Firm Launches 'IPHONE' Brand of Android Phones, Touts Trademark Ownership in Brazil

[JayJayAbels]

Whatever. Fanboys will see it only as a money grab. I see it as opportunistic.

Opportunistic = Money grab.


How anyone could side with a move like this says a whole bunch about who they are as a person imo.

More devious attempts by "opportunistic" companies to make a quick buck by utilizing the popularity of products they have nothing to do with.

These aren't accessory companies who legitimately work alongside Apple to enhance the user experience. This is Capitalism at its worst.

It's foul play but that's business so Apple needs to nip this in the bud.

 

[nylonsteel]

re original article

dirty harry mentioned brazilian rogue vigilante squads in the movie magnum force - are they still doing ghost recon after all these years - aapl may look into a super secret project...

 

[LeandrodaFL]

Im brasilian myself and I know how we think. First, we have a cultural phenomenom of trying to be "malandro" wich means sort of "con artist"..it's "the brasilian way" or "jeitinho brasileiro". Nothing ilegal of course, this stands for simply getting the best deal of any situation. Secondly we are dumb even tough we think we are genious. This means:

1)Gradiente only wants to fool the brasilian people, tricking them to believing they are getting an iphone.

2)Gradiente is not smart enough to even realize they could get money from Apple

3)They wont mess with Apple, but if they ever try to prevent iphone sales, I have no doubt the corrupt govenment will "take care of things" in Apple's favor.

Its obvious Gradiente only realized about "IPHONE" now. Regarding our "malandro" skills, I convinced a couple in line today to pay for my movie ticket. I think I'm a genious. Maybe I am a dumb ass

 

[LeandrodaFL]

Apple could probably buy Brazil.

I laughed at this, totally got your joke.

But just so you know, would be actually quite expensive to get Brasil, as its like the 6th biggest economy in the world. This means that since we are very populated, the Stage gets gigantic amount of money from taxes. However, since we have the worst administration possible, we are 200th in terms of "quality of life"

And things have really improved a lot...20 years ago...those were dark times

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I say Apple should let them have the IPHONE name. Apple can just call their phone the "aPhone" in Brazil.[/B]

The conversation would be in Portuguese...so it would have to be "umPhone" (phonetically oom-phone,) this would mean "somePhone"

Out of curiosity, "i" when spoken by brasilians sounds like the brasilian word "Ai" wich is the sound we make we may make when feeling pain (ouch) or in case of woman, having orgasm (oh-oh)

 

[90miles]

Im brasilian myself and I know how we think. First, we have a cultural phenomenom of trying to be "malandro" wich means sort of "con artist"..it's "the brasilian way" or "jeitinho brasileiro". Nothing ilegal of course, this stands for simply getting the best deal of any situation. Secondly we are dumb even tough we think we are genious. This means:

1)Gradiente only wants to fool the brasilian people, tricking them to believing they are getting an iphone.

2)Gradiente is not smart enough to even realize they could get money from Apple

3)They wont mess with Apple, but if they ever try to prevent iphone sales, I have no doubt the corrupt govenment will "take care of things" in Apple's favor.

Its obvious Gradiente only realized about "IPHONE" now. Regarding our "malandro" skills, I convinced a couple in line today to pay for my movie ticket. I think I'm a genious. Maybe I am a dumb ass

You're either not a very clever or intelligent person or you lack business knowledge or maybe both,

1. Why would Gradiente look to trick people if they can compete in the low-end smartphone segment and yield more money by doing so ?

2. Gradiente filed for the trademark before Apple did so they are rightfully using it, if Apple wants to negotiate they should start the conversation and not the other way around.

3. Gradiente will not try to prevent iPhone sales because their phone is aimed at a different market, the entry-level market, just get a quick read throw the spec-sheet.

Please don't use a stereotype for a population that has 200 million people and varies a lot between regions, this kind of argument is wrong from the beginning.

 

[stuffradio]

So, this is just a blatant money grab, right?

A blatant money grab would be to sue Apple. They are releasing a phone with a name they legally owned 7 years before Apple came up with the name. If anything, Apple would be making it a money grab if Apple demanded money from the company and tried to sue the Brazilian company.

 

[LeandrodaFL]

You're either not a very clever or intelligent person or you lack business knowledge or maybe both,
.

1)This kinda stuff happens here. And as an example...this concerns our last 8 year president. And the current one is his sidekick

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensalão_scandal

I did not vote for him, so Im gonna go with simply no business knowledge

 

[bretm]

As opposed to those glorious rows of icon in iOS?

The way iOS deals with folders, notifications, notification center (which yeah, they copied from Android but do it better), global phone search, switching to and/or force closing recent apps, rearranging icons/folders, and a clearer simplicity as to where things are and how it all functions is all enormously better in iOS.

 

[90miles]

1)This kinda stuff happens here. And as an example...this concerns our last 8 year president. And the current one is his sidekick

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensalão_scandal

I did not vote for him, so Im gonna go with simply no business knowledge

I'm a french executive that runs the whole South America/Africa region for a company so I do have some understanding on what the situation is in Brazil (I'm currently in a hotel room in Sao Paulo), in regard to Lula and the Mensalao scandal, people failed to prove his involvement although I do believe he was involved the simple belief is worth nothing without proofs, what surprises me is that a somewhat uninformed population elected his candidate without really contesting anything that happened during his tenure as president, Cachoeira's scandal is the latest example of how inefficient and corrupt the brazilian political system really is. I was just trying to make it clear that not all people in Brazil are like that, some of the most intelligent and honest people that I had the chance to work with were brazilians.

 

[AppleScruff1]

The way iOS deals with folders, notifications, notification center (which yeah, they copied from Android but do it better), global phone search, switching to and/or force closing recent apps, rearranging icons/folders, and a clearer simplicity as to where things are and how it all functions is all enormously better in iOS.

My comment was in reply to someone who looked at the picture of the Android screen and said it looked boring. It had nothing to do with the merits of either system.

 

[WhoDaKat]

Im brazilian and i have to say: our citizens have some problems, but yours, WhoDaKat have too!

Just go fix your own problems, like guns x schools, before say anything about other countries.

Its funny to me that you don't assume I know that. I assume everyone knows that no one is perfect.

 

[charlituna]

The phone only came-out now because of a giant reorganization that took place on the company to avoid bankruptcy, so not a money grab, they were once a big brand in Brazil that could compete with Sony and other TV brands.

But apparently not a big name anymore which is why they pulled this stunt. They could have banked on their history and former clout and release a cell phone. But no, they released one using a basically discarded trademark that is used by one of the biggest companies in the world which is guaranteed to get them press etc. that was not an accident.

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This is hilarious. I, for one, hope they keep the trademark and use it instead of selling to Apple. They are the rightful owners, after all.

Or they aren't. Depends a lot on Brazilian laws. It is possible, depending on those laws, that they may have legally forfeited their rights by defending the mark, using it etc. Apple has been selling their iPhone in Brazil for a year now after all.

 

[TheMacBookPro]

Android sure does look dull...

Ooo! Ooo!
It's got widgets!

Ooh, exciting!

 

[BvizioN]

The Android user experience is one of the worst 'computing' platforms I've ever seen, how the consumer can use it - let alone like it - is well beyond me.

It's the cheap phones the consumer is after, not the android OS. Good enough to make and receive phone calls and texts. I know couple of ppl myself, they got these Alcatel smart phones for £50 and they say they never bother with anything else of the phone except from the basic stuff and occasionally facebook.

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Image

Ooh, exciting!

In my honest opinion, lot better then messy Android.

 

[matttye]

I'm not taking sides here, just saying that lawyers might that approach in court.

Fair enough. Seems like there's something wrong with the legal system if people can even start court cases against companies using their own trademarks though

 

[TheMacBookPro]

In my honest opinion, lot better then messy Android.

Dull and messy are two very different things.

The only reason some Android homescreens look 'messy' is because of customization. The user can even make it look just like iOS (filled with icons and nothing more) if desired, which is why it's silly to make blanket statements such as 'Android is messy' as making its look is entirely up to the end user.

If iOS were given the same level of customization options as Android, I'm sure you'd see just as many screenshots from iPhones that you'd deem as 'messy'. Just look at all the gaudy themes available on Cydia- as with Android, there are some great themes, but many are ugly in my eyes. Doesn't mean iOS is ugly, it means the way the user decided to set it up is [at least in my opinion].

 

[BvizioN]

Dull and messy are two very different things.

The only reason some Android homescreens look 'messy' is because of customization. The user can even make it look just like iOS (filled with icons and nothing more) if desired, which is why it's silly to make blanket statements such as 'Android is messy' as making its look is entirely up to the end user.

If iOS were given the same level of customization options as Android, I'm sure you'd see just as many screenshots from iPhones that you'd deem as 'messy'. Just look at all the gaudy themes available on Cydia- as with Android, there are some great themes, but many are ugly in my eyes. Doesn't mean iOS is ugly, it means the way the user decided to set it up is [at least in my opinion].

Try telling this to someone wh has not used Android for over a year.
And sorry i forgott to mention before. It's messy (regardless of how good you try to make it look) and it's Dull too.

 

[TheMacBookPro]

Try telling this to someone wh has not used Android for over a year.
And sorry i forgott to mention before. It's messy (regardless of how good you try to make it look) and it's Dull too.

...and that's when you step into troll/fanboy territory. You can decide whether or not something looks nice regardless of whether or not you've used it so there's no need to embellish your story with unnecessary details.

Going by your own reasoning ("regardless of how good you try to make it look"), iOS is messy and dull as well.

As is Windows Phone.

With that said, I'd like to know why you would think even stock Android is cluttered or messy, as it seems to be fairly simple to me.

 

[Renzatic]

snip

In before someone says "Apple should sue".

 

[Bezetos]

The phone looks unattractive and thus clearly they just want to get some money from Apple for a settlement.

They did however apply for the trademark in year 2000, so they have the right to do so.

 

[ultimato]

Leverage

This phone looks like a branded mass produced "no-brand" phone from China. Likely they are doing this to gain leverage in their negotiations with Apple, not actually making a business out of selling these phones. That is my take anyway

 

[Nebulance]

This is hilarious. I, for one, hope they keep the trademark and use it instead of selling to Apple. They are the rightful owners, after all.

To that level, I'm going to get the rights to the names: "iphonE", "Iphone", "ipHone", and any other variant of all lower case letters and one capital letter (excluding iPhone) and try to sell a phone under that name. Doesn't that seem a little suspicious?

 

[Psychj0e]

It turns out we don't all have to like each other. America doesn't have any obligation to make you like us, and you don't have any obligation to make us like you. See how easy that is?

My quoted statement works the same if you remove the words, American and Brazil and interchange any two countries. If South Africa wants to build a factory in Poland and in turn Polish business try to rip off their intellectual property, then I would give the same advice to the company from South Africa. As much as you'd like it to be, its not about America vs the rest of the world. Its about respect, honor, and integrity. You can side with the IPHONE guys or the Proviews of the world if you like but they are nothing but money hungry cheats that will do whatever they can to take a dollar from someone else. That doesn't mean America doesn't have its fair share of cheats, no one is trying to have a superiority complex here (at least not on my side), I'm just saying company A makes something, they try to take production to a place that benefits them as well as the local economy and in turn local Company B makes them pay frivolously. That is a problem. If I'm from Brazil and have no job, I'd be thankful for the opportunity, same as any American with no job is thankful for new jobs coming in. In America, most people don't even know who owns the company. My wife works for Accenture which is based Dublin. If I own the trademark to AcccEnture and I sue, no one says I hope that dirty Irish company gets what it has coming to it! People think the trademark holder is the moron and if he ends up costing the area jobs they'll be pissed!

In the end though we are all f'd anyway because people like you, who are I'm sure the majority, look at a blanket statement like the one I made and you go right to the BOO America, and this is why we all hate you thing. To me thats pathetic. We are all citizens of one world. I see the ignorance and hubris that many of you from outside the US see us having but to be honest, to think that ignorance is solely American, is to be just as ignorant as you claim we are. Hitler didn't come from the US, Mao didn't come from the US, Pol Pot didn't come from the US, we aren't all quite the douche bags you think we are.

You've completely missed the point. You made the post about how the big ol' US of A was saving the day, so therefore the Brazilian government should get involved, ignore the Brazilians own law, and appease the Americans. You even missed the point that in Brazil, Apple are not the trademark holder of the term iPhone - you just arrogantly assume that because it is the case in America, it should be in Brazil because American law is somehow superior/holds more than Brazilians own laws/regulations, and records.

And you didn't insert two random countries, you were clearly just demonstrating that awful, ego-centric, yeehaw American attitude.

 

[Elit3]

Ahh?

You guys are being stupid. You realize that Apple got sued for the the name iPhone, with Linksys being the first company to have an "iPhone" and like Apple always do the wormed their way out like the rats they are. And now you guys are complaining about this, are you joking me, Apple iSheep. (Mod's ban me if you want, I just won't let them be attacked because of something Apple also did to Linksys).
If you don't believe me search GOOGLE for "Linksys iPhone"

 

[jbo1018]

Android sure does look dull...

Yeah that 3 generations old version of Android isn't that beautiful...... You should give ICS/Jelley Bean a whirl. You might find yourself impressed.