Apple's Jony Ive accuses Xiaomi of 'theft'

Apple's head of design, Jony Ive, accused Xiaomi and other companies that produce cell phones closely mimicking Apple's iPhone of "theft."

Ive made this remark when answering a question about Xiaomi's highly Apple-like designs during a live interview at Vanity Fair's New Establishment in San Francisco on Thursday evening.

He said, "I don't see it as flattery. I see it as theft, and it's lazy. I don't think it's ok at all."

Ive admitted that his stance on the subject is "a little bit harsh," but it's a stance that Apple as a company has clearly taken with Samsung and others in patent disputes.

Ive said that seeing knockoff designs makes him think of the lengthy development cycle that went into producing the originals. "When you're doing something for the first time, for example with the phone, you don't know it's going to work, and you spent seven or eight years working on something, and then it's copied."

"I have to be honest. The last thing I think is 'Oh, that is flattering," Ive said sarcastically, "All those weekends I could have had at home with my lovely family but didn't, but the flattery made up for it."

Ive seems to have a reason to be critical of Xiaomi. In recent years, a range of Chinese domestic phone producers such as Xiaomi, Huawei and Lenovo have developed rapidly. In the second quarter of this year, Xiaomi has surpassed Samsung and Apple to become the biggest smartphone maker in China.