All that was missing was Steve Jobs. That’s how close Acer’s promotion of its new AcerCloud service was to Apple’s iCloud. Although imitation is flattering, some observers charged Acer of a ‘blatant ripoff’ of iCloud – down to even the promotion images used by netbook kingpin.
To illustrate its “PicStream” service, which sounds very much like Apple’s Photo Stream, Acer uses the image of a cloud radiating data to three mobile devices. Text above the cloud reads “30 Days.” A tech blog today found the Acer image very similar to one Apple used months ago to introduce iCloud.
Acer continues using the image in its online press announcement, even though outed Sunday. It’s well understood the company blames Apple for the demise of the netbook business.
Of course, such free borrowing of Apple concepts is not new to the Cupertino, Calif. company. Apple has sued several companies, charging technology was lifted from its popular devices. Most recently, Apple is in court claiming Samsung devices “blatantly imitate” the iPhone and iPad.
Acer could have at least changed the image’s font, right?
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
