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

[Iconoclysm]

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.

More importantly, Microsoft was there from the very start with the PocketPC OS and eventually Windows Mobile. Nobody got it right, it was a nightmare for some of us. I went through five or six iterations before the iPhone came along and showed everyone how it should be done.

 

[danielwsmithee]

I might have more sympathy for HTC in this argument if they hadn't also modified their finishes to be an exact match of Apple's. I'll give them the antenna design, by why ripoff the other design elements as well.

 

[hleewell]

HTC copied Apple aesthetic, Apple copied HTC technical design.
The engineer copied the artist, the artist copied the engineer.
Is that a sin?

The world becomes a better place because of that.
Why all these finger-pointing people find themselves participating?

 

[macduke]

Yes, a clear similarity to this:

My wee little babby! It's so good. Still have mine in my office and it powers up fine! Next year will be the 10th iPhone, but the year after is the 10th anniversary. I hope we get a special iPhone 7 or 7s with design cues that take us back to the original. Even if the next version is a solid unibody liquid metal thing, it needs to be somehow colored to make it look like the original!

 

[Breaking Good]

People complain about the iPhone bezels. Are they going to complain about these bezels too?

I can assure you that if you go to forums dedicated to Android devices, you will find plenty of people complaining about how the HTC logo wastes space on the front of the phone.

 

[shanson27]

A picture is worth a thousand words

 

[ChrisCW11]

Another result of the warped reality field that surrounds Apple, where even when you clearly point out Apple took a design queue from a competitor, all the fanbois and blog sycophants all rush to say "copycat". I mean the original iPod UI was a blatant rip off from Creative Lab's MP3 product, but that is ancient history for Apple fanbois and I guess it only matters who won the retail battle that rewrites history and perception of innovation.

Personally, I think the HTC One looked better than the current iPhone 6/A9, but the only thing you can claim HTC copied today are the rounded edges and corners that Apple apparently invented because nothing had rounded edges or corners in the past.

In this case I think its tit for tat. Apple copied HTC, so HTC modified their design in turn, they are both at fault for lacking imagination or innovation on this one.

 

[ChrisCW11]

A picture is worth a thousand words

Apparently you didn't RTFA, otherwise the animation would go in reverse.

 

[Macinva]

I don't know who had the design first, but they definitely look the same. I assume HTC actually copied? No idea.

 

[spacemnspiff]

The antenna lines on phones are dictated by physics of antenna design. There are only so many ways antenna can be designed to be efficient. I don't even think the antenna lines can be called copying. A good analogy is the wheel of a car and it is circular, every car is going to have a circular wheel if it has roll.
Endless drivel back and forth saying that copying antenna lines is not original is well, pedantic.

 

[tranceking26]

As I said on the last thread about this, why didn't htc try something new and fresh?

Have they all ran out of ideas for new designs? Surely not.

 

[ronaungmm]

don't be ridiculous, HTC lied about this. what kind of ******** Apple copied their design, before Apple came out iPhone 1 , what the fuxx are they doing with their piece of **** phones???!?!?????!?!? how can this be so ridiculously untrue of HTC and it is total BS

 

[modemthug]

It's like confronting an alcoholic in denial about their problem while they're drunk and still doing what they're doing, "I'm not the alcoholiccccc... Urrrr tha alcoholaaaholic...o...k..."

 

[samcraig]

Consumers don't care.

 

[ronaungmm]

there are 1 in 100 billions ways to be way too coincidental , there are 1000 ways to draw the antenna lines why must you copy Apple design ( even if they might had copied someone else)

 

[thevofl]

Who really is 100% original these days with no influences from competitors? No one.

Samsung is. Oh yeah, Samsung's originality goes all the way back tens of thousands of years when they released—with huge fanfare—the cleverly named Samsung Fire S and the Samsung Wheel S.

 

[ronaungmm]

copying someone else products means #1 your products are inferior, #2 the company is inferior, #3 all employees of your company have inferior complex and #4 you are so scared of losing and losing customers so you risk it all paradoxically by copying other products, #5 this is bloody plagiarism even if it does not exactly match the copied design

 

[Zellio]

Here is the iPhone 5/5s back:

And here is the htc m7 back:

And the m8 back:

And then Apple's iphone 6/6s line looks like this:

Apple very obviously ripped off a lot of the htc one m7 and m8's design by adding that little line instead of the iphone 5's huge color blocks, but this won't keep people from defending Apple and bashing HTC

 

[ronaungmm]

Samsung is. Oh yeah, Samsung's originality goes all the way back tens of thousands of years when they released—with huge fanfare—the cleverly named Samsung Fire S and the Samsung Wheel S.

I have used the phones since the Motorola Startac generation... come on people you think Samsung never copied??? Samsung wasn't even a phone maker company just like Sony .... Samsung should just stay at making TV and printers, washing machines, refrigerators

 

[BuffaloTF]

Know what else is copied? Their tagline... "Inspired By Nature" is what Samsung's tag line was for the Galaxy S3............

 

[dojoman]

So HTC is naming their phones A9 to make it seems like they're step ahead of Apple?

 

[ronaungmm]

when Apple design something , Apple don't give a F about what other manufacturers are designing, if you think they really cared so much ... why do they even bother about other companies - they don't even exist , it's like a Ferrari car looking like a shape of a similar Nissan GTR ... do you even think Ferrari even care about Nissan and if they even don't exist at the first place

I am not defending Apple not because I am using iPad to write this at this moment, but this situation is simply horrendous so I have to speak. and don't attack me personally unless you are begging my intelligence

 

[ronaungmm]

So HTC is naming their phones A9 to make it seems like they're step ahead of Apple?

it's just HTC name, it doesn't even mean anything

 

[ronaungmm]

Know what else is copied? Their tagline... "Inspired By Nature" is what Samsung's tag line was for the Galaxy S3............

I think so too my brother used Galaxy s3 before

 

[jwbrobst]

The antenna lines have no reason to be called out or protected. Metal phones simply need windows or antenna lines in order to have acceptable wireless (LTE, bluetooth, WiFi and NFC) signals. The real bits of this they should be defending are the use of a subtle curvature only on the edges, and the rounded corners having nearly the exact radius as the phone they copied. This is blatant use of a popular design. This happens often in all areas of design (not just phones) but when a company denies the fact that they're influenced by the world's most popular device, it's just insulting. Just defuse the situation with flattery rather than causing more stupid debates. In the end you're only encouraging Samsung.

To those of you who think phone design has reached its limit: Look at the Google Nexus 6p and look at the degree that iPhones change every 2 years. You're simply wrong and these other companies don't trust themselves enough to innovate.