HP has announced their brand new Spectre One desktop lineup, and while you probably haven’t heard too much about it, you’ve certainly seen the design before in the Cinema Display, Apple Keyboard, and Magic Trackpad. We’re not making this up. The Spectre One is essentially an Apple clone. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, HP just asked Apple to elope, have four kids, and buy a little villa on the coast of France.
Entire generations went by where these beige box companies flat out ripped each other off, leaving Apple alone because their flashy designs, like the first iMac, looked more like toys than serious business computers. It’s funny how things change the moment people start voting with their hard-earned dollars and buying well designed machines over beige boxes.
Times change, but design philosophies don’t. The IBMs, Dells, and HPs of the world have spent their entire lifespan putting out “me too” products and designs (have you ever seen those ‘do you really want a clone commercials’?), and that’s not going to stop anytime soon, sadly.
I’m not sure what concerns me more, the fact that HP was blatantly “inspired” by Apple’s products, or that major non-Apple related tech websites failed to mention it entirely, instead choosing to regurgitate a press release from HP.
I’m sorry, the real story here isn’t that HP released the Spectre One, it’s that the company just took a page out of Samsung’s playbook and decided to Apple-ify their product to the fullest extent possible, and they don’t seem to be trying the slightest bit to hide it. I’m not really sure how anyone who saw these photos could have missed that or refused to comment on it.
Source: HP
Image Credit: Engadget
