Apple not impressed with copycats as design chief Jony Ive delivers a blow to Xiaomi
Apple is not flattered by smartphone firms allegedly ripping off its designs, according to design chief Jony Ive.
Speaking at the Vanity Fair New Establishment summit, Ive took a swipe at rapidly expanding Chinese firm Xiaomi in particular for copying Apple designs, according to Buzzfeed.
In response to a question asking him if he was flattered by the copycats, Ive said: “I think it is really straightforward, it is theft and it is lazy. I don’t think it is ok at all.”
“I’ll stand a little bit harsh; I don’t see it as flattery. When you’re doing something for the first time, you don’t know it’s going to work. You spend seven or eight years working on something, and then it’s copied.”
Ive added: “I have to be honest, the first thing I can think, all those weekends that I could have at home with my family but didn’t.”
Xiaomi have developed into a major international smartphone firm, recently dethroning Samsung as China’s most widely used smartphone. It accounts for over a third of devices shipped in the first half of 2014 worldwide with, what Ive alleges, Apple designs.
This is despite the firm only being three years old, employing as little as 3,000 staff.
Of course, Apple itself has been accused of plagiarism in the past with alternative band OK GO claiming its music video ‘Perspective’ was ripped off for the iPhone 6 launch event in China.