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Hardware Technology

Motorola Receives Backlash For Revealing a 'Shameless' Copy of the iPhone X as Its New Model (bbc.co.uk) 255

Posted by msmash from the new-low dept.
Smartphone brand Motorola has been criticised for revealing a "shameless" copy of the iPhone X as its new model. BBC: Many phone-makers have copied the look of the iPhone X, which has a smaller bezel around the screen and a "notch" at the top that houses a camera. However, reviewers said the new Motorola P30 was a "brazen" and "egregious" rip-off of Apple's flagship device. Lenovo, which owns the Motorola brand, has not yet responded to the criticism.

[...] Commenting on the similarity between the Motorola P30 and the iPhone X, technology blogger Marques Brownlee called it the "most shameless rip yet." News site Mashable said Motorola "even went so far as to adorn the screen with a wallpaper that's a dead ringer for Apple's default wallpaper." News and reviews site Technobuffalo said the design was an "egregious clone" that was "nearly impossible to distinguish" from the iPhone X. Tech news site The Verge pointed out that Google's image recognition algorithms described photos of the P30 as "iPhone."
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Motorola Receives Backlash For Revealing a 'Shameless' Copy of the iPhone X as Its New Model More

Motorola Receives Backlash For Revealing a 'Shameless' Copy of the iPhone X as Its New Model

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  • Finally! (Score:5, Funny)

    by LynnwoodRooster ( 966895 ) on Friday August 17, 2018 @10:22AM (#57143972) Journal
    An iPhone for those who want a real OS!

    • An iPhone for those who want a real OS!

      You mean a real INSECURE OS, right?

    • Re:Finally! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by LordKronos ( 470910 ) on Friday August 17, 2018 @11:28AM (#57144512)

      An iPhone for those who want a real OS!

      ...and a headphone jack

  • Now we get to see stupid articles about the Apple v Motorola lawsuit for the next 5 years.. uggghhh
  • then the iPhone X was not so technically challenging.

    • Re:If Motorola can do it well (Score:5, Funny)

      by LynnwoodRooster ( 966895 ) on Friday August 17, 2018 @10:30AM (#57144024) Journal
      The P30 is actually much more advanced and was a much bigger challenge than the iPhone X - because it actually included the technological innovation called a 3.5mm TRRS jack for your wired headphones!

      • Re:If Motorola can do it well (Score:4, Funny)

        by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Friday August 17, 2018 @10:41AM (#57144104)

        Did you finally stop complaining about how the iMac didn't have a floppy disk?

        • Re:If Motorola can do it well (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Wycliffe ( 116160 ) on Friday August 17, 2018 @10:55AM (#57144228) Homepage

          Did you finally stop complaining about how the iMac didn't have a floppy disk?

          The floppy disk was replaced by something better, faster, cheaper, more reliable and with more storage.
          Computers stopped having floppy disk drives several years after people stopped using them.
          Same with CD drives. People started rarely using the CD drives so companies started dropping them.
          Bluetooth has been around for years but hasn't had a significant effect on the use of the 3.5 jack.
          A large percentage of people still prefer the 3.5 jack. You drop a technology AFTER people stop
          wanting it not to force people to stop using it.

          • Re:If Motorola can do it well (Score:4, Interesting)

            by MachineShedFred ( 621896 ) on Friday August 17, 2018 @11:39AM (#57144632) Journal

            It would probably help if Bluetooth audio had a universal standard codec that didn't sound like shit. But it doesn't.

            Devices and headphones usually support better codecs these days, but unless you get a device AND headphones that both support the better codec, you're stuck with the lowest common denominator, which is terrible.

            • You're not getting 320k streaming anyways unless you ask for it, so SBC is adequate with decent headsets. But...

              aptX claims to be better, but I'm not hearing it, even with lossless source.

              aptX HD? Feh. Better, just.

              LDAC I heard in a Sony store. Impressive, but that was not in my car, the gym, or parking lot. When it's ubiquitous, I'll try to turn it on, but I don't see that coming.

              AAC? You bought an iPhone. Go splurge on decent headphones. Apple does not manufacture any.

              My own media server holds lossless (

            • It would probably help if Bluetooth audio had a universal standard codec that didn't sound like shit. But it doesn't.

              Another huge problem with bluetooth is that it is another device to keep charged.
              Also, they cost considerably more than regular headphones for the same quality.
              Also, the pairing adds a bunch of problems from failing to pair, needed to re-pair for each new device, not being able to quickly share, etc..

              Bluetooth works ok for handsfree car units where you pair once, you don't have to worry about keeping it charged, etc... and some people like active joggers find it worth the hassle but for the average person w

          • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

            by TheFakeTimCook ( 4641057 )

            Did you finally stop complaining about how the iMac didn't have a floppy disk?

            The floppy disk was replaced by something better, faster, cheaper, more reliable and with more storage.
            Computers stopped having floppy disk drives several years after people stopped using them.
            Same with CD drives. People started rarely using the CD drives so companies started dropping them.
            Bluetooth has been around for years but hasn't had a significant effect on the use of the 3.5 jack.
            A large percentage of people still prefer the 3.5 jack. You drop a technology AFTER people stop
            wanting it not to force people to stop using it.

            We'd still be setting 9600,N,8,1 for our Printers and using Parallel Ports for our Scanners if we lived in YOUR world.

            Remember that Henry Ford quote about "If I asked people what they wanted, they would have said 'A faster horse' "? Same thing applies.

            People want change ONLY if they feel no change.

            • We'd still be setting 9600,N,8,1 for our Printers and using Parallel Ports for our Scanners if we lived in YOUR world.

              Remember that Henry Ford quote about "If I asked people what they wanted, they would have said 'A faster horse' "? Same thing applies.

              People want change ONLY if they feel no change.

              Again, parallel ports were dropped AFTER people switched to usb. For several years, most computers had both usb ports and parallel ports and even serial ports.
              Bluetooth has been around for a decade but people aren't switching to it because it is more expensive, more clunky, and something else to charge.
              If you want people to switch to wireless headphones then create something that people actually want to switch to.

              • The problem with not having a hardware parallel port is some new and modern things still require them :( My pals new plasma cutter requires a hardware parallel port [cant' use a usb to parallel dongle] I've installed a couple laser cutters that still require them as well. Pain in the ass having to also order a PCI Express Dual Profile Parallel Adapter Card because most modern PCs not only do not have a parallel port but also don't have PCI ports.

            • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

              by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday August 17, 2018 @01:38PM (#57145686)
              Comment removed based on user account deletion

          • "something better, faster, cheaper, more reliable and with more storage."

            We know it as the Internet. Really, I know you thought it was something else, but Sun figured it out a while ago, and FedEx felt it immediately.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Luthair ( 847766 )
          Remember how the USB floppy drive was the most popular peripheral for a long ass time?

          • No, I don't. I remember how modems were the most popular peripheral. USB sticks a close second.

        • Did you finally stop complaining about how the iMac didn't have a floppy disk?

          No. No he didn't.

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

          • Back in 1998 Floppy disks were the standard for transferring data back and forth. Networked computers were still rare. CD Burners were new technology and being write once made them expensive to use. Other formats were not popular. An IBM Formatted Floppy could go a long way.

            USB was new then and often would mess up early OS's.

            When the iMac came out with only a CD player, pure panic came from that idea.

      • Re:If Motorola can do it well (Score:5, Informative)

        by hcs_$reboot ( 1536101 ) on Friday August 17, 2018 @10:42AM (#57144122)
        It has a jack!! This is (for me) a big ++.

      • Wired is Tired.

        MultiMEME for your consideration.

    • They can't and didn't (Score:4, Insightful)

      by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Friday August 17, 2018 @10:44AM (#57144134)

      It has face unlocking - based on cameras. Cramming two cameras in the front of a phone is not very technically challenging, even less so when you consider as someone else said the device doesn't have an edge to edge screen (screen does not extend to bottom edge).

      People accuse Apple all the time of valuing style over substance. But here's a phone that did not have to have a notch, it just did it because the iPhone X made everyone think notches looked cool, ignoring the functional reasons WHY the iPhone X has a notch to begin with.

      • Re:They can't and didn't (Score:4, Insightful)

        by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Friday August 17, 2018 @10:55AM (#57144230) Journal
        I really can’t get my head around the fact that manufacturers are copying the notch. It’s an ugly workaround, and as someone who develops apps every once in a while, it’s a really annoying exception to have to take into account.

        If you have to have a bezel-less phone, do what one Chinese did in their flagship phone: make the front facing camera pop up out of the top of the screen. This has the added benefit that you know when the thing is watching you. Of course that means no Face ID but they could have added a fingerprint scanner on the back or whatever.

        • I really can’t get my head around the fact that manufacturers are copying the notch. It’s an ugly workaround, and as someone who develops apps every once in a while, it’s a really annoying exception to have to take into account.

          If you have to have a bezel-less phone, do what one Chinese did in their flagship phone: make the front facing camera pop up out of the top of the screen. This has the added benefit that you know when the thing is watching you. Of course that means no Face ID but they could have added a fingerprint scanner on the back or whatever.

          And just how long do you think that "popup" mechanism will last in a cheapshit Chinese phone? Not to mention the HUGE water-intrusion hole that creates, no matter how much you try to seal it up...

      • Even better - if you go for the version that isn't a 100% shameless dupe of an iPhone because it has a different colored back, that color is a shameless dupe of the Huawei P20.

        Good to see that Lenovo is doing good things with the Motorola brand.

    • then the iPhone X was not so technically challenging.

      1. It takes a LOT less effort to copy something than to create it in the first place.

      2. Copying the look of something is not the same thing as copying the ABILITIES of something, as anyone who buys this disingenuous POS will soon find out when they start comparing it with the real thing...

    • Everything is usually less challenging the second or third time, as opposed to the first.

      Not saying anything about the iPhone X is that challenging to begin with - I've never used one, or care for that matter.

  • Put any phone side by side at they all look like an iphone, or a galaxy etc etc. The only surefire way to tell the difference and see whom the phone is attached to. If its attendant is a hipster whom is technologically illiterate the phone is an iphone, if its attendant is a neck-beard it is an android. Anyone else its all just shades of grey.

  • And makes a clear-cut knockoff.

    Is anyone here really that surprised? I'm surprised they didn't call it the P10 (or PX).

  • Bad Thing? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sqorbit ( 3387991 ) on Friday August 17, 2018 @11:00AM (#57144268)
    Why is this bad thing? Do you like the look and feel of an iPhone but don't like iOS, now you have an option. They were obviously very deliberate in creating a phone they thought would attract iPhone fans. Maybe it's because it doesn't cost more since there's no Apple logo on it that people are upset. Every damn SUV out there looks the same now. No one complains when calls Kia shameless when they make their SUVs look like Lexus.

    • Why is this bad thing? Do you like the look and feel of an iPhone but don't like iOS, now you have an option. They were obviously very deliberate in creating a phone they thought would attract iPhone fans. Maybe it's because it doesn't cost more since there's no Apple logo on it that people are upset.

      Every damn SUV out there looks the same now. No one complains when calls Kia shameless when they make their SUVs look like Lexus.

      It might attract SOME iPhone fans... Until they start using it.

  • It's functional. So how many ways are there to efficiently implement a notched screen?

    I'll leave the rounded rectangle part as an exercise for the reader.

    • I'd rather not have the notch, and go for something like the Vivo Nex or the Oppo Find X. Now only if they didn't charge so damn much for them, and only in China / Southeast Asia.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jimbo ( 1370 )

      Well, a large number of notched phones are out now and they all look noticeably different. Notches are wide, narrow, thick, thin, rounded, square, screens are different sizes, bezels differing, etc. etc.

      If you read TFA you'd see that this is not just about rough similarity. It's every detail carefully copied, all the way from the hardware down to the wallpaper style.

  • "egregious clone" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Tailhook ( 98486 ) on Friday August 17, 2018 @11:23AM (#57144450)

    The entire PC / laptop market had its origins in "clones." We used to celebrate this, even as the lawsuits flew every which way. Now we get media hit pieces and angry apple fanbois demanding explanations.

  • don't care one bit how it looks

    i only care how it works

    and considering it runs android... xD

  • Shame died in 2016. RIP.

  • Competitors are falling for Apple's ingenious trap, and building copycat phones with frickin' HOLES in the middle of the SCREEN! Wahahahaha!

  • How dare they create a rectangular device with rounded corners, full screen, and front/rear facing cameras!

  • We are not Samsung. In fact, our latest is called the Y-fone

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