A useful graphic for gadget bloggers

It is often the case, these days, that any given item of consumer electronics will bear a striking resemblance to the popular designs of the segment's market leader. This has led to a certain degree of ennui over the matter: pointing it out every time turns every post into a referendum on Apple, is boring, and so is now increasingly omitted. Others, however, think that derivative design must always be pointed out at risk of doing a disservice to readers: surely it is news, that, in 2012, HP cannot design its way out of a translucent vinyl drawstring bag.

To help matters, I've created this simple graphic. A transparent PNG, it may be overlaid over product shots or coverage to make matters clear without needless ado. You're welcome!

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Brainspore

But the leaf is facing the wrong… ohhh.
jerwin

I recall seeing the HP z1 being compared to the iMac– both were designed to be rather fast all in one computers, and both have roughly the same form factor.

But, the HPZ1 can be opened. And it looks like it was cleverly designed to be easy to upgrade. No soft towel is required. That’s a real difference.
- http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza
  
  I LOVE the Z1′s design. It’s not imitative of iMac specifics at all, IMO, and is a serious beast. But it is kind of bland for the popular market, I guess.
  - http://theladyfingers.blogspot.com/ Ladyfingers
    
    Design-wise, I think they could have give the bezel square corners, but it is a nice device.
    
    I still like Dell’s monitor designs circa 2008 most of all.
- arikol
  
  Wow, I hadn’t seen that one before. Nice!
  I really don’t think that is in ANY way an iMac ripoff: it’s just a really well done all-in-one machine. I HAVE an iMac and can be a bit of an apple apologist, but I only see cleverness in this design.
  An all-in-one is always going to have the screen and guts stuck together, which dictates the general form factor (monitor with a motherboard and stuff stuck to the back), but HP have done something here that shows that they actually do have clever engineers who can think for themselves.
scatterfingers

I hate that everyone copies Apple… because I don’t particularly like the look of most of Apple’s products.

I wish someone, anyone, was design-focused IN A DIFFERENT DIRECTION so we can all have nice things that don’t look like everyone else’s nice things.
- http://theladyfingers.blogspot.com/ Ladyfingers
  
  Apple stuff always looks too… I dunno, soft to me. I like nice hard lines and more aggressive detailing like vents and things.
TheKaz1969

can you make one for cars? I’ve noticed a lot of them seem to have the same general shape…
- http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki
  
  All those car companies are a bunch of thieves, everyone knows Ford invented the door handle, black car paint and beveled edges.
signsofrain

Meh, the evidence of Apple ‘copying’ most bloggers use is flimsy. “Oh it’s rectangular and has a touchscreen and it’s black in front – RIPOFF” “OMG it runs apps!” “They call them apps! Apple owns that word!”

Let’s all face it together, Apple has a reputation for innovation but they’ve done only 2 things that could really be considered innovative. The first was popularizing microcomputers – this is huge and you can make convincing arguments that they are one of the big factors responsible for the direction technology has taken over the past few decades, the other was form factors. Pre-iMac computers, including macs, were largely grey boxes. Apple changed all that. Now, you can call the products that came after “ripoffs” or instead you can say that people saw the great ideas Apple had (many of them, arguably, inevitable ideas) and expanded and elaborated on them. They weren’t the first mass storage mp3 player, they weren’t the first smartphone, they weren’t the first touch screen… they might have been the first to make a serious commitment to industrial design but I don’t really think they deserve accolades for that since, as @boingboing-721dbd458682f3503110a79406ebf37e:disqus rightly points out, it has made their computers (and mobile devices) more disposable than comparable products that can be serviced/expanded by users.

Basically, Apple deserves a lot of love, but not as much as they get, and their reputation for originality is a throwback to the 80s, some parts of the 90s, and the early 2000s and is no longer deserved today.
- xzzy
  
  I think that’s selling Apple short. Pretty much everything they’ve produced in the past 15 years has basically been a “print money” button for them.
  
  I’ll grant it’s not worth debating who came up with what first, the whole industry is pretty incestuous, but it’s hard to argue Apple has been selling stuff people crave better than anyone else. The meticulously designed “experience” they sell draws in customers and keeps them customers.
  
  I assume the ‘We Know’ icon is basically admitting that in png form, and is appealing readers to stop babbling about it.
timquinn

Watch the thread become what it was not supposed to. Nice try Rob.
- Brainspore
  
  Rob’s mistake was forgetting to label this post’s central image with a graphic designed to stave off the boorish “copying apple” discussion. If only the post appeared thusly:
- morcheeba
  
  Your prophecy came true :-(. And so far it’s by people who don’t have a grasp of trademark issues, either.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003062665890 Garrett Lishus

We noze, we noze….
timquinn

everyone said, man cell phones suck, we need something better. Apple says how about this? everyone replies, Hey, I thought of that first.
amuseamuse

replace the apple with the Xerox PARC logo and maybe you’ll have something.
- timquinn
  
  canard
  - amuseamuse
    
    airfoil?
http://twitter.com/erg79 Evan G.

One could also go about one’s life without trying to worry to much about personal electronics.
- chaopoiesis
  
  I have a deep emotional commitment to my device – anyone who impugns its honor shall be avenged sevenfold.
http://www.golfblogger.com/ John Retzer

You need one to paste on Apple products that features a Braun logo. And another for Xerox.
http://twitter.com/the_damned_fool the damned fool

Still the goal of imitation should be to improve upon the original. One example is of an all-in-one system Gateway built in order to compete with the G4 “Sunflower” iMac (aka “the iLamp”) in the early 2000′s.

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/Gateway_TV_Ad_Features_iMac_With_Its_PC_Mimicking_iMac_Movements/The Stanford Research Institute developed ideas which preceded Xerox PARC, which developed the GUI, which Steve Jobs took, and which M$ co-opted. The saga continues.
- jerwin
  
  here is a review of a Gateway Profile 4
  
  It looks rather ungainly, especially from the side.
  - Aeron
    
    It looks more like the 20th Anniversary Mac than the iLamp. Which is my funny way of saying it doesn’t look like either one.
pjcamp

Can we use it on Apple products too? Cuz, you know, PARC + Prada = . . .
http://twitter.com/zpaolo Paolo Zago

I still think that if you look at the _design_ of the Spectre and not at the aesthetics, it is really quite different from the iMac. Derivative? Maybe, but then it’s derivative from a monitor, being an AIO ;D Blatant ripoff? I don’t think so, actually in some ways it’s an improvement: heavier base makes it less top-heavy, if only they did it in another color…
angrygoldfish

I used to enjoy debating all this stuff, and would once have heartily taken up Apple’s case — “its industrial design isn’t obvious or inevitable; the iPod really was a game-changer because X, Y, Z; they didn’t steal anything from Xerox, they licensed it” etc. etc. etc. ad infinitum ad nauseam.

But about two years ago, when it became obvious that Apple was not only not “beleaguered” anymore but well on its way to world domination, I decided Apple doesn’t need yet another advocate/evangelist/shill. So I just stopped getting into these pissing matches (until now, but this is meant to be a meta-commentary on the wars, not an actual salvo).

And what a joy that decision has proven to be. Sure, I’ve had the odd chuckle over HP’s latest laptop design, but abstaining from the flamewars (= debate in which *everyone* is convinced they are right and everyone who disagrees an idiot) has been a wonderful time-and-energy saver, almost as fabulous as turning off the TV.

Highly recommended.