Photo: USPTO
While Apple is seen by many as a leading company in terms of innovative technology, others aren’t necessarily very impressed with what the Cupertino-based giant is doing these days.
Just earlier this week, Tesla’s design chief described Apple’s new products as a “continuation of the same thing,” explaining that it’s rather difficult to be impressed with what the company has been doing lately.
In other words, Apple no longer comes up with something totally mind-blowing but rather sticks with slight refinements supposed to polish an approach that already proved successful.
And a patent that has recently been discovered seems to support these claims.
Apple has recently been granted a patent for so-called “magnetically attachable charging devices,” which are essentially car holders built for smartphones. Based on Apple’s designs, the phone holders also use MagSafe, so they are specifically designed for the iPhone.
But as others have noticed too, Apple’s idea not only that isn’t new, but the exact same design proposed by the company is already being used by others.
Belkin has launched a car phone holder that looks precisely like the device that Apple described in the patent application, and the drawings shared by the Cupertino-based tech company seem surprisingly similar to the actual product already on the market.
Of course, there’s always a chance that Apple actually licensed the design to Belkin, but on the other hand, it’d be a little surprising to see a company so big not being able to come up with its own unique product given its know-how in the smartphone accessory market.
Apple’s car phone holder works exactly as you’d expect it to work, and given it uses MagSafe, it takes full advantage of the tech bundled with the latest-generation iPhones.
Needless to say, it’s important to keep in mind this is still a patent for now, and while we have no idea if Apple has partnered with Belkin or not, don’t expect the Cupertino-based firm to come up with such an accessory anytime soon.
In other words, Apple no longer comes up with something totally mind-blowing but rather sticks with slight refinements supposed to polish an approach that already proved successful.
And a patent that has recently been discovered seems to support these claims.
Apple has recently been granted a patent for so-called “magnetically attachable charging devices,” which are essentially car holders built for smartphones. Based on Apple’s designs, the phone holders also use MagSafe, so they are specifically designed for the iPhone.
But as others have noticed too, Apple’s idea not only that isn’t new, but the exact same design proposed by the company is already being used by others.
Belkin has launched a car phone holder that looks precisely like the device that Apple described in the patent application, and the drawings shared by the Cupertino-based tech company seem surprisingly similar to the actual product already on the market.
Of course, there’s always a chance that Apple actually licensed the design to Belkin, but on the other hand, it’d be a little surprising to see a company so big not being able to come up with its own unique product given its know-how in the smartphone accessory market.
Apple’s car phone holder works exactly as you’d expect it to work, and given it uses MagSafe, it takes full advantage of the tech bundled with the latest-generation iPhones.
Needless to say, it’s important to keep in mind this is still a patent for now, and while we have no idea if Apple has partnered with Belkin or not, don’t expect the Cupertino-based firm to come up with such an accessory anytime soon.
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