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The Night Of The Rabid Cow (10/31/00)
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Moooooooo. That's the sound of the legitimization of copycat design, and it's emanating from those holstein-spotted Wintel maniacs at Gateway. No longer are cheap impostors of Apple gear solely the domain of bargain-basement outfits like Future Power; now the big boys can get into the act, too. Not long ago we huddled 'round the campfire and told you all about Gateway's iBook ripoff, the Solo 5300-- complete with a curvy-patterned grey and white lid and a Gateway logo darn close to where that Graphite Apple should be. One would think that Gateway would be relieved to get away with such a shameless "borrowing" of Apple's industrial design and would then call it quits, but alas, no: the company's pushing things even further.
See, faithful viewer Andrew Borovsky decided to give us a Halloween scare by pointing out another Gateway laptop with a rather... familiar look. The Solo 1150 features a darker, subtler two-tone case, a curvier overall feel, and what appears to be a dual-textured paneled construction that immediately calls to mind all PowerBooks since May of 1998. Conjoined twins separated at birth? (Probably not, though if it were true, it's obvious which child was the "evil" twin.) Sure, maybe it's not enough of a likeness to get sued over, but the resemblance is undeniable. On the laptop end, we'd say Gateway's got Apple's product line pretty well covered.
But how about the desktop line? Well, things there aren't quite so blatant, but if you're unfortunate enough to remember the Gateway Astro, the company's attempt to make its own iMac, you're probably still having nightmares about that twisted lump of plastic. (If so, you may qualify for government aid.) According to a CNET article, following the Astro's inexplicable failure (something about too many customers vomiting uncontrollably) Gateway's skipping the CRT-based all-in-one form factor entirely these days, and leapfrogging Apple right into the flat-panel game. The new Profile 3 is clearly iMac-inspired in its aesthetics, but the inclusion of a 15-inch LCD instead of a traditional monitor is an obvious departure from Apple's blueprints.
Whether this latest Profile will do better than Gateway's previous attempts remains to be seen, but one thing's pretty clear to us: it's obvious how Gateway's saving on its design budget these days. Suppose Apple designer extraordinaire Jonathan Ive is getting any royalty checks from the Cow People?
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 10/31/00 episode: October 31, 2000: Apple rehires an old education veep to take back its market share from the Wintel horde. Meanwhile, Gateway's copying of Apple's design sense becomes ever more brazen, and rumors of 400 Mbps wireless FireWire keep us all toasty warm at night...
Other scenes from that episode: 2646: Ending The K-12 Slaughter (10/31/00) 'Tis the season for all the ghouls and ghosts and scary stuff to come creeping out of the closet. In Apple's case, the Fright Brigade includes earnings warnings, a jittery investor community, slow Cube sales, and that most insidious of bugaboos: rapidly declining Education market share... 2648: Wires Are SO 20th Century (10/31/00) FireWire! It's the coolest peripheral interconnect technology since sliced bread-- or, rather, it would be, if sliced bread were a really cool peripheral interconnect technology instead of just raw toast...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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