So Apple is Copying Now, is It?

Something I saw this morning really got to me, and I feel I have to express my feelings on this. After Apple's WWDC keynote yesterday where they announced the new Mac OSX Lion, iOS 5 and iCloud (for the keynote see here), a whole host of people were accusing Apple of "copying", especially with regards to a new feature in iOS 5 called iMessaging.

I will totally admit that they took used BBM (Blackberry Messenger) as inspiration, however to say they copied it right off the bat is ridiculous. I have never used BBM, but accusing Apple of copying before the feature has even been released is crazy. Who knows, most likely, Apple have innovated, i.e made it better and improved it by looking at BBM and removing any problems.

I've said this before, there is a massive difference between COPYING and INNOVATING. The former is simply redoing another person's work without changing anything or even making it worse (official dictionary definitionan imitation or reproduction of an original). INNOVATING is either building up a concept or idea from scratch or taking a product or service and making it much better (official dictionary definition something new or different introduced).

OK, so let's say that it turns out somehow that Apple's iMessaging brings nothing new to the market and is a pure copy of BBM (which it most likely won't be, judging by the keynote). In the scale of things, it is NOTHING.

Apple released the iPhone in 2007. Android became available in 2008. Android was technically "copying". They created a less responsive and much more confusing OS for smartphones (at the time, now it is much better). Just as all the other companies "copied" the iPhone hardware. Mac OS X first released in 2001, Windows 7 first released in 2009. Exactly the same layout, as seen here, which one looks better to a neutral? I would assume the one on the left. So Windows are technically "copying".

It is also worth pointing out two very interesting things that two popular Youtubers have said. Soldierknowsbest yesterday pointed out that when the iPhone doesn't have such things as iMessaging, it gets heavily criticised for not having it, but when it does eventually get the feature, everybody says Apple are "copying". Couldn't be more accurate. Apple haters are totally contradicting themselves: make your mind up, what do you want? Apple to not have it, so that they don't "copy", or that Apple have it, but then that would be "copying".

The other Youtuber, WilsonTech1 also said something very true and accurate. In a discussion with Chris Pirillo a while back, he pointed out that a lot Windows users/Mac haters don't want to use Macs as they are scared that they will actually like it. Makes total sense. It is also worth noting that WilsonTech1 used to be totally against Apple, but he got Mac and as far as I can see by watching his videos, he's not regretting it. This point can therefore also be applied to the smartphone OS battle.

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Comments

[Ty Carlson]

Don't forget about Apple's new notifications system which looks almost exactly like android.