All Articles Tagged iclone

The Bold. The Storm. The Thunder. One iClonic product after another. How does Blackberry do it? Mole in Apple guru Jonathan Ive’s ultra-secure design studio? Unlikely. Telephoto lens from Waterloo? Impractical. So, what is the secret to all of RIM’s post-iPhone Blackberry’s looking (and soon-to-be-functioning?) so much like Apple’s little pocket universe-dent’er? According to RIM CEO, and noted internet deadpan funnyman, Mike Lazaridis, it’s a simple combination of technology right out of Apple’s (and this blog’s!) back yard:

[W]e have a time machine somewhere, or some kind of magic crystal ball or something.

Apple Time Machine + TiPB Crystal Ball = Blackberry Bold?

To be fair, Lazaridis’s full context was that the Blackberry Bold DIDN’T copy Apple, but had been independently designed 3.5 years ago by RIM, and any similarities (such as the glossy black facade and chrome trim) to Apple’s iPhone were purely coincidental.

Of course, Apple has a long history of design, including the use of just these types of form factors and materials, leading up to, including, and past the iPhone (hello, iMac!), whereas RIM has… none. Nada. Zip. Zilch. So while it’s possible the Bold just happened to be independently conceived of prior to the iPhone going public (yet released nearly a full year after…), how likely is it?

Frankly, with the way Lazaridis seems to lust after talk about it, the iPhone very well could be RIM’s “precious”. And given the nearly obsessive amount of (disjointed and reactionary) response RIM’s displayed post-iPhone, my guess is “not very.”

What do you think?

Read Via

Ah, comedy, thy name is Lazaridis!

What, you may ask, makes the CEO of Blackberry manufacturer RIM so knee slapping-ly funny? Deadpan Setups (on April 27th) like this:

THERE’S a reason that R.I.M. is averse to the iPhone’s glass pad. “I couldn’t type on it and I still can’t type on it, and a lot of my friends can’t type on it,” says Mike Lazaridis, R.I.M.’s co-chief executive and technological visionary. “It’s hard to type on a piece of glass.”

Followed by absolutely killer punch-lines (on May 13th):

The BlackBerry Thunder, as it is codenamed now, (all you “reporting” on it as the Storm are incorrect) will launch in Q3 of this year. It is a full touchscreen BlackBerry — no slide out keyboard

Please. Ouch. My ribs. I can’t take it…

Ahem… Okay. So, if RIM is now iCloning a touchscreen of their very own, is it really that Lazaridis and his friends can’t type on a touchscreen, or that they just can’t type?

(Would go a long way towards explaining those tic-tactiles, wouldn’t it?)

Another day, another iClone! This one comes courtesy of the fine folks at Philips, and Gizmodo shares the duplicative details:

PC World China is saying that the upcoming Xenium x800 will have an “e2e” screen— that’s an edge-to-edge touchscreen, apparently. From the photos it looks like it’s got an orientation sensor, Wi-Fi, a browser, a curved design and a bevelled metal edge. Sounds a little familiar?

It sure does. It sounds just like the Samsung Instinct, Nokia Tube, RIM (and RIM), and HTC Touch Diamond, and every other device trying to be the iPhone in imitative form rather than revolutionary spirit.

How about iCloning that?

[Note: This a a Wait-A-Thon post! Comment on this post -- or any post tagged "Wait-a-Thon" -- for your chance to win a $100 iTunes Gift Card!]

Usually we wait for This Week in Smartphone Schadenfreude to mock review the competition (such as it is), but if they bring the hype, we’ll bring the satire, special-edition style.

Samsung, Nokia (yeah, I’d forgotten about them as well…), and RIM (and RIM) have already sent in their iClones, and now it’s HTCs turn to make mid-2008 look like early 2007 all over again… Ludites and gentlemen, the HTC Touch Diamond.

(At least I think it’s the Diamond, they’ve pre-announced like 100 different Touch trademarks lately, so it could be the Pro or the Cruise or even the Cubic Zirconium for all I can tell…)

Speaking of 2007, as we all know when Steve Jobs took the stage at Macworld and pulled the iPhone from his pocket, it’s form factor was exactly like every other Palm, RIM, and WinMob device out there, with a tiny screen, application independent tic-tactile keyboard, always unstylish stylus, and and OS and interface straight out of 2001.

Wait, no it wasn’t. El Jobso unveiled a revolutionary new device with a giant, hi-res screen, multi-touch input, and an interface the likes of which the industry had never seen before. But they (and we) have certainly seen it since — reflected funhouse mirror-like in almost every signature device from every company released post-iPhone.

Read on!

Read the rest of this entry »

Rumors recently swirled about a super-secret RIM development project affectionately dubbed AK (for Apple Killer) that would help Blackberry not only retain market share in face of the iPhone juggernaut, but regain mind share which has wholly become the property of Apple as of late:

..two independent developers writing software for coming R.I.M. devices say that a touch-screen BlackBerry is in the works, and that R.I.M. engineers privately refer to it as the A.K. — for “Apple Killer.”

Would it be another iClone like the 9000? Would it be the fabled touchscreen Blackberry?

Turns out RIM’s Apple Killer might just be… er… the iPhone?

Apple Insider highlights a new “confidential” job posting way up Waterloo way:

“As part of a newly-created team, you’ll influence the development and design of BlackBerry software. This is a very confidential brand new team and a senior position within RIM so I can’t provide too many details. I guess you can figure out what it might be about though.”

While the position itself calls for Objective C, Cocoa, UI, AJaX, BT, and USB experience, and some have speculated that it could be a serious attempt by RIM to bring some 1st party, Mac native sync capabilities to the email monster, the more interesting rumor-mongers are rumor-mongering RIM apps for the iPhone SDK: Blackberry Connect anyone?

Personally, I don’t see RIM losing the one advantage they have, Crackberry addictive “push” email by giving the keys of the kingdom to Apple (though they have made Blackberry Connect for other platforms). Besides, they’re already copying the design and flirting with the touchy-feely interface, so why go developer now? Then again, Canadians are a polite people, so who knows?

What do you think?

When the iPhone was introduced, Nokia’s first official response was the corporate equivalent of a raspberry (the spitting kind, not the fruit!). Their second official response was to demo a device which so closely mimicked the iPhone that it quite possibly was one.

“If there is something good in the world then we copy with pride,” said Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia’s Executive VP & General Manager of Multimedia.

Well, proudly copy it they have! The final device, bewilderingly code-named “Tube” is ready for prime-time (or whatever time it is they relegate programs that knock off last season’s hits).

Is Nokia worried about the iPhone and it’s popularity? Not according to Tom Libretto, vice president of Forum Nokia (who must be auditioning for a shot on iPhone JEOPARDY!):

“We’ve done [the iPhone's sales numbers to date] since we’ve had dinner on Friday.”

We would hope so! Since the global sales leader with a complete range from cheapo handsets to high-end convergence devices available in almost every country, on every carrier, on the planet is comparing numbers to a single (albeit revolutionary) iPhone available in only a handful of places on a single carrier each. And Fake Steve claims to be mathlexic! (N95 to iPhone numbers in the US anyone?)

That Nokia has adopted the increasingly popular “if you can’t beat them, copy them” strategy — a strategy that, if Apple had adopted it, there would be nothing for RIM, Samsung, Microsoft, or Nokia to be copying right now — is disappointing to say the least. But it once again highlights that if Apple hasn’t achieved market share, it’s certainly achieved market leadership.

Do you want a world where there’s the iPhone and every other manufacturer’s knockoff of same? Or would you rather see the other companies innovate and revolutionize and differentiate their offerings? What do you think?

(via Engadget)

Pop quiz, hotshot:

You’re the top dog in smart phones with “push” email technology so killer people have likened it to crack. But last year a new kid showed up with a glitzy multi-touch interface and media to die for, and sucked all the buzz out of your room. What do you do? What. Do. You. Do?

If you answered, out innovate them, come up with next year’s “it” device, you’re correct. You’re also clearly (and unfortunately) not the brain-trust at RIM.

We’ve already talked about Apple licensing Microsoft’s ActiveSync, looking to eat into RIM’s Blackberry business dominance. We’ve even made fun of the new old-look Blackberry 9000 (yep, that’s the new BB pictures above. What, you thought it was the Meizu?). But this cuts deeper into the industry.

For years Palm pushed out tepid evolutionary designs. RIM, while having copied a little Palm look-and-feel at times, has made tentative flirtations, for good or for ill, with innovation in devices like the Pearl. For the most part, however, everyone has been content to regurgitate and duplicate. Everyone but the iPhone.

When Steve Jobs pulled the iPhone from his pocket at Macworld 2007 it was unlike anything we’d seen in smart phones before, but also instantly Apple. It was a revolution.

Palm needs to do this so badly the company hinges on it.

RIM does as well. Sure, they’re in great shape. They move tons of units to an enormous, addicted user base. They own the market. But they no longer lead it.

Copying Apple’s design is superficial but it’s a sign that RIM is following. They are going where Apple has been. They are surrendering mindshare and, in doing so, surrendering leadership of the market.

Sure, Apple competes with Apple. They cancelled the mega-popular iPod Mini only to release the super-mega-popular Nano. And they’ll push themselves on smart phones all alone if they have to. But every industry needs competition.

WinMob 7 is still vaporware and is also targeting where the iPhone was. That’s Microsoft’s MO. Palm’s Nova needed to be out 2 years ago, if not earlier. They’ve long ago lost the drive that made them the original innovator. That leaves RIM (and perhaps Nokia).

Hotshots, you need to do better.