Inspiration

Design and innovation is hard. And a lot of times, those in the industry tend to arrive at the same conclusion, even if designers took different paths and they weren’t watching the competition. Such is the case when two things look 'inspired' by each other. But all too often accusations of "copying" abound when in fact, it was more a meeting of general design trends.

The Zeitgeist of Style, if you will.

In other words, we’re not accusing Apple of anything here except maybe of not being too different than current fashions. (It's cool, Apple. You don't always need to lead.) What we are saying is that these two “technology things" look very familiar. Kind of.

iPod Touch

Top: Nokia Lumia 820 shells. Below: new Apple iPod Touches

Apple’s new Nano iPod is actually way tinier than a Lumia device and last we checked, not a phone either. But when a Nano is blown up to the size of a Lumia it sure looks familiar.

Cyber Monday may be over but these Cyber Week deals are still alive

Likewise with Apple’s new iPod Touch line, which seems to borrow heavily from Nokia’s latest colors. Of course once again in fairness, even Nokia’s color choices were not original as they clearly state in their own piece on the topic. Apple has actually always had multi-colored devices, like the Nano and Shuffle—but this year they added the Touch series too.

So we’re not accusing Apple of anything malevolent.  But clearly the strategy that Nokia has been pushing with their latest Lumia phones is catching on. Black and white phones are very 2010 (whoops, sorry iPhone 5).

Heck, even Microsoft is digging it too. But we'd still love to see what Daring Fireball's John Gruber thinks.

Thanks, Ryan C. and Joel M., for the images. Apple quote image creator: Unknown.

Head to iMore.com for more information on the newly announced iPhone 5.