Microsoft patents copy iPhone interface

Mobilewhack.com

on October 14, 2007 1:37 AM | Permalink

Here's some very interesting tidbit of news. A new patent application published yesterday and assigned to Microsoft shows a mobile phone interface that bears striking similarities to the iPhone. Wouldn't you say surprising indeed?

The patent, filed in July 2007, is entitled Extensible filtered lists for mobile device user interface and discusses how mobile phones are so full of features that they have become extremely complicated to use.

Interestingly some of the screenshots provided in the patent appear to show a user interface very similar to the way the iPhone handles images and music albums as well as the famous visual voicemail application.

Speculation that Microsoft is intending to launch a Zune phone appears to be unfounded so this patent is most likely a future incarnation of the popular Windows Mobile operating system.

Briefly described, the provided subject matter concerns an improved user interface for mobile devices such as smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and the like. Selected data and services provided by multiple software applications can be accessed through a group or list of items.

via: dialphone