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Categories: Apple, Featured, IT News

iPhone “inspired” by Sony

Published by on Jul 30th, 2012, 12 Comments


Well, well, well… what do we have here? One of the only benefits of long, mind-numbingly boring court-cases like the ones raging between Apple and Android OEM’s is that the court gets a look at inner workings of companies and then, so do we.

Recently, documents were uncovered and brought to court that clearly show that Apple’s holier-than-thou attitude needs to stop, and soon. Apple are now making some quite ridiculous claims. For example, that the direction of an unlock swipe can be patented and so are suing anything remotely to do with Android in a personal vendetta led by the late Steve Jobs.

In this case of Apple vs. Samsung, the defence argued that Apple’s crazy patents should be delisted, and that they themselves copied other manufacturers way more than they have let on. The court saw an early iPhone prototype where Apple seems to have taken some “inspiration” from Sony.

It was called Jony and as you can see from the picture, it even used Sony’s logo font, just replacing the S with a J. The Sony device, on the other hand, looks like this:

I love Apple and their products, but I am starting to get frustrated at the fact that their products are no longer original, and they are drawing a lot of “inspiration” from other companies these days, rather than innovating like they used to. Since the turn of the century though, they have not, and instead reverted to taking innovation from others and combining them, often in such a way that it eclipses the original’s design immensely. This has then lead to Apple’s recent successes. If they want to continue down this path, that’s fine, that’s how the business world works. But don’t try to blame others for “stealing” and then do exactly the same thing.

Source: The Verge

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Comments

  • http://twitter.com/MrPigeonPie Marwaan Sasman

    Some more interesting “inspirations” behind their design –
    http://drtylndryblog.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/braun-apple-designs/

    Their head designer has admitted to being very influenced by the designs of Braun (Dieter Rams is pretty iconic), but it’s just a matter of designing in the same “language” I think. But this Sony / iPhone similarity is just shocking!

  • Zorba

    Uh, it turns out that all of these images are from the same Apple designer, Shin Nishibori. None of them were actually made by Sony, they were a design experiment within Apple to see what a Sony-made iPhone-style phone might look like.

    In the end the ‘Purple’ prototype (which predates this) became the basis of the iPhone.

    It may be worth getting your facts straight before ranting next time.

  • http://twitter.com/mobivangelist Peter Matthaei

    I think the author misread the source article. Those renders with a Sony logo were NOT actually done by Sony, but were done by Apple designers getting into “the zone” of a Sony-like aesthetic. (The Jony logo seems to have been the final bit of fun by the same team.) So it’s definitely not a case of Apple copying a Sony reference design verbatim because all the images are from Apple, not from Sony…

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=701295683 Theunis Jansen Van Rensburg

    I was simply commentating on what was said during the trial. It is still ongoing, and will report back once the final decision has been made by the judge.
    As for the “rant”, this is not the only example of Apple doing something like this. It happened with their hardware and more recently iOS.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=701295683 Theunis Jansen Van Rensburg

    As I said, this was the argument made in court, I was simply commentating on that. More to follow…

  • Zorba

    Utter nonsense. The images you posted, supposedly of the ‘The Sony device’ (your exact words) actually show an Apple-designed device.

    It was an Apple designer’s concept informed by a few vague statements by Sony designers. You know what eventually emerged from those Sony designers? The W950. Looks so much like that concept, doesn’t it?:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Ericsson_W950

    That makes your wording completely false and your article misleading to those not acquainted with the actual facts of this trial.

    This isn’t about this whole controversy, or who’s right or wrong (as neither an Apple nor a Samsung fan I really don’t give a damn) it’s about getting the basic facts right in your reporting. You have failed at that, the correct thing to do is acknowledge and correct your mistake.

  • Ann

    Where is Sony in all of this? Surely if Apple “copied” their design they would be the ones in the Plaintiff’s seat a long time ago?

  • Pick A Name

    What a stupid article. Sounds like a preschooler wrote it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=715862632 Johan Troffel Fourie

    What a constructive comment. Sounds like an adult wrote it.

  • Pick A Name

    I’m sorry, all comments have to be constructive? Maybe in preschool. In the adult world, if you write something that is a) factually incorrect, and b) badly written, then expect some plain good ol’ fashioned criticism.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=715862632 Johan Troffel Fourie

    Yea, I’m sure “What a stupid article.” can be considered as “good ol’ fashioned criticism”. It just comes down to a snotty remark. Nothing good and ol’ fashioned about that. Opinions, opinions.

  • Pick A Name

    Fortunately you were able to point out the error of my ways, and gave me the opportunity to clarify the reasoning behind my “snotty” remark (ironically, with a snotty remark of your own). Perhaps next time you will put the same effort into enhancing the quality of the blog posts themselves rather than the comments of mindless trolls, and improve the quality of the site for all of us. Many thanks.

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