The Chinese economy has been developing rapidly for the past decade, and I agree to some extent that China is eventually taking its step to become an innovator. However, I must confess that China still has a long way to go until it is really able to be regarded as a true innovator.
http://consumer.huawei.com/minisite/worldwide/Ascend-Mate7/
Looking at this year’s Huawei Flagship, the Ascend-Mate, it’s not hard to find that it looks incredibly non-innovative. The phone, from it’s design, to the OS, the screen or the processor, even the built in accessibilities, I find it hard not to relate to the iPhone, or the Samsung. In fact, if you take a look at all the Chinese Smartphone manufacturers, with absolutely no exceptions, they have been adopting either Apple’s designs or features or all of them; The reason why companies like XIAOMI, MEIZU, YIJIA, HAMMER TECH and HUAWEI can achieve such astonishing success in the Chinese market is due to nothing but two reasons:
1. China is a HUGE market.
2. There’s a very large gap in the low-end market ($50 or less) that companies such as Apple and Samsung don’t pursue.
Personally, I find it sad when the industry (in China) regarding themselves as innovators and sell millions on the market left over by other market leaders. It’s also kind of sad when they can blazingly copy from others and promote as if they were the first to achieve such amazingness. (Not specifically talking about Huawei but the whole of the industry in China)
Here is an example:
The Lenovo Flagship S90(I think currently it’s only available on the Lenovo China Website):
Snapshots from: http://www.lenovomobile.com/imodel-cn/zh/打开目录/手机/VIBE系列/S90-小笋尖-宝石银/p/s90?intcmp=L20141106_2
And Apple’s iPhone 6:
Snapshots from: http://www.apple.com/iphone-6/design/
I genuine hope that one day China’s smartphone manufacturers grasp the true meaning of innovation and think outside the box. Innovating doesn’t just mean taking what’s originally called “Touch ID” and put it straight into an Android Phone and changing its name to 360° fingerprint scan. Engineers should start looking forward rather than looking at others. Apple introduced Siri and Touch ID. Maybe we can innovate some new features that other manufacturers haven’t thought of. And up to this point I don’t think it’s about the technology; It’s about thinking instead. Don’t “innovate” like Apple, think like Apple, think different(ly).