Lenovo's Android-powered OPhone shows itself again. Launch imminent?
By Donald Melanson 
posted Mar 31st 2009 6:03PM
posted Mar 31st 2009 6:03PM
Lenovo's KIRF-tastic OPhone hasn't exactly been all that camera shy since it first dipped its toes into the Android waters in December, but it's now proudly showing itself yet again, and giving everyone their best glimpse yet at its China Mobile branding. What's more, while we've already heard that the phone is on track for a launch this quarter, the talk now seems to be that a release could be just around the corner, with some speculating that it'll roll out immediately after China Mobile's other Android handset, the Dopod G2 (a.k.a. HTC Magic). Hit up the link below for a few more pics, including a closer look at the phone's slightly familiar-looking UI in action.
[Via ModMyGphone, thanks Neerhaj]
[Via ModMyGphone, thanks Neerhaj]
Great looking phone. I don't know a ton about it, but from a looks stand-point, iPhone/G1 killer?
It is probably for the Chinese market only.
I didn't know G1 needed any killing! It was known from the beginning as the dev prototype they had been using internally for the past 4 years!
Are you being sarcastic?
Symmetrical icons are oh so yesterday.
Just waiting for the iFanboys crying iPhone ripoff. Any rectangular phone with "aqua" icons is an iPhone ripoff.
I have an iPhone and I think it looks awesome. It's a shame that it apparently won't come here, but I guess that's how it goes.
The closest thing that this phone resembles in GUI looks and in name is the iPhone. Unless there is another device out there that comes even closer.
There is just something I do not understand about Chinese companies. They do not seem to comprehend or care about the concept of being original and they do not believe in such concepts as intellectual property or copyright. If any one has a good idea or design they just feel it's free for the taking. To exemplify this point, Engadget runs their "Keeping it real fake" series.
Recently I heard of an even more disturbing event. We all hear and know about CISCO, the beloved maker of all things router and network equipment. Turns out there is a Chinese company called Huawei that wanted to get into the networking market. To this end, they bought one of CISCO's popular routers and reverse engineered every single part down to the last bit of software and the last piece of circuit board. A while later Huawei shamelessly entered the networking market with their own router. When CISCO analyzed this new machine they found it was a 100% clone copy of their own router; even the names of the original American programmers were still embedded in the OS. So much for the millions of $$ CISCO invested in R&D, testing, design and the countless hours their people invested in making it all happen. The Chinese just come and take it.
Is this a true story or not? Then did Cisco sue Huawei?
I know Huanwei has a lot of patents in Networking and Communications, not as what you think, just cloning.
I'm afraid it is true. This is a little bit of what went down:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=77818
And to add insult to injury, CISCO made the stupid mistake of dropping the lawsuit and settling the matter outside of court. They should've sued them all the way. Bottom line is, Huawei simply agrees to make a few changes to all the material they stole and gets to keep it as their own AND make money out of it. I don't work for CISCO but as an American I feel completely disappointed, robbed and outraged to say the least.
@Fox,
Something tells me if it's as simple and black and white as you make it out to be, CISCO would have sued the pants off of Huawei.
Not exactly a familiar looking UI... but alright!
so im assuming that the ui were looking at right now is just a shell and beneath is android, right? because then maybe we could have that ui ported to other android devices too :>
Is it just me, or does that look NOTHING like android?
(I can't RTFA because Google isn't releasing the FA from translation)
darn and i spent all my money on a iphone and now they come out with a O-phone????
The UI looks a lot like that of the China Mobile based HTC Magic. Even uses the same wallpaper (a lot better looking than the default).
http://tech.163.com/mobile/09/0316/10/54H785JM00112K95_2.html
First this I'd do with this phone is put Sweeter Home on it...
still wishing it's multiband on HSDPA so it can go to t-mobile's 3G network...1700...
At the end of the day, it is just a bunch of icons launching a bunch of applications. Perhaps if/when HTML5, PhoneGap, BONDI, etc. become mainstream, all the same apps will run on all of the mobile OSes, so it won't matter if you have an iPhone, Blackberry, Pre, .... You just pick the device you like.
Still would be nice to come to the USA... if only to hold some rich nobbits over until a GSM Pre comes out over here.
Show me your OPhone.
Why would you want that "UI" ported? One of the iPhone's big failings is the lack of information on the icon heavy main screen, compared to the typical "today" screen of a WinMo, Nokia, etc device. I don't get it myself, the grid of icons is pretty much the same as a numeric pad. Not every program has the same summary info.
Failings?
You mean, not overloading the main screen with a bunch of questionably useful information and instead giving people a menu of things they may want to use with a light dusting of actually useful information?
Lenovo isn't introducing anything new. Just another iphone clone. Companies need to innovate like Palm.
agreed!
Agreed too.
I think we're all in for a treat now that major players have emerged in the smart phone market. Apple knows how to compete, RIM knows how to compete, Google knows how to compete, Nokia knows how to compete, MS not so much. But now that Palm is jumping in the rat race it makes the bunch complete.
I think we're going to see a lot of amazing things happening in the near future. The question is, who will go down in flames first?
Explain to me how a phone running on Android an "iPhone clone?"
At first, I just found you fanboys amusing. But now you're all starting to piss me off.
"On track for release for this quarter '...ain't today the end of "this quarter?
LOL