iPhone under fire from LG for 'stealing idea'
Yes, we've all seen the similarity between the iPhone and LG's KE850 Prada, so it's hardly a surprise that LG are kicking up a stink about it themselves.
"Apple stole our idea" is the gist of the argument, from LG's head of Mobile Research and Development Woo-Young Kwak.
"We consider that Apple copycat the Prada phone after the design was unveiled when it was presented in the iF Design Award and won the prize in September 2006. We take that to mean 'Apple stole our idea."
I'm sorry, Mr Kwak, but I think you're wrong.
Do you really think that Apple designed and manufactured a complete touchscreen solution with gesture-based interface in 3 months, based upon an LG phone with hard-to-find specifications?
The iPhone has been in development for years. Now, I'm sure the LG phone has had large amounts of R&D budget thrown behind it, but both have been developed independently.
The LG and iPhone are not the only touchscreen phones on the market - just Google 'touchscreen phone' and you'll find plenty: Neonode N2, Lenovo i807, Samsung SCH-W559...
The iPhone uses OS X GUI. The LG phone, by nature of it not being an Apple product, doesn't.
What's also unclear is what interface the Prada is using. My bet is that it hasn't been as well developed and researched as the much-heralded gesturing system innovated by Apple.
Apple stole LG's phone design? Just because a few buttons look a bit similar, I don't think so.
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