Not that I would know first hand, but there’s this wonderful sense of serendipity that occurs at the eureka moment of invention. Imagine the sensation Jonny Ive must have felt when he invented the Smart Cover for iPad 2: I imagine the moment of serendipity came when he stripped naked and lifted the lid to the Japanese style on-campus communal bath that he shared with Steve Jobs, Tim Cook and Phil Schiller and suddenly paused and said to himself, “You know, this bath lid would make a great tablet stand.” And as absurd as that sounds, it’s true… a Japanese folding bath lid does make a wonderful tablet stand!
Somehow, I doubt copycat creators get that same sense of serendipity when they just rip something off. Take Aviiq’s Quick Stand, a laptop stand for your MacBook that “borrows” inspiration from Apple’s Smart Cover, except without any of the magnets or functionality that afford the “smart.”
Not that they’re charging any less for it: the Aviiq Quick Stand will run you $40. As Wired’s resident gadget blogger and secret gerontophile Charlie Sorrel notes, that’s an awful lot of money to spend on something to prop your computer up a couple inches when any old piece of junk would do.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
10 responses to “Aviiq’s New Quick Stand Copies The Smart Cover But Without The Smarts”
ummm, didn’t Apple rip off the smart cover design from incase? Its the magazine jacket with magnets.
i solved that problem by buying little ‘feet’ for my MBP. They screw off or on as i need and keep my keyboard ergonomic and air flowing nicely. much more bang for my 30 or so bucks i spent.
happy easter all!
You are so wrong, when I first saw the smart covers for iPad 2 i remembered that I saw this design before somewhere as a laptop stand. I googled it and yes, it was the aviiq original laptop stand and those exist waaaay before ipad 2 or smart covers.
Uh, Aviiq’s stand has been on the market for at least 6 months too. Check some back issues of MacLife or Macworld and you’ll see their ads. I couldn’t see a press release on their website with a quick look, but it sure seems like they had a 6mo lead before the iPad2 Smart Cover…
I truly believe that you cannot compete with the Apple Smart Cover.