China Mobile planning to subvert Unicom's iPhone launch with the OPhone?
By Tim Stevens 
posted Apr 20th 2009 10:26AM
posted Apr 20th 2009 10:26AM
[Image courtesy of modmyGphone]
Please note: If you're a current Engadget commenter, you do not need to re-register. Simply login and you will be prompted to select a username.
Can someone define "KIRF" for me? Thanks...
Keeping It Real Fake (knockoff)
It would be very boring if Apple was the only company who made a touchscreen only phone... I would hope that any company would rely on features that are more than skin deep!
"are people there so eager for iPhone they'd jump on the imitation"
I am just eager to get something that isn't an Apple iPhone... sadly this oPhone won't be coming to our part of the world soon (?).
Whilst we're talking about the similarities.. the iPhone looks very similar to my PDA, apart from the phone feature. So does that make an iPhone a KIRF as well?
Their philosophy is that the iPhone should be the only one.
Obviously they cant practically ever expect that to happen, so they engage in the KIRF B.S. or finding any little thing that looks remotely similar something on an iPhone, and claim a patent or copyright on it on behalf of Apple, and then engage in attacking the device on that.
Mind you, Apple has no patents on much of general stuff from the iPhone because many of these things in or on it were created by other companies.
Why do you think they never took any of the supposed "KIRF" devices, which to Apple fans are all of them, to court? If it was so open and shut, Apple would have done so ages ago.
Please engadget, many people are asking how this phone rips off the iPhone. We're not just asking for the sake of asking either. So how about you edit this post and back up your statement?
P.S. There's a little brown on your nose, and there's also some bodily fluids running down the side of your mouth.
@Ellianth It's linked right there in the post. Click on "KIRFy" and then follow the read and the via link.
You're joking right? I clicked that link, all i found was an equally short article with the word "KIRF" being thrown around, and 2 UI screenshots that don't resemble the iphone.
Did i miss something, or do you expect me to click every single link on the engadget mobile page (where I'll probably have to do some more clicking through). You wrote the article on this site, you think it's KIRFy, why don't you provide your reasons instead of linking to Nilay's article which also doesn't provide any real reasons?
Nope, I don't expect you to click every link, just the Via and the Read link from there, as I mentioned.
Keepin It Real Fake (KIRF)...
Who cares...there are dozens of knockoffs out there, if people want to buy an iPhone they will buy one, if they want a blackberry they will buy one, if they want a fake iPhone/blackberry they will buy one.
It all comes down to whether O or I is the superior vowel.
I'd get the oPhone over the iPhone anyday...
you my friend are the definition of a windows fanboy
You sir are a definition of an Apple fanboy, as you don't even know that the oPhone runs Android.
Bold statement, seeing as you probably haven't tried either.
I own an iPhone... hence the statement!
i dunno about the UI, but the phone itself is pretty sexy.
lol @gareth: self ownage
wtf. made by lenovo? i thought they were a legit china company. never knew they would made KIRFy stuff.
STFU fanboy, go back to your Steve Jobs feet lickink duties.. remember that scene from Pulp fiction... I'm gonna take that beloved Apple of yours and...
Looks more like the Blackberry Storm.
another ignorant nerd. since when did i mention anything about apple or the iphone? im talking about lenovo and its products, douche.
Windows fanboys are just plain assholes, aren't they?
the link says made outsourced to Lenovo and LG... READ Read read
Imitation? Doesn't the OPhone run Android? I don't know that I'd consider that an imitation, as Android has it's own interface (unless you think any phone with a full touchscreen is an iPhone knockoff).
I, for one, am looking forward to having android running on something besides the HTC G1/Magic frame, though I doubt we'll ever see it over here.
Picture is upside down.
An O upside down is still an O
oPhone not to be confused with oFace
He’s getting out of the hospital tomorrow, and he’s going to throw a big party this weekend to celebrate. We’re all invited. I’m thinking I’m going to take that new chick from logistics. If things go well, I might be showing her my oPhone. o! o! o! o! You know what I’m talking about. Oh! Yeah! See you guys later.
Engadget never ceases to amaze. Even a global company can't make a product without Engadget criticizing them as an Apple ripoff. I surmise that 1) any touchscreen device and 2) from China must fall under your stupid KIRF moniker.
Protecting Apple from:
Bad PR
Competition
Criticism
Are sadly the three pillars of many tech blogs.
Just wait for when the Pre is released and you will see it in full form.
cry microsoft fanboys, cry.
@Skeezle - surely the term Google Fanboy is more appropriate... this isn't even a WinMo device!!
how, exactly, is Lenovo's offering "KIRFy"?
for all you up their.
OMS(Open Mobile System) which is essentially Android + TD SCDMA (China's home-grown 3G standard).
follow links silly people
Oh please. To the naysayers: this is about as KIRFy as it gets. Look at the original oPhone posts with screenshots. The homescreen UI is a blatant rip off of the iPhone -- black background, rounded-edge square icons of exactly the same proportions utilizing the exact same spacing/organization. Then there is the hardware similarities -- chrome bevel, black top and bottom pieces, one button, similar screen size and shape. C'mon. C'MON. It's a blatant rip off. That said, I'd still love to use the device. I'm not a big fan of the G1 style android interface...it just feels cheap. This iPhone OS clone might actually be kinda cool.
Oh please. To the naysayers: this is about as KIRFy as it gets. Look at the original oPhone posts with screenshots. The homescreen UI is a blatant rip off of the iPhone -- black background
--apple invented the color black now? Just about every phone out there has a black background available(if not default)
rounded-edge square icons of exactly the same proportions utilizing the exact same spacing/organization.
--Again, there are tons of phones out there with rounded square icons, it's been done for a while(long before the iphone)
Then there is the hardware similarities -- chrome bevel, black top and bottom pieces, one button,
--Hmm, so would you call the blackberry storm or the HTC Touch, HTC Diamond, etc, etc, etc,etc,etc KIRF also?
similar screen size and shape.
--What other shape do you want it to be? I wasn't aware apple invented large rectangular touch screens. Actually this screen size and "shape" has been a staple of just about every touch screen phone/pda since the beginning.
I'm not a fanboy or anything but ofcourse this a copy of iphone.
If iphone never came out, there wouldnt be half the touchscreen phones we see out there including this one.
iphone may or may not have taken the all touchscreen form factor from LG prada but they did something with it that LG couldnt.
that is to make it the defacto consumer phone everyone wants(or pretty much).
ps. i do not own a mac nor iphone.
P800
Mark--congratulations on being voted up. Typical iPhone hater at work. 3/4 of the examples you provided are not even remotely relevant to my comment. The blackberry storm has multiple buttons, not one, same with all the other devices you provided. The rest of the comments concerning the appearance of the hardware apply, I was maybe a little off base with those comparisons. As far as the OS, you are way off base. Funny how people like you think they are being so smart and knowledgeable when you are really being willfully ignorant. No other phone that predates the iPhone utilized the exact same high level stylistic tendencies that they iPhone does. That's just a fact. Obviously, the iPhone's desktop-icon-esque based design is not an original concept. Nor is a black background. Nor is rounded-edge icons. Nor is the spacing. Nor is a single-hardware button. However when you combine all of these concepts and present them in a certain manner it IS an original design, at the high level, which the oPhone BLATANTLY ripped off. You can deny it all you want, but it's the truth. There's a reason why this thing is only being sold in China. Have fun being an anti-fanboy though.
Come on, the best you can come up with on hardware similarities is that both have one button on the front? Are other touch screen phones "kirfing" each other when they both have 5 buttons or 3 buttons in the front? I think this phone looks a like more like the Storm than any other phone, and no one would call the Storm a KIRF of the iPhone.
The theme I agree is iPhone inspired (black, round buttons), haven't used the UI so can't tell the rest. But they didn't attempt to do a knockoff (in the actual knockoffs, the lock screen always has the fish background and the home screen has a dock on the bottom and the icons extend all the way to the top, this one breaks that design with a message bar and search bar; if they wanted to fool people they wouldn't have changed the design elements).
I don't see how the Apple can pin this as a knockoff. Like most of the other phones, ie Samsung Instinct, a whole bunch of LGs, the Storm, etc, it's certainly jumping on the touchscreen bandwagon after seeing the sales on iPhone, but this phone is about as KIRF as they are.
I just looked around the specs for the OPhone..
It seems that the "KIRF" phone has better specs than the Apple
click here - http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2008/12/17/lenovo-android-ophone-gets-pictured-and-with-specs/
I didn't think that ripoffs usually had better specs than the "original".. because companies like Nokla [sic] are just there to make a quite profit. OPhone seems to have a better camera AND a microSD slot!! I think this the more appropriate term to describe this Lenovo is "competition". Choice is good right? I thought, living in a "free country", you would expect to at least be given a choice (of touchscreen phones).
;-)
oMama
"are people there so eager for iPhone they'd jump on the imitation rather than wait another month for the real thing?"
More like
are people there so eager to burn money they'd wait for the real thing?
Those rocks in the background look like an iphone.
and Mark looks like an ass.
And skeezle looks like a nose.
(And superhobo looks like an Engadget avatar)
*yawn*
It is quite juvenile to keep calling this ANDROID phone a ripoff of the iPhone. Come on Engadget, I know you're better than this.
But can you play Crysis at 60fps at 4096×3072 resolution w/ 1Million polygons, if it does I'm in!
sweet!
time to start practicing my "O" face.
Again ... I would love to see your side by side comparison of the iPhone and oPhone.
Tell me all the KIRFy things about the oPhone PLEASE!
I'll help you out with a few
Icons with rounded corners!
A software based numeric keypad!
A Weather App! Holy crap ... What a rip off...!!!!!
A calculator ! Good God .... Apple sue them already !
?
I wholeheartedly agree!
Note to Appletards:
APPLE DID NOT INVENT SQUARE ICONS WITH ROUNDED CORNERS
More like "are people so stupid to still buy the iPhone when this obviously superior phone exists?".
Why would China Mobile be worried about the official launch of the iPhone in China? The iPhone has been "unofficially" launched for a long time now and anyone who really wants one already has one. Heck, China Mobile can count how many iPhones are already running on their network. Those hundreds of thousands of grey market iPhones are also probably better than the likely crippled version (no WiFi, unless there's some sea-change in government regulations in the works) to be offered by China Unicom.
By the way, the Lenovo phone looks a lot more like the Cowon S9 than the iPhone.