China's Smartisan says Apple has 'lost its soul' in pitch for new smartphone
Known for treating product launches as variety shows, even selling tickets to such events, Chinese device maker Smartisan cast doubt on Apple's prospects in recently announcing its new R1 smartphone in front of a crowd of about 37,000 people.
The goal is to "make Smartisan a great company like in the [Apple] era of [Steve] Jobs," founder Luo Yonghao said at the May 15 event, which occupied the 80,000-seat National Stadium in Beijing, according to the South China Morning Post. Luo argued that Apple has "lost its soul" since Jobs' death in 2011, in turn resulting in the decline of its designs and performance.
He further claimed that Apple would copy Smartisan "like crazy" after the launch of the Android-based R1, which has up to 1 terabyte of storage. Available alongside it is the TNT Station, a 27-inch 4K display which the R1 docks with to make it an Android-based desktop.
Many smartphone makers -- Chinese or otherwise -- often target Apple's iPhone in their marketing and designs, but it's relatively uncommon for them to simultaneously praise and damn the company, much less in front an audience of tens of thousands.
The most prominent company to chase Apple is typically Korean multinational Samsung. The two companies regularly leapfrog each other in features, but the latter is known for ads directly referring to Apple. One recent spot depicts a woman becoming frustrated with her throttled iPhone 6, visiting an Apple store, and eventually buying a Samsung Galaxy S9 instead.
The goal is to "make Smartisan a great company like in the [Apple] era of [Steve] Jobs," founder Luo Yonghao said at the May 15 event, which occupied the 80,000-seat National Stadium in Beijing, according to the South China Morning Post. Luo argued that Apple has "lost its soul" since Jobs' death in 2011, in turn resulting in the decline of its designs and performance.
He further claimed that Apple would copy Smartisan "like crazy" after the launch of the Android-based R1, which has up to 1 terabyte of storage. Available alongside it is the TNT Station, a 27-inch 4K display which the R1 docks with to make it an Android-based desktop.
Many smartphone makers -- Chinese or otherwise -- often target Apple's iPhone in their marketing and designs, but it's relatively uncommon for them to simultaneously praise and damn the company, much less in front an audience of tens of thousands.
The most prominent company to chase Apple is typically Korean multinational Samsung. The two companies regularly leapfrog each other in features, but the latter is known for ads directly referring to Apple. One recent spot depicts a woman becoming frustrated with her throttled iPhone 6, visiting an Apple store, and eventually buying a Samsung Galaxy S9 instead.
Comments
That said—and even though Apple already includes two UIs in every iPhone (CocoaTouch and CarPlay)—I don't see auto-switching between iOS and macOS UIs when docked on the horizon. I don't even see Apple using the same silicon for the iOS devices for their ARM-based Macs.
They have the numbers guy, the have some designers and capable engineers, they have a good marketing team.
They are missing the visionary.
Tim needs to move to CFO and get a young visionary at the head of the Apple - before they deplete the iOS device innovation revolution that Steve set up for them.
Get rid of Ives. I used to like his work, but his time has passed.
I'm sorry but Motorola Atrix Android phone had the ability dock and drive a large monitor and Bluetooth keyboard, guess what, it did not sell all that well.
I do not think Apple is going to copy your stupid idea.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QglG0oylcQk#
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=no6Lcm7VpJA#
(wait for it...)
(wait for it...)
but, <insert hot take>
"Apple is in a general state of decline in terms of their ability to innovate"... "Yeah having a biometric authentication method that’s 2 years ahead of your competitor is wonderful."
So:
- Face ID, which no competitor has managed to match.
- A-series processors, created in-house, and beating every other smartphone chip out there.
- First with 64-bit processors in a phone.
- The latest version of iOS is supported on devices four, maybe five years old. Where's the competition?
- iPad beating every other tablet out there in both hardware and software.
- Apple Watch beating all other smartwatches.
- HomePod has the best speaker array in a "smart speaker" (Siri is software, and will be improved).
- macOS is still much easier and better to use than Windows and Linux.
- Handoff, Continuity...
These are innovations.