Brazilians Can Now Buy an "iPhone" Loaded With Android

Andy Prough writes "If you happen to be in Brazil and have 599 reals jingling in your pocket ($304 US dollars or £196), you can buy an iPhone — that runs Android. Gradiente Electronica, which registered the 'iPhone' name in Brazil in 2000, has won the right to sell its iPhone Neo One, an Android phone running version 2.3, Gingerbread. Gradiente won the ruling from the Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), despite Apple's argument that Gradiente should lose the right to 'iPhone' because it had not used the name between 2008-2012. Apple retains the right to appeal the case, and Gradiente now has the right to sue Apple for exclusivity in Brazil. If Gradiente wins, the only iPhones sold in Brazil would have a picture of a cute green robot on the box cover."

Schadenfreude

[Compact Dick]

Every now and then, an event occurs that should not [but does] fill one's heart with joy — mainly because of a universal form of justice being executed. This is one of those moments.

Why the extra name

[balsy2001]

Why add the "Neo One" to the name? You just won a case for a very valuable name in the electronics industry, why go adding extra crap to to let people know that it isn't really an iPhone? If you have no intention of trying to "trick" people into thinking it is an iPhone, why not just sell the name to Apple for what ever you can get? Just go all in and claim it is an iPhone period. Or get some balls release 4 models really quick and claim it is the iPhone 5.

Re:Looks legit

[loosescrews]

Cisco made and sold a product they called iPhone before Apple in the US. This didn't stop Apple from selling their iPhone is the US without aquiring the rights.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_iPhone [wikipedia.org]

Re:Schadenfreude

[peragrin]

Why does this fill your heart with joy?

a new android phone running yet another OUTDATED version of Android that isn't going to receive any kinds of long term updates.

This product will be dead in a year. the iphone will keep chugging alone and apple won't have to even try to do anything about it.

It is running Gingerbread people you should be screaming at this company to get off it's ass and release it with a recent OS.

Re:Apple lost in court

[mwvdlee]

Legal solution; rebrand your product.
It's not uncommon: Opel/Vauxhall, Axe/Lynx.
Why should Apple get special treatment?

Re:Apple lost in court

[daem0n1x]

So you think Brazilian government should subvert its own country's legal system to benefit an American private company? I like the way you think, it's so... Banana Republic.

Have you read the news in the latest decades? Some things have changed, you know?

Re:Looks legit

[MickyTheIdiot]

That's just incorrect. I still have a Linksys iPhone I bought the year before or the same year the iPhone was released.

Re:Schadenfreude

[morcego]

It's running Gingerbread in a near-third world country. It has features useful for Brazil (it's dual sim). It's probably a bit on the expensive side, but it's not necessarily underspecced just because it's running gingerbread. Getting the software to support all the hardware reliably is probably the main challenge for this Brazilian company (as it is for my Norwegian one, still waitting for my LTE tab updates, grr)

As a brazilian who is the owner of 3 android phones, I have to say that Gradiente's iPhone will tank. There are much better options here, not to mention cheaper.

If Gradiente wants to compete in the brazilian cell phone market, they should worry about Samsung and Motorola, not Apple.