While the Apple iPhone is getting a lot of attention, the LG Prada might be a better alternative. Did Apple steal the iPhone concept from Philips?
Shortly after the Apple iPhone was announced, LG electronics, the largest Korean Electronics Manufacturer, announced the Prada which on spec is better than the iPhone and will show up about 4 months sooner and will be more widely available in Europe.
In addition I just became aware of a competing service to iTunes that’s growing like wildfire in schools: Ruckus. With an advertising based model for listening to music off of PCs, and a subscription that allows you to put music on your non-iPod music player, Ruckus costs a reasonable $5 a month for unlimited tracks. Growth is apparently near vertical and from what I’m told; iTunes isn’t even competing for this opportunity.
Finally, right after the iPhone launched there was an iPhone emulator released for the Palm based Treo but Apple’s legal team killed it on a lot of servers. Another programmer created one for the Microsoft Mobile platform and it too was removed after challenge. Given that Apple copied Xerox (another good reference site) and swiped the name for the phone itself we probably should chat a bit about the irony of this and point out that on the web, euthanizing an idea can be incredibly difficult.
iPhone vs. LG Prada
Let’s go down the spec list as we understand it. Both phones have touch screens, both phones have powerful brands (Prada is very powerful in Europe), both phones are 2.5G GSM GPRS EDGE phones and both phones will be on the market this year. I can’t resist saying that the Prada name was legally acquired.
Now realize that for the first half of the year there is only one, the Prada and it’s only in Europe for now. If you are on Cingular (now AT&T) or move to Cingular, you can get the iPhone; the Prada is sold unlocked and so should work with any GSM carrier including Cingular, but without a subsidy it costs more out-of-pocket since no plan is attached.
Both phones are so expensive that I think most of us will forgo the pleasure of this kind of phone for now but prices should drop.
I’d still give the Prada the edge because it doesn’t lock you to Cingular, comes from a company who actually has done phones before, has a removable battery and upgradable memory, and comes to market months ahead of its competitor.
Finally, the iPod came to market as a unique product line that remained largely differentiated through most of its life. Thanks to the Prada phone the iPhone isn’t even unique now and because of the power of the carriers, most of which aren’t Cingular, has a massive uphill battle that the iPod didn’t enjoy.
So while the comparison is kind of fun, the real problem the Prada represents for Apple is it showcases that the cell phone industry is much more capable of running against the iPhone than the MP3 player industry was capable of running against the iPod. More importantly, by creating the iPhone, Apple itself started the move from MP3 players to phones for media and may not be the best positioned to benefit from that move.
Ruckus vs. iTunes
Like any dominant product, iTunes (which is near break even for Apple) is at risk from companies that specifically target smaller audiences. Apple lost education with regard to PCs back in the 90s for much the same reason they lost most corporations – an inability to focus on it and products that largely weren’t competitive.
Now they appear to be facing a similar trend with iTunes and Ruckus is moving around them by focusing on addressing the fears that education institutions have with regard to being held liable for student piracy. By providing a legal way for students to get music for free, the institutions can better argue they are moving against piracy and when they block student access to sites known for piracy, can provide legal alternatives (reducing the desire to work around the defenses).
Ruckus uses the most widely licensed Microsoft DRM and while students could burn CDs and then rip them to their iPods, they can more easily directly transfer them to products that use this same DRM which is virtually any other player than the iPod.
As these students leave school, much like it was for the Mac, they are more likely to not want to support Apple and if Ruckus continues to expand, that represents a long term downward trend to both iTunes and the iPod unless Apple moves directly to provide a similar service and address the need that Ruckus is addressing.
Granted this will take several years to develop and probably won’t become pronounced until 2009 or later but this is how a monopoly is typically taken down, by eating away at the fringes and, in this case, drilling holes in the future market by attacking successfully young consumers.
Death to IPhone Clones: Did Apple Clone Philips?
One of the interesting things that didn’t get much coverage was that (given most of the smart phones already on the market have touch screens and will allow you to install 3rd party software) it was only a matter of hours after the iPhone launched that several programmers had released iPhone clone software that would turn a Treo Palm based or Microsoft Mobile based smart phone into something that looked a lot like the iPhone.
Apple’s legal team sent out this note to those that did the emulators and most now are much harder to find. However in thinking about prior art, one of the defenses in situations like this is past design concepts and I couldn’t help but go back to 1998 when Philips appears to have come up with the idea for the iPhone.
Take a look at these pictures of Philips prototypes and ask yourself, did Apple do the Xerox PARC thing again and simply swipe an idea from a company unable to bring it to market themselves?
All of the phones had touch screens, and the most advanced had a roll up color screen allowing a phone with a large screen to fit into your pocket. In another phone, the screen folded in half, once again providing for a much smaller device with a much bigger screen.
This phone folds open to reveal a large screen
The screen folds open to give you plenty of viewing real-estate
Now do recall this was 1998 and all and the roll-up phones were larger than the iPhone but they also were based around the idea of voice command in addition to touch screen and most had build in cameras pointing at the user for video conferencing.
This phone concept was designed for teleconferencing and business purposes
Note that this was long before the iPod or iTunes so these are much more focused on productivity and communications. Also note that one of the most advanced concepts was an AI Concierge who would respond to your every need through a human-like avatar. In many ways, given the technology of the time, the Philips ideas were ahead of the iPhone a decade before it will arrive.
This phone concept uses an AI based avatar to answer your questions
So is the iPhone Apple 2007 – Philips 1998? Look at the pictures and you decide.
Showing 58 comments
RSSRob Enderle is as bias as it comes.
it is a fact that rob enderle is payed by various companies which stand to make profit by his extremely obvious bias reviews
everything he says is joke
How can one man be so wrong so often.
BWAHAHAHA some more!!!!
Find out more about the origins of the Mac from the very people who built it. From software to hardware. www.folklore.org
Whatever Enderle advises, do the opposite.
"Unfortunately the Ruckus service will no longer be provided."
And according to recent news reports, AT&T is the only wireless company in the US that didn't lose money and this is attributed by analysts to the success (worldwide success I might add) to the iPhone.
The Prada phone did finally hit one million worldwide sales after 18 months, but compare that to the "undifferentiated" iPhone which took just 74 days to sell a million and that was in the US of A only.
I hope Enderle doesn't pick his own stocks or we're gonna see a, "Unfortunately the Enderle service will no longer be provided." sign up here soon!
JoeL
Atlanta
Enderle is the biggest troll on the Web (a crown I thought John Dvorak would never relinquish) - yet somehow he manages to make money with his consistently brainless blather. For that coup I must salute him. Companies pay him to consult for them, when in reality he should be paying them for leading them so horribly astray.
Can't wait to see your efforts with Dell music crash and burn, Rob, while you cash your big check.
Yep, stupid like a fox...
iPhone has outperformed the LG Prada everywhere in Europe and Ruckus has just died. iTunes never offered subscriptions, Ruckus-style, and thrives.
Excellent analysis and all my compliments. Said in another way, I envy you for not having a clue and still getting paid.
Regards,
lux
Oh, and be careful that iMac doesn't fall on you, Rob.
Ruckus will take down iTunes by 2009? Umm...
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/06/college-music...
Yet another Enderle fail. I'm constantly amazed by how he's still considered an expert on anything. The guy is just plain awful.
Enter or return = Highlighted action ("Save" in this case)
Escape = Cancel
Apple + D = Don't Save
Escape and Return/Enter work like that in all apps and Apple + the first letter of the action works quite often.
Regarding the iPhone and other bits: What most people seem to get wrong is that the iPhone really isn't anything new. Calling, SMSing, applications, voicemail, etc, etc, etc... all old news. The reason why the iPhone should be brilliant is because of it's inbuilt software AND corresponding computer software (yep, trust me on this one!).
That's why the iPod is great. The iPod itself is good, but it's iTunes, the iTunes store and the way things work that makes it amazing.
If someone wants to make an iPod killer, they'll have to make an iTunes killer. I wish the Zune was... competition is healthy.
And as for some LG Prada v iPhone comparisons... The LG runs Java apps with Flash for its UI. The iPhone runs OS X with cocoa apps and uses Core Animation for its UI. Even if they looked the same (they don't), it's quite a substantial achievement to use full-featured and world leading techs for a handheld device.
There are some things I love about the mac and some things that drive me insane. For example, I hate not having keyboard shortcuts for somethings (or I just havent figured them out yet.)
For example, if you are closing an application like textedit and you have a document you've edited. You get the dialog that asks if you want to Save, Not to Save or to Cancel. Save is hilighted, but I dont know the keyboard shortcuts to the others. In windows you can just hit "S", or "Alt+S" for save, and you have other short cuts for the cancel button.
This is just a small example, but little things like that drive me nuts. I come from using the keyboard 80 - 90% of the time on windows doing daily work to being forced to use the mouse more. I'm sure there are ways to do the same thing on a Mac, I just dont know how. There isnt anything that tells me how.
Anyways, I like my mac for productivity in terms of writing code. I hate it for everything else.
I agree with Smiley on gaming. I am a father of two, and when I have time to play games I like to play PC games. Console games dont do it for me unless it's Guitar Hero -\nn/
I like the look/feel of OS X, but vista is really cool too and I think it's leaps ahead of XP.
In any case, you'll always have two camps.
Back to ontopic: THE PHONE.
I like the look and design of the iPhone. I'm really really curious on battery life. I can't imagine something like that having good battery life, and since you can't replace the battery or carry a second one, it could be a pretty bad situation. Another bad situation is not having the phone open to 3rd party apps? Why not. Lord knows OS X needs all the help it can get at times for 3rd party developers. This could be a big boost to people moving to the mac and developing them.
From what I've seen on how you control the phone, it's damn cool.
You obviously have control issues as you are trying to manipulate the arguement - disregard what I say as rubbish, and regard what you say as "on-topic".
First of all, I am a grown man with a family, so I do not appreciate your patronizing comments.
Secondly, I will agree that we both use computers for different purposes. While you may think that Apple has brought to market products that "people dream of" I can assure you that while you may be dreaming of the Apple, 90%+ of the people out there are dreaming of other things.
How has Apple made the phone you are searching for? Have you tried it yet? You act like you have, so let me ask you a few things:
1)How is the call reception?
2)Has it "crashed" on your yet?
3) How responsive is the touch screen? Does it get smudges on it easily?
4) What is the startup time? Does it take a while to boot up?
5) Are the applications easy to use?
The fact that you are blindly in love with an Apple product that is not out yet, tell me that you are not a reliable source of information for anything. You are clearly a big Apple fan, and a biased one at that.
"Once I had used Mac OS X for a bit and took my head out of Microsoft's A** I started to realize how much Windows held me back."
Well it looks like you have gone from sticking your head up one ass, to sticking it up another...let me know how that works out for you! ;)
(the original poster actually said reliability, not security but I'll allow that to pass for now).
How quiet would Mac users get if there was one single in the wild virus for OS X? All it would take is one. But there isn't. A virus for OS X would cause headlines around the world and create a Windows fanboy hero. So the 97% argument doesn't hold much water.
"I would also argue that most Apple users are not very technical people, you need things to be as simple as possible because of your ignorance."
More likely the opposite: as someone once pointed out to me, every Mac user will have had to use Windows, very few Windows users will have used a Mac. Mac users have made a choice therefore to ignore the mainstream. Is this ignorance?
I've worked with Windows since 3.11, Linux on and off and Macs since System 7: I prefer Macs, that's all there is to it. I look the way the OS works, it makes sense to me. I get more done cause things work more 'obviously' to me.
That's my preference, it's not everybody's. Fine. Whatever. You guys enjoy Vista and I'll look forward to Leopard.
Oh - and Mr Enderle, I have never read such an appallingly-researched article on technology in my life. Your understanding of basic concepts is shocking. The connections you make between unconnected elements of the story are tenuous to say the least. And your historical references are distorted to say the least.
I've worked as a journalist on and off for almost 20 years, and I'd have been ashamed to have an article of mine cause such derision.
RB
I refer you to my earlier post:
"Reliability, mission critical applications that actually work, integrated concepts, improved productivity, passion for our work and of course deadlines are important to Mac users. People with those demands demand a computer that only Apple has thus far provided." ...
Apple is not as reliable as you state. If Apple had the 97% marketshare that Windows had, there would be security issues too ;)
... "The only people saying bad things about Macs are the people who don't use them everyday."
I like Macs, I really do, but they cannot handle everything that I need. I like to game and the Apple systems are not feeding my need.
"If you really care about games them save money and buy a console. Computers are not solely for gaming. Wake up!"
I think you are showing your age here. Maybe you need to remind Dell, HP, VoodooPC, Alienware, Velocity Micro etc about consoles, because apparently gaming on a PC just doesn't make sense to you. I will call Blizzard and the other PC game makers and remind them of this too ;)
You are seriously so blinded by Apple it makes you look crazy.
I would also argue that most Apple users are not very technical people, you need things to be as simple as possible because of your ignorance.
I am not paying $2000 for a machine that I would use for a calendar and iTunes, I am sorry..." -Smiley
I refer you to my earlier post:
"Reliability, mission critical applications that actually work, integrated concepts, improved productivity, passion for our work and of course deadlines are important to Mac users. People with those demands demand a computer that only Apple has thus far provided." ...
... "The only people saying bad things about Macs are the people who don't use them everyday."
If you really care about games them save money and buy a console. Computers are not solely for gaming. Wake up!
Macs are the MOST compatible of any computer I have used. They can run any OS you want and run it well. With OS X, some extra software and it's amazing efficiency you can even do it simultaneously. Have you checked the system requirements to run Vista? Talk about a bloated system. Compare that to Mac OS X. Ultimate requires 40GB of HD space just for the install!!
And I hate to break it to you but there are plenty of Macs below $2000 and 3 of them below $1000. You better get off the couch and learn a bit about the world around you.
To tie this all back to the topic:
When somebody takes inspiration from another's idea and actually improves on it or makes it a real live product shouldn't be sued or harassed. They should be applauded for their innovation. Sitting on technology for the sake of profit is a crime. Consumers, no, the human race has suffered so much from companies being idiotic. Advanced fuel alternatives have been available for decades. Yet car manufactures have sat on the technology for the sake of profits and now they are paying the price with dwindling profits (GM, Ford). Microsoft did the same thing and so have the cellular companies. Obviously this technology was available. But it took a company that likes to "Think Different" to actually implement it. LG should have announced it earlier when they had a chance. But it looks like they were too worried about their melting chocolate.
Can someone give me a valid response please? Smiley's game argument is the most ridiculous I have ever heard.
If you're looking to discredit a device by finding earlier versions of similar devices then there are actually even earlier developments to the idea of a touch sensitive "tab" (palm-sized computing devices) and prototypes and mockups have existed since the late eighties, especially in universities and places like PARC http://www.ubiq.com/parctab/ )
The multi-touch system was also copied off Jeff Han's research ( http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/ ). The idea of contact cards originally was copied off Rolodex. I've worked on audio system navigation and I can tell you that many people have tried (and failed) to convince companies to support a visual navigation system for audio content (visual voicemail as Apple calls it)
These concepts are not new. If Apple is to be faulted for anything, it's for implying that they came up with any of these ideas for the iPhone. That is false and unconscionable.
However, they have assembled them into a package that allows regular consumers to actually use these developments. I work designing interfaces for phones and I'm ecstatic because this may mean that we are now given more freedom to meet and exceed the interface ideas the iPhone is bringing to the table, instead of being constantly forced to copy the same old navigation systems (with shinier icons!) that phones had in the mid nineties.
Rukus doesn't allow you to burn a CD and the Zune is also not supported (since it can't play 'Plays for Sure' music.
Also Rukus won't run on Macs, even using the windows media player.
So what is important then? That I cannot use an Apple at work for lack of support, that I cannot play games because there are few for it?
I am not paying $2000 for a machine that I would use for a calendar and iTunes, I am sorry...
Reliability, mission critical applications that actually work, integrated concepts, improved productivity, passion for our work and of course deadlines are important to Mac users. People with those demands demand a computer that only Apple has thus far provided.
We are only Apple zealots because Microsoft hasn't done what Apple has. No matter what spec or idea you point to, your argument is flawed. This is because no other company has had the ability to give it's customers the quality, security and satisfaction that Apple has.
Microsoft locked in the business buck in the early days and Apple has had to play catch up. Now that people see their computer as more than an extension of their office, Macs are making a profound comeback. I help people everyday switch to a Mac. I switched to a Mac and others like me are posting about it. It is more than just a zealots call. It's a tangible trend. Don't be the last to find out what the fuss is all about.
Take Windows Vista, great concept with absolutely the poorest implementation. Implementation is key and the company that creates the best tool for the job gets my vote every time. It's the same reason that iTunes and iPod has ruled for so long. An easy, complete experience is what consumers demand now. No one wants to fuddle with time consuming jerry rigged solutions. We demand it because are lives are more important than our PC's.
Who wants to bother with unfamiliar and confusing UI's when Apple has the elegant and simple iPhone? It would be like buying a toaster that had a keypad instead of the obviously simple lever. Except the later device would actually achieve the desired amount of toasting whereas the complicated keypad toaster would constantly return bad results and only marginally function if not blow up.
Which one would you buy if you had an unbiased or slanted opinion? The only people saying bad things about Macs are the people who don't use them everyday. Yet the people switching to a Mac and becoming a zealot like me have actually used Windows for quite some time. Why would you trust the review of a person who hasn't even used the product for purposes other than finding the flaws?
Did someone slip LSD in your tea again?
Given that Apple was shown a GUI that Xerox was working on and knew it wouldn't see the light of day, they showed it to Apple. Something that any normal company would never do to protect their IP. Later Xerox attempted to sue Apple. Why? My guess is that they saw that Microsoft was attempting to sue them and figured that they would join the party. Boo hoo for Xerox for all but giving away their GUI idea.
As for the iPhone, are you not aware that Apple owns the trademark iPhone internationally? Cisco had the name iPhone for years and did nothing with it. It wasn't until rumors of Apple creating a phone that made Cisco jump and actually join a product to the name.
I say, we let the lawyers fight over that one and see who wins.
"I follow the lemmings"
I love making fun of Mac users, they make it soooo easy!! LOL
Have fun playing all of those available computer games....
hahah poor suckers!
You know, it might make a bit of sense if your "analysis", "conclusions" and "projections" would include any deep insight, but I'm really having a hard time finding any in your articles. So, there's iTunes and there's some new platform Ruckus, and yes, that's fine! Some people will be happy with iTunes, some will love Ruckus, maybe some will even use both - but what makes you think that either one would be "better" than the other - and how do you measure that? By number of users? I would expect that anyone who calls himself an "analyist" to be aware that one can have a very comfortable place and be very profitable in a niche market. You don't need to be "the biggest" to be the best, kust like Apple is actually a niche player in the PC market place - it's been one for decades. Also, Apple doesn't have to lose in order for Ruckus to win, and vice versa. I really wonder why you are so much into zero-sum thinking. And what really annoys me is that you just seem to be against Apple and are seeking arguments to make your case. That's - excuse me - just cheap, lame and ridiculous...
So, to answer your "iPhone vs.Prada" question: fine, you go buy yourself a Prada phone. That's really cool, seriously. And you'll download songs with Ruckus. Perfect!
Now, what's your point again? "Rob Enderle favors Prada over Apple based on his biased assumptions."? "Rob Enderle wants the world to know he dislikes Apple (but doesn't say why)" ? That's hardly big news - is it?
Regards,
Andreas Pizsa
BTW the name iPaq was created before iPod....coincedence?
I'd point you to the Knowledge Navigator ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Navigator),... a folding screen, avatar-rich, search-assisting system concept that connected wireless over networks even in the middle of a city park. In 1987.
The company that produced the concept videos?
Apple.
Apparently it took Philips nine years to catch on to the idea...
So jealous of Apple, so lonely and sad.
If he didn't exist, you'd have to invent him.
You are addicted to Apple and sound like a moron. Move on please. Your kool-aid is waiting.
Do not ever write again. Whatever little credibility and reputation you had before this editorial was written has since been destroyed.
You are an idiot, and everyone thinks so.
Do you not get what Rob is trying to say? Did you even read the article? Apple is borrowing "concepts" from other manufacturers I.E. Philips....
i dont really understand how they relate at all to the iPhone. ...are they coming to market? are there even working prototypes? ...do they have ANYTHING in common with the iPhone other than just that they are neato handheld devices?
Saying that the iPhone copied these concepts is about as sensical as saying that Apple copied Star Trek because they had pretend handheld thingies that could do stuff.
You know, if you're this desperate for page impressions that you're willing to just troll - you could probably just poop in your hand and smear it on your face, make a video of it and put it on youtube. That'd probably get even more hits.
...i bet people would actually pay to see that. It'll be just about as good for your "tech reputation" as these articles are.
That guy that runs Daring Fireball is a moron btw.
Well, Rob in the third sentence of your third paragraph you write: "Given that Apple copied Xerox..." This is directly following statements from you about emulators - software imitating the UIs from other companies. UIs are software. The "Apple copied Xerox" statement logically seems to be a continuation of this argument. So...anyone would be right in deducing that you are saying "Apple copied Xerox software."
Quit your backpedalling, Rob. You're bumping into the wall.
I really laughed out loud.
Don't listen to all these Apple Fans, they just don't understand that you're far from a Tech journalist, your a comedy writer. They just have to understand that you're not an expert on anything technical.. then they can appreciate your satire.
Loads up the credibility points there Rob. If you can't differentiate between an emulator and a visual theme I think we can ignore the later comparison of the Phillips concept versus the iPhone... oh wait, we can ignore that anyway since it is obviously ridiculous.
Most college students I know have Macintosh computers--they've got a much higher share on college campuses than generally. And every college student I know except one has one or more iPods. If Ruckus won't play on an iPod, supporting the few Plays-for-Sure players that are out there won't make much of a difference.
A few years back you went on and on about how iPod was going to get killed by Plays-for-Sure and it's vast choice of players. But you choose to ignore that people do choose: they choose iPods and choose to ignore the other Plays-for-Sure.
And the Philips thing looks more like a hotpad made in a 3rd grade crafts class than a phone.
Those Philips things are not prototypes - they are fake mock ups. How on Earth is that folding screen supposed to work? Did they file a patent for the technology to make that folding screen that has no fold crease visible?
No, none of the ideas in the iPhone are necessarily unique to it. There've been a bunch of people playing with multi-touch interfaces lately, and people kicking around the ideas. The iPhone is the first device to bring that out of the lab.
Is the Prada phone going to feature a multi-touch interface that lets you pinch and squeeze images to scale them? Is it going to have an IM-style interface to your SMSs? Or will it be the exact same awkward, finicky, twiddly UI that every other phone has? I wouldn't hold my breath; I've never seen anyone praising LG's UI.
Here is a link to a newer Philips Rollup screen: http://media.digitaltrends.com/digitaltrends/ces_2... using E-ink.
I think the point here is that the iPhone is nothing revolutionary - it's borrowing concepts and making them better.
And for the idiot Apple zealots, there are captions under the pictures explaining what they are...
Regarding iPhone, time will tell. I think it will be wildly successful regardless of what the critics are saying now.
Also, I'm not paying for a subscription based music service and I don't know anyone else who is either. Maybe this appeals to the college-age crowd, but I don't think the business model will prove to viable in the end.
Yes
References:
http://aroundcny.com/technofile/texts/the2steves92...
http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/bsdi/920526....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_v._Microsoft
http://www.stanford.edu/~siegman/interface_history...
http://www.answers.com/topic/apple-computer-inc-v-...