If you thought Samsung copying was bad...
In April of 2011 Apple kicked off a wave of international litigation when it filed its first lawsuit against Samsung for "slavishly copying" the user interface of the iPhone. These days, Apple and Samsung are seemingly on a path to finally put their legal squabbles behind them, though the two tech giants are still duking it out in the U.S. Court system.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Apple should be thrilled that there's now a company whose penchant for copying even puts Samsung to shame.
Behold, Exhibit 1: Xiaomi hardware.
Based out of China, Xiaomi markets and sells smartphones and tablets that look oh so familiar. Just last month we detailed a few examples highlighting the overt instances of Xiaomi quite shamelessly ripping off Apple with Cupertino-inspired hardware design and marketing materials.
Behold, Exhibit 2: Xiaomi's MIUI operating system.
Take a look at some of these photos from MIUI 6, the upcoming mobile OS from Xiaomi. The disregard for IP here is egregious that it essentially makes what Samsung did seem not so bad at all.
The calendar app here is, well, it's beyond words. The copying for the calculator isn't as blatant, but the Apple inspiration still jumps off the screen.
Really? Really?!
The color scheme on this compass also looks strangely familiar.
And of course, these are just three examples out of many.
Quite comically, former Google executive and current Xiaomi executive Hugo Barra is "sick and tired" of people thinking that they're copying Apple.
The upcoming Mi 4 from Xiaomi also borrows a lot of hardware design inspiration from Apple. You can see some first hand examples of that in this review from CNET and this one from Ars Technica.
Both reviews have positive things to say about the device, but this blurb from Ars certainly sums things up nicely.
Xiaomi is a company in need of some self-confidence, though. It has built an amazing device, but it has sullied the Mi4 by cloning the iPhone design. Xiaomi is like an extremely smart student that still cheats off the person next to it because it doesn't trust itself to come up with the right answer. You can do it Xiaomi! Just be a little more original.
Xiaomi's continued derivative design hurts the company in so many ways. It makes it easy for people to dismiss the company as yet another cheap clone maker. It also limits the countries Xiaomi can expand to, because in many places, Apple would sue the company out of existence.
