Salvatore Iovene

I can read, basi­cally every other day, some web­site going nuts about some iPhone clone. Just few min­utes ago I read about the nVidia GoForce 6100, and googling for “iPhone clone” really con­firms the fuss. Well, the truth is that the iPhone actu­ally is the one com­ing late, pos­si­bly the cloner, rather than the cloned.

I’m not work­ing at Apple Inc., but, being a soft­ware devel­oper and hap­pen­ing to have also worked for a while in the devel­op­ment process of a high tech device, I know, as many oth­ers, that the process that leads to the birth of a com­pli­cated gad­get like the iPhone, takes years.

Digg.com has gone com­pletely crazy about the sub­ject. A Google Search about that sub­ject on Digg, returns 5520 results.

Given that Apple Inc. will release the iPhone only next Fall, and that there are many devices already out there, which have been yelled at as mere “clones” (absolutely dis­re­spect­fully, IMHO), how can you peo­ple abuse the term so much? I’m assum­ing that noth­ing really seri­ous leaked from Apple, so the com­peti­tors didn’t just rush to make their own touch screen phones. The truth is that the tech­nol­ogy started to be ready, and the mar­ket started to be ready too, at the same time. Some peo­ple missed the oppor­tu­nity and couldn’t even accept it, some other real­ized the chance and went for it.

I hope that the abuse of the word “clone” will cease to exist, and that, from now on, every­body will just talk about “another touch screen phone”.

Here’s a photo-list of alleged “iPhone clones” so far.

Samsung’s Ultra Smart F700	Asus Aura
Meizu M8	LG KE850