leads, the rest follow at a great distance. So it shall be with Apple Watch.

As we wrote in August:

Xiaomi makes Samsung look like original thinkers. Plus, they’re led by an even more despicable slime bucket than Samsung:

“[Steve] Jobs will die someday, so there are still opportunities for us. The meaning of our existence is just waiting for him to kick the bucket.” – Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun, August 30, 2011

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]