Chinese GooPhone Threatens iPhone 5 Ban In China

It's an interesting turn of tables. A Chinese manufacturer has managed to release a phone named GooPhone i5 which, according to 'Cult of Mac', is rip-off of 'upcoming' iPhone 5. There are many interesting aspects of this story. First of all it is reportedly what the next iPhone 5 will look like. So some Chinese manufacturer are able to bring a product to the market before Apple could! Wow!

We don't know if this is what the iPhone 5 will look like and personally I don't care as incompetent Apple's attitude towards competition (from the early days) has left me with no respect or desire for their products. What I do care to see is how many Android features will the iPhone 5 copy. I will be curious if Siri, the toy, be on par with all-business Google Voice Search? How good will be Apple's own maps (isn't Apple stealing the idea of Maps from Google?) instead of amazing Google maps? I don't care about iPhone 5 because iOS has already become a second class product when compared with Android.

Coming back to GooPhone, the most interesting aspect is the makers of the phone have patented the design in China and threatened to sue Apple if they copied this patented design.

I don't take any of this seriously; I think it's a big joke to get some media attention. But it does make a point. Patent designs such as rounded corners are ridiculous and should not be granted or used by incompetent companies as weapons to block competitors.

Apple has patented every stupid aspect possible and is now using them to block competition. Now Apple has (it has always had the same attitude towards competition, just like Microsoft) become an offender using stupid patents to block competitors.

On a funny note I will look forward to iPhone 5 ban in China. Shouldn't Chinese give Apple a taste of it's own bitter pill? Maybe it will force Apple to rethink its patent strategy and instead of getting lawyers to fight it out in courts, it will fight it out in the market with 'better' products.