Chinese Tablet Manufacturer Wants To Sue Apple Over iPad Design

A Chinese firm called Great Loong Brother Company has accused Apple of copying the design of its tablet for the new iPad which was launched nearly one week ago.

The device, called the P88, has been on the Chinese market for six months and sells for a throat-chocking $529, more than the $499 that Apple charges for the cheapest 16GB WiFi-only version of the iPad.

In an interview with El Mundo, the Spanish newspaper equivalent of the Guardian, Xiaolong Wu, the president of the Shenzhen Great Loong Brother company vehemently attacked Apple saying "We won’t have any choice but to report them, [as] it will certainly affect our sales."

Wu went on to accuse Apple of plagiarism as the Cupertino-based company apparently literally cloned the P88 tablet, including the bezel, the multi touch screen and the design itself.

However, looking closer at both products, one can sense that Wu is looking for some cheap publicity. Apart the fact that, as the Register puts it, they are flat and are both computers, there's not much resemblance.

The P88 is just like another tablet; it has a 10.2-inch resistive screen that displays 1024x600 pixels, an Atom Processor, an Intel 945GSE chipset, 1GB RAM, a 250GB hard disk drive, a webcam and runs on Windows.

Oh and the last bit. The P88 has a 90-minutes battery life, which is err, slightly less than what we'd expect from a proper tablet. Interestingly though, some have said that the P88 is a better all-rounder product.

What we don't know if Wu is planning to go after Microsoft's Tablet and other similar design as they are much much more likely to affect the sales of the P88. Now you must be a brave man to take on Microsoft AND Apple singlehandedly.