We already had our concept phone for today, but I think you will enjoy reading about this one too. The main reason behind this post is the obvious resemblance of the center product with the iPhone concept that is to debut this summer.

First of all you might notice that (at a first look) the device doesn’t really resemble the one Steve Jobs presented last week at the MacWorld event, so this is not the main reason behind my post. Let me tell you that this concept was revealed to the press las year in August so no misunderstandings of who was first should exist as the iPhone is just a week old in the eyes of the media.

What draw my attention regarding the Onyx was the user interface that holds no buttons. In the 5 month old press release the company stated this phone as the next generation phone building an independent UI (User Interface)Â for every application with some help from a touchscreen input system. Now, doesn’t this ring any bells? Almost the same thing was told on the stage of MacWorld by Apple’s guru, Mr. Jobs.
Moving on we see the device will use on of Synaptics proprietary products, the ClearPad, which recognizes two finger input, proximity sensing and high resolution finger input. Call me crazy but this sounds so similar to the multi-touch UI Apple developed. I know that Apple product was not only about the Ui, but imagine if Jobs presented you the iPhone without this UI, including all the application it run and OS X. Most certainly the impact would have not been the same.

The Onyx project has seen no finalization yet and I see the main problem in the finances as it’s my impression the budget behind this concept doesn’t even compare to Apple’s budget for the research and development division. Yet there is an obvious resemblance between the technology behind these two products and there might be some similarities in the design too. Let it be clear that I am not implying Apple copied the Synapics’ product but it might have had some intel on the concept.
Overall both companies were capitalizing on a great idea but one came almost 6 months earlier. Yet, the media coverage was almost absent for Synaptics’ product, while for Apple’s iPhone there was a huge sea of journalists and I don’t think this is fairness.

If you want to check Synaptics’ press release from August follow this link … or you may want to click here for the webpage reserved to the Onyx Concept.

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Filed under Audio, Mobile phones, Portable Media