If you’ve been around the tech scene for some time, you’ll know that Apple is famous for starting the current smartphone revolution in 2007, that Android was birthed some time after iOS, and that Apple has been seen as the standard by many for what a good, premium smartphone is, even in 2015.
Well, HTC may want to challenge that notion, but the Taiwanese manufacturer finds itself in trouble with the latest One A9 smartphone revealed earlier this week. As is the norm with every Android smartphone, diehard iPhone fans (and even some Android fans) have resorted to claiming that HTC has “blatantly ripped off” Apple in order to craft a smartphone that will likely sell because of its “iPhone” design. HTC North Asia President Jack Tong responded at a Taiwan press briefing to the iPhone copy claim with, “We’re not copying. We made a uni-body metal-clad phone in 2013. It’s Apple that copies us in terms of the antenna design on the back.”
HTC does have a point about the One A9 but it finds itself in the same camp as Samsung with regard to Apple. Samsung’s Galaxy S6 speaker grille has been compared to Apple’s speaker grille in the same vein, even though Samsung implemented an identical speaker grille on its Windows Phone Ativ S back in 2012. Apple fans are quick to talk about things like speaker placement, headphone jack placement, etc., but there are only so many positions and ways to uniquely place these features onto a handset. I fear that many of the complaints about “some Android manufacturer copied Apple” are debates created for the purpose of mere chatter.
There are a number of manufacturers that do copy the look and feel of the iPhone, however, and there are a few (that shall remain nameless) that even implement the same wallpapers as those found on current iPhones and iPads (if you’ve seen the purple flower petal with the black background on a few smartphones, you’ll understand.). While imitation is still the highest form of flattery, each company has its own unique take on the market and doesn’t need to copy the look and feel of the iPhone. HTC hasn’t copied the iPhone with the One A9, Samsung hasn’t copied the iPhone with the Galaxy S6, but there are some manufacturers who do. To those, I’d say that customers want something unique and distinct from Apple. Not everyone believes that “A” is for “Apple.”
What do you think?
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