September 21st, 2006
Sony rips off MacBook design
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but Sony may have taken this one a little too far. The consumer electronic giant’s latest notebook looks like a blatant ripoff of Apple’s wildly popular MacBook.
The VAIO N10-Series is for everyone who wants a practical, general purpose notebook for use at home or as a student. It represents excellent usability without frills, but – and this is key – it remains very much a VAIO at heart. One look at the clean, classic design makes that clear.
MacDailyNews posted a story about Sony’s new shockingly derivative notebooks:
We did a genuine "Grade A" double-take when we first saw the press release images. Right down to the chiclet keyboard, no less! When companies do this, it really draws attention to their lack of original ideas and their inability to innovate. See Microsoft’s Windows Vista, for example: It’s Windows XP dressed up to fool the general public that it’s "just like Apple’s Mac OS X." Now poor Sony with this OS-limited, can’t-run-Mac OS X-but-obviously-wishes-it-could, knock-off spawn of a MacBook Pro and a MacBook.
I know that Sony designed the original PowerBook 100 for Apple, but that’s no excuse for this type of flagrant plagiarism. We’ve come to expect iPod clones from no-name hacks, but to see this from Sony is just sad. Jonathan Ive and the Apple design team must be having fits over it. Steve Jobs to legal team "Release the hounds!"
Sony’s press release and images can be found on their European site.
Do you think that Apple will/should sue?
Jason D. O'Grady is the editor of PowerPage.org, which has been publishing daily mobile technology news since December 1995. For disclosures on Jason's industry affiliations, click here or to view Jason's full profile click here.
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| 09/21/06
