The iPhone, from Nokia

Well, it's officially happened again. Just like the original Mac spurred development of Microsoft Windows, the iPhone has created the first of (I'm sure to be many) imitators. What remains to be seen is if any of these clones will bring anything new to the table or will allow Apple to do R&D for them as MS did. I'm hopeful that a company like Nokia will actually extend the interface and give us more options.

I'd like to know how companies that do such utter blatant copying of a design actually live with themselves and sleep at night. This is the biggest copy of a product I think I've ever seen yet. It beats all those original iMac CRT imitations that came out years ago. Is it even legal to come out with such an obvious copy? Unfreakinbelievable.

I know they probably planned for it, but doesn't some of this interface stuff violate patents? Or do those apply to the US only?

Perhaps the lack of multi-touch in the phone is what lets them skate around said patents. Time will tell.

The same companies which criticized the iPhone are imitating the iPhone.

I bet, when these imitations make it to the market, other wireless providers will say "we have an iPhone too, and its unlocked"

If ATT does not provide the unlocking code Apple will loose. No one is going to use their iPhone internationally, it's too expensive, and using an alternate phone for international travel defeats the purpose of buying the iPhone.

A "concept phone", huh? And they didn't even show the real thing, just a video (all special effects no doubt). Tells me that this phone is way way back there in the concept stage, like a Trek Tri-Corder or something.

Why didn't they just show an iPhone and say, "This is what we're gonna make some day"?

haha I like your last comment. Pretty funny.

Plus Nokia IIRC has a history of pushing things out late. Like the N95 was delayed quite a while. And that was using the tried and true Symbian S60 so it's not like they had a lot of software work to do on it. This concept phone won't see the light of day for another 1.5 years is my guess.

And by then, we'll be ready for iPhone 2 after 2 years of software updates to iPhone 1 and a generation of hardware updates in the iPhone 2.

Even in that video the interface looked clumsier than the iPhone. It was clearly all animated and not a real working prototype. Unfortunate that this is the best they could do with 9 months to come up with something.

Pure copyright or patent infringement if you ask me. The one thing those other companies won't be able to do is put OSX on there phones like Apple. And since the video really didn't show any of the real interface it will be interesting to see if there's will be really different or the same phony boloney that they always build with the same complicated interfaces which nobody can easily move around in unlike Apple's iPhone.

Sure, it may be a copy, but like the iPod its not the "real thing". Since its a Nokia the UI will be simple but not polished. In short, it will be the "poor man's" iPhone. If anything Nokia's dominance of distribution will act as indirect advertising of the iPhone and some may say "well the iPhone is only $100 more (guessing) so I may as well get the iPhone instead.".

This makes me angry. I don't care if someone other than Apple creates a better, more innovative product, but simply cashing in on Apples UI research is wrong. I seriously hope Nokia get sued and loose big time. Although, If i were Nokia, the iPhone would seriously scare me, and I'd probably be trying to do a me-too product as well. But the problem is that just like non-Apple MP3 players, as soon as a cheaper/better product comes out, Apple leapfrogs them and/or drops the price of the iPod. I see no reason why the iPhone2 won't be developed and not released until the day after Nokia releases their phone, then Apple will leapfrog it entirely. Competition is great for the consumer, and I wish Nokia luck (although they are probably the biggest mobile manufacturer?) but from this video, it has zero innovation.