The obsession of some Asian technology brands with Apple is well known. While long ago they focused on copying or imitating apple products, in recent times have chosen to copy another of their products: las keynotes. Huawei, OnePlus, Xiaomi, and to a lesser extent Samsung are among the companies taking a step forward in their quest to resemble the California company.
Some summary sheets impossible to do otherwise
Apple is a company that takes great care of its keynotes. Until we can consider them company products, in which it dumps resources, people, dedication and the valuable time of its executives, who spend weeks to rehearse their part. Hence, with the passage of time, I will perfect each relevant aspect of them. One of the last to improve has been those summary sheets that Apple makes when it finishes presenting a new product. To see the evolution, just look at two examples:
Here we see at the top a fragment of the 2018 keynote where Jeff Williams, COO of the company and responsible for Apple Watch, appears, making a summary of the novelties of the Apple Watch Series 4. In the image you can see an Apple watch in gold steel, showing the new design and three blocks of improvements that come out successively. It is effective, but it lacks strength.
Everything changes in September 2019, as shown by the lower part in which Phil Schiller appears. Here, the Apple executive shows the qualities of the iPhone 11 screen through a novel format. We have the new way of presenting that summary-sheet of a product, using a much more visual tile system. With the key functions in a box in the center and larger, according to their importance. The rest of the “minor” functions make up a constellation at the edges. The result is far superior: at a glance and depending on the size, whoever sees these tiles knows exactly what the highlight is.
With the passage of keynotes, Apple also refines its message and the way it is conveyed
These tokens play a double role. Not only do they help summarize a product and focus on what the brand wants, but they they also serve for those journalists who follow the keynote live. The speed at which news is released live is hellish and it’s often hard to keep up. So these cards, placed for a few seconds at the end of the section, help media like Applesfera to registrar all improvements.
In addition to R&D, Apple is the marketing agency for half the technological world
That this way of presenting a product is superior to what was done before should not escape anyone. It certainly hasn’t. some of the traditional Apple copyists. In a compilation started by our partner Antonio SabánWe see how Huawei, OnePlus, Xiaomi and also Samsung have copied Apple’s way of making presentations. Just look at the following examples:
The evolution in the way of presenting the news of OnePlus is amazing. Go from listing that could have been made by a PowerPoint novice to generating a mosaic tile with functions. The case of Samsung is also very interesting:
The truth is that Samsung prefers not to be so obvious in its copy and content with laying tiles of the same size. The effect is similar, but it loses the prominence that is given to the key elements and one is lost. Is the processor’s 5nm just as important as, say, the bezel-less display? Not for a user.
Huawei is also one of the most sudden cases. If on October 13, 2020, Apple presented its iPhone 12, Huawei had the copier ready to mimic these slides in his Mate 40 presentation nine days later.
The same company that yesterday introduced its own AirPower, the same accessory that Apple canceled due to (believed) overheating problems, he is also not shy when it comes to copying key points in his presentations. Xiaomi is, without a doubt, the company that most often decides to incinerate its own inspiration to turn to that of others. In addition to shooting the iPhone X, it mimicked the Memoji down to name and even released a copy of the Apple Watch with a subsidiary.
There are more cases, many more. Like OPPO’s Apple Watch, Huawei’s AirPods clones or Samsung’s iPad Pro. One thing is clear: it is faster, easier, simpler and cheaper to copy not only Apple’s R&D but also its marketing. In Cupertino they should consider sending their minutes to the respective marketing and R&D departments of their competitors.