HTC Says 'It's Apple That Copies Us' After One A9 Called iPhone Lookalike

[wirelessness]

Came out in 2011, about year before the iPhone 5. it is far from identical, but there are some clear similarities at play.

That phone looks great until you hold up up next the original iPhone from June 2007:

And then consider that THIS is what HTC was doing in May of 2007 before the iPhone came out:

 

[Beachguy]

I don't see why people say they look alike. They look very different to me.

 

[EvanMax]

HTC definitely has their own design language. They have been working with the "stripe of metal across the back" for years and years. Sometimes the metal comes off, sites the plastic comes off, s

That phone looks great until you hold up up next the original iPhone from June 2007:

And then consider that THIS is what HTC was doing in May of 2007 before the iPhone came out:

The point t isn't that one company is more original than the other, the point is that both have similar design sensibilities.

 

[69Mustang]

can you at least see the difference of a FLAT design from a CURVED design ?

I can see the curved design perfectly fine. That curve doesn't change the obvious similarities between the phones. To pretend the similarities aren't there seems a bit disingenuous to me. Equally disingenuous would be someone not seeing the similarities between the A9 and iP6. Could it be said the A9 borrows more liberally from the iP6 than the iP6 borrows from the M7? My personal opinion is yes, it does. That's when the conversation starts to digress from inspiration to degrees and percentages of inspiration. That's when train starts to go off the rails; like in this thread. Sycophants for and against Apple parsing the most esoteric "evidence" to bolster their sides. #forumlife I guess.

 

[Designx]

Well if HTC has a patent on the antenna design for a uni-body phone then they might have some plan for action against Apple. HTC is one of the very few solely phone manufacturers out there.

 

[feakbeak]

I wish Apple would copy HTC when it comes to the speaker layout. Forward facing stereo speakers would be much better than a single speaker firing out of the side of your phone. It would make a significant improvement to the experience when playing video or games in landscape orientation.

 

[profets]

Do you really find those phones similar ????
They don't even share the same shape !!!!

Never said I did

Just that that need and placement of antenna lines are similar which is HTC's argument I think.

 

[KALLT]

The ethics of some Asian companies are off-putting. You take inspiration and copy ideas as much as you want, but copying the look and feel of another product and then denying that it is one should receive no sympathy. It’s lazy, it’s cheap, it’s undeserved and deserves no recognition.

 

[PBRsg]

They are both kind of ugly with those lines, so everyone loses...

 

[johnnygee]

Does PeeWee Herman run htc? "I know you are, but what am I?"

 

[obsoletepower]

WTF is an "HTC" anyway........? Oh yes, now I remember! They're a ****** Taiwanese company that produces crappy phones with the worst 3rd party interface in the business, are pissed off that nobody has cared about them in years and are about to be consumed by irrelevancy and non-innovation!

 

[EvanMax]

I have an old LG G Slate that has stereo sound when held in either orientation (I believe they did with three speakers, not four) so there goes any originality on the iPad pro...

 

[v0lume4]

I'm sorry but all I could think of was:

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Yeah that's about accurate. I didn't know if it was real life or not when I first saw the headline.

 

[villagehiker]

HTC has denied claims that its new flagship One A9 smartphone copies the iPhone. At a press briefing in Taiwan, company executive Jack Tong said that "it's Apple that copies us" in terms of antenna design--the Taiwanese handset maker was first to release a metal unibody smartphone nearly three years ago.

The HTC One A9 compared to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus (via The Verge)​

The response was reported by Want China Times (via BGR):The original HTC One M7 launched in March 2013 with an aluminum unibody frame and plastic antenna lines along the top and bottom of the smartphone, both design cues that Apple adopted for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, released 18 months later, and has since carried over to the iPhone 6s lineup.

The original HTC One with an all-metal unibody design launched in March 2013​

The One A9 is considered an iPhone lookalike because it has a similar rounded chassis, plastic antenna lines and a protruding rear-facing camera, and because it is available in almost identical colors as the current iPhone lineup. The smartphone also has one speaker located next to the charging port on the bottom.

HTC's rebuttal comes after The Verge described the One A9 as "the most blatant and highest-profile iPhone ripoff since Samsung's original Galaxy S," a bold argument that has been contested by some HTC supporters. The copycat allegations have received significant media coverage this week.

Ultimately, while there is no denying that HTC's One A9 is an iPhone-driven evolution of the HTC One series, it is clear that both smartphone makers have borrowed similar design qualities from each other over the years. Apple has not commented on the matter, but has taken legal action against Samsung for copying in the past.

The One A9 is HTC's latest flagship Android smartphone, featuring a 5-inch screen with a curved-edge display, 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, 1.5 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor, 3GB of RAM, 16GB or 32GB storage, Quick Charge 2.0 and Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The smartphone is available in a range of colors, including Carbon Gray, Opal Silver, Deep Garnet and Topaz Gold, for $399 unlocked.

Article Link: HTC Says 'It's Apple That Copies Us' After One A9 Called iPhone Lookalike

 

[TroyBoy30]

they have a point

 

[Breaking Good]

This is good for HTC, otherwise nobody would be talking or paying attention about their phones.

I'm a huge HTC fan. Sadly, this is true.

To all the Apple fanboys and girls, don't worry. HTC won't be around in a year.

The market is just way too crowded now. They have no way to match Apple, Samsung, Motorola/Lenovo, LG, Huawei or Xaiomi in terms of size.

 

[hleewell]

Apple always wins. But guys, HTC is the Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) for one of the earliest touchscreen devices for HP & Palm, iPaq and Palm Treo 650 (shipped in November 2004).

HTC was there at the start of the smartphone revolution. But Apple seems to be better at selling the whole package (software + hardware) and growing its business beyond the cute factor. HTC was known to be designing the earliest touch wireless devices as early as 1997-1998. The reason for their decline in sales is not Apple, it is more likely the sudden surge of China's own brand: Xiao Mi and OnePlus.

 

[satchmo]

HTC's implementation of the antennae band is better too. None of that ugly bordering but just a line across. I've never been a fan of the backside of an iPhone 6.
Not saying HTC's are better performing phones, but Apple also doesn't have a monopoly on good design.

 

[DoctorKrabs]

HTC loves to call the M7 a unibody aluminum phone when it isn't even one. It has a giant plastic rim going around all sides. And it has chamfered edges copied right from the all-aluminum and glass iPhone 5 from 2012 (after the all glass and metal iPhone 4 from 2010).
They give themselves way too much credit at HTC.

 

[Iconoclysm]

Lol. I'm shocked to see so many people trying to defend Apple.

Of course you are, if there's any truth to anything they're saying you are going to ignore it and dismiss it. I think it's clear that you are severely biased by this point.

 

[serendip7]

I have to say.. that HTC One from 2013 looked pretty good and I can see the case that Apple copied that design. Except for that Beats logo in back it had a pretty clean design... plus it had nice stereo speakers in front that didn't eat up excessive real estate. I wonder why it failed..... oh yeah....

Android

 

[Iconoclysm]

Came out in 2011, about year before the iPhone 5. it is far from identical, but there are some clear similarities at play.

HTC has beaten Apple to certain design innovations for years only to have Apple gain higher popularity ever time. It has to sting. I don't think ripping off the front of the iPhone 6 is the right answer (just because Apple copied the back of the M7), but I also don't think they are wrong to point out that a Apple did it first (the answer is still "so what?")

Honestly, I wish Apple would just buy HTC. My dream phone would be HTC hardware running iOS. HTC has consistently made the same decisions as Apple, but before Apple made them (buying Beats, increasing camera pixel size instead of megapixels, HTC Zoes/Live Photos, etc.). I think Apple is best suited to appreciate what HTC is all about, and I think the smartphone industry would definitely be worse off if HTC just shut down their business and went away entirely.

Yes, a clear similarity to this:

 

[Benjamin Frost]

I had no sympathy for HTC before this ridiculous statement.

I have none now. They deserve to go bankrupt.

 

[macduke]

I'm not a fan of the antenna lines on the iPhone 6, and HTC did have them first. But Apple had the unibody aluminum enclosure, Apple had the chamfered edges on the 5/5s that the M7 had, the raised polished chamfered camera ring with two tone flash, the bottom headphone jack, the single row of holes drilled for speakers, the flat backside, the range of colors, the fingerprint scanning home button that is beveled with a metal ring around the edge, the curved sides, the centered sync/charge port, the front glass across the entire surface that curves down at the edges, the power on the side, the beveled pill shaped earpiece speaker, and the A9 name.

The HTC One M7 mostly looked like a different phone, aside from the round rect corners (not a big deal) and chamfered edges (yeah, that one is definitely picking up on the 5/5S but it's only one thing). It was one of the standouts among Android devices because it had a decent design. But otherwise it had speakers on the front, a completely different earpiece speaker design that matched the bottom, a rounded (uneven, rocking) back, no edge-to-edge glass across the whole front, no thumbprint home button, different looking camera, lock button and headphone jack on the top, and an off-centered sync/charge port. These are all things that changed to match the look of the iPhone 6. Apple used antenna breaks that are similar but wrap around the top as well.

As I said, I'm not a fan of the antenna design on the iPhone 6/s. But HTC copied a whole lot more than Apple did. By my count, HTC copied nine things and Apple copied one. They're desperate to make up for their tanking market share.

Lastly, if Apple doesn't incorporate Touch ID with 3D Touch to remove the need for a home button in the iPhone 7, they might squash the home button to a narrower pill shape to reduce the top and bottom bezel since they both need to be symmetrical in size. Then people will claim Apple is ripping off HTC and other companies for having a differently shaped home button. Meanwhile all those other companies will be looking at Apple's Liquid Metal enclosure with sapphire laminated display wondering how the hell they're going to copy that. Hah, well hopefully we get that next…

 

[Iconoclysm]

HTC definitely has their own design language. They have been working with the "stripe of metal across the back" for years and years. Sometimes the metal comes off, sites the plastic comes off, s


The point t isn't that one company is more original than the other, the point is that both have similar design sensibilities.

HTC came along and complained that the 6 was a ripoff of their design last year. My suspicion is that they were looking for a little bit of media attention by purposefully keeping any similarities that might differentiate them. At this point, most Android manufacturers stand nothing to gain by copying the iPhone design like they did back when Samsung was scrambling to create an iPhone clone on Verizon for all of those customers who had no access.