Meizu CEO: we only kind of knocked off the iPhone

by Ryan Block posted Feb 14th 2007 at 12:39PM

Funny, we rarely, if ever see a company producing Chinese knocks of high profile devices start defending themselves, but it sounds like Meizu wants to (partly) shed the bad light cast on its M8, er, miniOne non-iPhone. According to some posts in their forums by someone who appears to be Meizu's CEO, J.Wong, the original M8 design for a massive-touchscreen cellphone debuted four days before Macworld -- however, the design was still undergoing changes, and when Apple launched their product, so Meizu reworked the aesthetic, added some metal, slimmed it down, and voila, M8 cum miniOne. We recognize that's some serious gray area for Meizu to be treading -- kind of the design equivalent of double-checking your answers with your neighbors' before turning in your test -- but let's face it, a phone like that coming out of China, it would have been pegged an iPhone knock either way. Plus, they were still ahead of the game with that insane 720 x 480 res screen they've apparently spent $1m US ordering in bulk. So take this one for what you will, but we think Meizu's among the first to keep it somewhat real while still managing to keep it real fake.

[Via Engadget Chinese, thanks Kevin]

Filed under: Handsets, Others, Apple

Tags: iphone, m8, meizu, minione

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

MTR07 @ Mar 16th 2007 9:09PM

Let's face it, Apple ripped off the basic touchscreen concept from basically everyone else on the market and called it their own.

Neutral

matty @ Feb 14th 2007 1:21PM

it's apple's multi-touch platform that will be the hot-stuff.

Neutral

ka010 @ Feb 14th 2007 4:31PM

Apple stole their idea from that Kids in the Hall skit. Simply, this whole battle is being re-fought, pointlessly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4InuqZ9UlIE

Neutral

db @ Feb 14th 2007 3:43PM

who cares?? how many different ways can you design a touchscreen phone anyway? last time i checked, touchscreen phones have been around even before the iphone and yet with the iphone getting so much hype, people act like apple "invented it". i'm not trying to knock-off the iphone, i kinda like it, but i just don't think people should give it so much credit.