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I’m : a programmer, writer, podcaster, geek, and coffee enthusiast.

Apple imitation

It’s hilarious to see awful consumer electronics manufacturers attempt to copy Apple products, completely missing the point.

“The iPhone has a touchscreen? We can do that! Here’s a touchscreen app launcher for Windows Mobile or the God-forsaken Verizon/LG/Motorola OS! And here’s a bunch of extra features and buttons, because more is better! It’s just like the iPhone!”

Apple is a software company. The hardware just packages up the software nicely and gives it some pretty inputs and outputs.

The prettiness is partly functional and partly for marketing. But copying the prettiness without copying the immense attention to detail and interface quality is asinine. It’s like when Windows “power users” hack the XP themes to make it look like OS X, then they tell themselves (and the internet) that it’s just as good and now they don’t need to buy a Mac.

Touchscreens, multi-touch, flick-scrolling, and anything else they copy still can’t make a Motorola or LG phone as usable as an iPhone.

If this sounds ridiculous now, just ask Creative, Sony, Microsoft, Panasonic, Philips, iriver, Cowon, Meizu, SanDisk, TrekStor, Archos, Rio, Samsung, and Toshiba how well their portable audio players are doing.