Gateway's new iMac ripoff
<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0208050018aug05.story?coll=chi-technology-hed" target="_blank">http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0208050018aug05.story?coll=chi-technology-hed</a>
[quote]iMac look-alike may be Gateway to lawsuits
James Coates
Published August 5, 2002
Look for a marketing blitz in late August as PC-maker Gateway Inc. launches the Profile 4 PC, a look-alike competitor to Apple Computer Inc.'s incredibly successful new iMac.
Sleek and ultramodern, the new Gateway is designed to incorporate the entire computer, monitor and sound system in a chunk of space no bigger than a 15-inch monitor.
The would-be iMac killer, which is still under wraps, will come with a choice of 15- or 17-inch LCD flat-panel screens attached to a small base station holding the Pentium 4 or Celeron chips inside. Users can add peripherals by way of FireWire-type high-speed ports, USB plugs and a laptop-style PC Card connection, all designed to handle printers, video cameras, digital cameras, MP3 players and such.
This marks the first time in a long while that PC buyers could pick a product with all those one-box iMac features at prices expected to run between just less than $1,000 to about $1,700. Now we will wait to see if Apple's lawyers will sue Gateway as they sued eMachines Inc. three years ago when that far-smaller company offered an all-in-one competitor to the early iMacs.<hr></blockquote>
Normally I don't quote so extensively, but the Tribune makes you register and take a polygraph before you can read the news, so I thought I'd take one for the team.
Sorry, no pics as of yet.
Should be fun to see Apple decide whether to sue or not. Afterall, Gateway isn't just a small company that Apple can intimidate with the Apple Legal Goon Squad.
google search turns up these related articles:
<a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1040-855959.html" target="_blank">http://news.com.com/2100-1040-855959.html</a>
<a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1040-940443.html" target="_blank">http://news.com.com/2100-1040-940443.html</a>
Jet
[ 08-05-2002: Message edited by: Jet Powers ]</p>
[quote]iMac look-alike may be Gateway to lawsuits
James Coates
Published August 5, 2002
Look for a marketing blitz in late August as PC-maker Gateway Inc. launches the Profile 4 PC, a look-alike competitor to Apple Computer Inc.'s incredibly successful new iMac.
Sleek and ultramodern, the new Gateway is designed to incorporate the entire computer, monitor and sound system in a chunk of space no bigger than a 15-inch monitor.
The would-be iMac killer, which is still under wraps, will come with a choice of 15- or 17-inch LCD flat-panel screens attached to a small base station holding the Pentium 4 or Celeron chips inside. Users can add peripherals by way of FireWire-type high-speed ports, USB plugs and a laptop-style PC Card connection, all designed to handle printers, video cameras, digital cameras, MP3 players and such.
This marks the first time in a long while that PC buyers could pick a product with all those one-box iMac features at prices expected to run between just less than $1,000 to about $1,700. Now we will wait to see if Apple's lawyers will sue Gateway as they sued eMachines Inc. three years ago when that far-smaller company offered an all-in-one competitor to the early iMacs.<hr></blockquote>
Normally I don't quote so extensively, but the Tribune makes you register and take a polygraph before you can read the news, so I thought I'd take one for the team.
Sorry, no pics as of yet.
Should be fun to see Apple decide whether to sue or not. Afterall, Gateway isn't just a small company that Apple can intimidate with the Apple Legal Goon Squad.
google search turns up these related articles:
<a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1040-855959.html" target="_blank">http://news.com.com/2100-1040-855959.html</a>
<a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1040-940443.html" target="_blank">http://news.com.com/2100-1040-940443.html</a>
Jet
[ 08-05-2002: Message edited by: Jet Powers ]</p>
Comments
How many new Cancer drugs do you think Merck would make if another company could just go buy a bottle of the crap when it came out, copy the ingredients, and sell it themselves for much less. The prices are high because of the research and development, it is very expensive, but not for the people ripping off the idea.
People with helpful and desirable ideas sould be able to benefit from them without vultures stealing their rewards.
<strong>Putting my Mac love aside...I think Mac should sue, they have a shit load of money invested in the R&D for the iMac and if people are allowed to coma along and rip off other's ideas it will cause a quick drop in innovation. What is the point of spending a lot of money coming up with a product if another company can just use the idea after investing nothing. That is the reason they can sell it for $1000, they have no R&D to make back...Apple did it all for them.
How many new Cancer drugs do you think Merck would make if another company could just go buy a bottle of the crap when it came out, copy the ingredients, and sell it themselves for much less. The prices are high because of the research and development, it is very expensive, but not for the people ripping off the idea.
People with helpful and desirable ideas sould be able to benefit from them without vultures stealing their rewards.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Dude, design is totally NOT copyrightable.
What if Chrysler got sued by Ford for using four wheels?
What if Microsoft got sued for stealing the 'look' of MacOS?
The fact that eMachines stopped had nothing to do with the legality of the ePC (or whatever they called it); it had everything to do with whther they thought they could fight Apple in court.
Gateway can and will (if neccessary; I doubt Apple will sue) defend themselves.
FWIW, good design is rare; I guarantee that the Profile 4 will suck precisely because it is a knock-off.
Just like the eMac.
Jet
[ 08-05-2002: Message edited by: Jet Powers ]</p>
I really doubt Gateway would design an iLamp..
And just because Apple just recently began selling LCD-imacs, doesnt mean they could sue other computermakers for also selling LCD computers. After all, Gateway had LCD-AIO before the new iMac.
<a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1040-247809.html" target="_blank">http://news.com.com/2100-1040-247809.html</a>
And the new gateway model doesnt need to be a direct rip off, just because some journalist choose to use that word.
The guts are on the back of the LCD, it's not very manueverable at all like the iMac. It is kinda cool how much crap it has (PC Card, 6 USB 2, Firewire, etc). It sits on a funky stand that is removeable (you can mount it on on a table so that it doesn't even sit on the table, giving you ample room on your desk). The LCD was remarkably bright (better than the 15" LCD iMacs I've seen so far). But it was preproduction, so maybe the finished one won't be as impressive. All black...
The Celeron model must be a joke...the one we had was using a P4 and seemed OK with XP.
Oh yeah, floppy drive mounted on the front. Only expansion is USB/Firewire and a laptop style PC Card slot on back.
All in all, I thought it looked pretty good for a PC but historically these AIO's do pretty poorly in Windows land b/c people really need those empty PCI slots sitting there.... <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
[ 08-05-2002: Message edited by: Patchouli ]</p>
<strong>Dude, design is totally NOT copyrightable.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Off topic:
Slight correction: design is copyrightable. Every time I put pencil to paper, the drawing is copyrighted under US law. What can't be copyrighted is an idea. The idea of an all-in-one computer can't be copyrighted. The specific design of the iMac is. As you can imagine, there is a huge gray area in between.
[ 08-05-2002: Message edited by: BuonRotto ]</p>
<strong>Dude, design is totally NOT copyrightable.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Last time eMachines got embroiled in a suit with Apple, a lot of information came to the surface regarding one's ability to defend a unique design. Gucci, for example, had a unique 'G' watch that was copied. They sued, and won.
[quote]What if Microsoft got sued for stealing the 'look' of MacOS?<hr></blockquote>
They did.
By the way, I won't be surprised if the Profile 4 looks more like the Profile 3 than like the iMac. The "iMac competition" hype is probably just so they could get the attention they so badly need.
Gateway doesn't really copy any ones style when it comes to commercials. Out of DELL and Compaq I find Gateway to have hte best advertising.
<strong>
They did.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
And Apple got beat like a rented mule in court.
That's my point: You can'tcopyright a design idea.
Thanks for the clarification BuonRotto.
Jet
<strong>That's my point: You can'tcopyright a design idea.</strong><hr></blockquote>
If you were entirely correct, then eMachines and Future Power would have buckled long before the injunctions that were issued against them (based on the assertion that they lost because they didn't have the resources to win in court).
Just for sake of argument..
[quote]Trade dress is protectable as an unregistered trademark and is a subset of trademark law and principles; it is designed to ensure that a product or service's shape, appearance, color, packaging or even sales techniques are not copied by a competing product. In the past, trade dress has been used by an ironing-board maker to prevent competitors from duplicating its distinctive green color and by Ferrari to block the production of "replicars" that mimicked the shape of that company's distinctive cars.
A company filing a complaint of trade-dress violation must demonstrate two things. First, it must prove that its trade dress is distinctive and linked to the product's source in the mind of consumers. Second, it must show that the competing product, by using the first company's trade dress, will likely confuse customers into thinking that the competing company is affiliated with the first company or that the competing goods are in some way approved by it.<hr></blockquote>
<a href="http://zdnet.com.com/2100-11-519084.html?legacy=zdnn" target="_blank">http://zdnet.com.com/2100-11-519084.html?legacy=zdnn</a>
However, I'm afraid I might be getting ahead of myself here. Like I said, I'd be surprised if the Profile 4 actually looks more like the iMac than the Profile 3.
<strong>
And Apple got beat like a rented mule in court.
Jet</strong><hr></blockquote>
They lost because of contracts they signed with M$ which compromised their arguement.
Apple sent M$ back to the drawing board, when XP's Luna, was looking a little too close to Aqua.
On another note, someone mentioned how Gateway wasn't as small as eMachines, and could accept a court challenge. Well, Gateway is hurting pretty bad right now, and I'm sure isn't willing to throw millions into a trial.
They stole more than just the look. Of course Apple stole from Xerox
Design is not copyrightable my EYE. Now, monopolies like M$ with more money than small countries, can afford to have OJ Simpson like lawyers. *Cough* Windows XP... Ever seen that cartoon where Bill is opening a MacOS 8 box, saying "Excellent, we can start work on Windows 98 now!" Hehe.
But saying copying Ford by putting 4 wheels on a car is an incorrect analogy. M$ copied more Apple more deeply, but since they're rich Apple has no recourse. Now, *licks lips* Gateway computer... They're dead, first. Dell will crush them like a bug. Apple might be bigger. And I haven't seen the Profile 4 or whatever, but if it resembles an iMac 2 too much then they might lose in court. Yay the beginning of the end for Gateway! And is it just me or do those Gateway Solo laptops flying aroud in space on those dumb commercials look like iBooks with the Gateway logo where the Apple should be? <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />
Bye Gateway. <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />
Wow, that post was a lot of random thoughts not strung together very well: sorry
Oh yeah, floppy drive mounted on the front. Only expansion is USB/Firewire and a laptop style PC Card slot on back.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
How funny! Will they ever leave the floppy behind? Picture if you will a new 2003 slick silver hotrod car, but with a crankshaft from 1927 on the front! Don't PC companies realize that they cant make a "futuristic" computer with a freakin' floppy drive stinkin' up the joint!