Xiaomi Mi Note steals design from iPhone 6 Plus, name from Samsung

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Xiaomi, the Asian Android vendor which has come out of nowhere to steal significant smartphone sales away from Samsung over the past year, is now attempting to double dip. Enter the Xiaomi Mi Note, a product which successfully steals its design from one competitor and its name from the other. The Mi Note looks suspiciously similar to Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus, while taking advantage of the fact that the “Note” part of Galaxy Note isn’t properly trademarked. So what does this mean for the smartphone market?

Apple will naturally sue Xiaomi over the Mi Note for violation of intellectual property and for trade dress, the latter being defined as an intentional attempt to confuse customers by creating a product with the aim of making it look like that of the more popular competition. Based on Apple’s history of legal efforts in this area, it will win the lawsuit and the Mi Note will get banned in several nations including the United States – but those rulings won’t come until at least a year from now, by which time the slightly tweaked Mi Note 2 will have been introduced to take its place. The cat and mouse games will continue ad nauseum, even as store salesmen will attempt to steer customers toward Xiaomi over Apple based on commission or a personal preference for Android over iPhone.

After all, we’ve read this script before. Samsung spent years stealing Apple’s intellectual property and issuing products which looked as much like Apple’s as possible, and now Xiaomi is simply following that same strategy to undermine Samsung’s products. It’s not clear just how many would-be iPhone 6 Plus buyers can be successfully steered toward the Xiaomi Mi Note instead, as Xiaomi lacks the brand awareness in the West that Samsung has gradually built up through expensive marketing efforts. But it’s safe to say the Mi Note will take nice chunk out of the Galaxy Note 4 on the Android side where consumers are less likely to care about brand equity, and Samsung will have a difficult time stopping it from happening.

Phil Moore

Phil Moore

Phil covers tech for Stabley Times.
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