Oliver Haslam·

Xiaomi Has Now Used Apple’s Video To Promote ‘Mimoji’, Its Memoji Clone

Xiaomi already has a very strong reputation for creating some impressive phones. But it also has an even stronger reputation for stealing ideas from its competitors. Usually Apple.

We reported previously how it’s been at it again, this time with the creation of Mimoji. And yes, that’s exactly what it sounds like.

Mimoji is a rip-off of Memoji from the folks at Apple. Mimoji produced the same AR avatars that Memoji does and the name’s similarity is just the icing on the cake. But it’s OK, because Xiaomi says it’s just a coincidence, according to a report by Caixin Global.

Xiaomi’s augmented-reality avatar set, Mimoji, is definitely not a clone of Apple’s Memoji — they just look very similar and happen to share identical-sounding names — the Chinese company clarified last week.

That, of course, is absolutely not the case and Xiaomi absolutely stole Memoji for itself. While the company may be trying to claim otherwise, product teams and retailers selling the new Mi CC9 phone don’t seem to have received the memo.

But ads for Apple’s Memoji and Apple Music have been embedded on Xiaomi’s product page for the Mi CC9 smartphone on e-commerce platforms JD.com and Suning, in lieu of original Xiaomi graphics, a Weibo user found on Friday.

As ever, Joh Gruber calls this 100% correctly. The real issue is that Xiaomi isn’t being called out for what it’s actually doing here – stealing intellectual property. We’ve been guilty of sugar coating it, but again, we’ll let Gruber put us straight.

Xiaomi didn’t “accidentally” include Apple’s videos on its website. If you had video of a guy shoplifting items, you wouldn’t say he “accidentally” didn’t pay for them just because that was his own bullshit excuse after he was caught. You’d say he stole them. That’s how Xiaomi should be written about — as kleptomaniacal IP thieves.

Absolutely.

(Source: Weibo, Via: Caixin Global)

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