Meizu's Minione: an IPhone Knockoff Attempt

With the iPhone's release less than two months away, the competition is heating up. Sort of, at least. As other cell phone companies release various mp3 phones, the Chinese tech manufacturer Meizu has grand plans to release the miniOne, originally dubbed the M8, the most blatant iPhone rip off yet. At a casual glance, one could not tell the two products apart. Line the iPhone, the miniOne is a large phone almost entirely covered with a touch screen, capable of serving as a cell phone, an mp3 player, and a web browser. Although it runs Windows Mobile rather than Apple's mobile operating system, there is really very little difference between the two products. Funny how that happens.

Meizu originally released plans for the miniOne about a week before Apple announced the iPhone at its annual convention. Upon seeing the iPhone, though, Meizu modified its product slightly, making it a bit smaller and better looking, a bit more like the iPhone. Although not a lot of details about this new product are available yet, it appears the miniOne will have the iPhone beat in a few respects. Its screen, for one, has a resolution of 720 x 480, quite excellent for its size. Its design, too, is attractive, possibly more so than the original, something not often the case with Apple knockoffs.

It is interesting to watch as everyone jumps on the iPhone bandwagon. It seems that since the iPod, a product that was never really answered, that competing technology companies would have learned not to be such lemmings, but apparently this is not the case. Rather than seeing new and different twists on combining a cell phone and an mp3 player, we have instead seen knockoffs like this one and a number of failed attempts to create a fancy mp3 cell phones. Verizon, as well as Samsung, have taken a few stabs at this, with products such as the UpStage and the Chocolate. Both are relatively normal phones, souped up to be able to play mp3s, but not effective mp3 players in their own right. Lacking storage space and battery life, and coming with plans that allow you to download songs at $2.50 a whack, they have failed to catch on.

Assuming Meizu can keep Apple's lawyers off its product, however, it may have created a successful generic iPhone, and done job at knocking off Apple than anyone before. However, there is no question that Apple will still come out far ahead of the competition with its new product, and the entire industry will once again be caught with its pants down.

Sources:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/14/meizu-ceo-we-only-kind-of-knocked-off-the-iphone/

http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4659