Xiaomi MIUI V6 Review, Update: Android Based Mobile Platform By ‘Apple Of China’ Looks Very Much Like iOS 7; Made Avail. To 1,000 Beta Testers

Xiaomi MIUI V6 review, update: Xiaomi, the company labeled as the “Apple of China,” has just launched the newest variant of its mobile platform dubbed the MIUI 6 at an event on Saturday in Beijing. The official English site of the software notes that this version is “MIUI redesigned in its simplest form.”

One remark by many reviewers and the tech press, however, is that the Android-based mobile OS looks very much like the iOS 7 and iOS 8. And though it has been announced, the roll out of the MIUI 6 has been limited to 1,000 beta testers initially. NDTV reports that the pool of MIUI 6 users could grow up to 10,000 by this Friday.

Tech Crunch, in an article titled “Eight Ridiculous Examples Of How Xiaomi’s MIUI 6 Copied iOS 7 and 8” reveal some glaring similarities between the two OS. We look at few here.

First of are the product pages, when you look at the iOS 7 software product page and the MIUI 6 product page, the positioning of the handset and the overall layout of the site is very similar.

Second, the lockscreen, TechCrunch showed in its article that are almost example the same, minus the positioning of the time which is on the upper left hand corner for the MIUI 6 while it’s at the center top for the iOS 7.

Third, the home screen and calendar: All of which looks very much alike, including the dock which makes four apps easily accessible at all times. The way the apps are neatly arranged in a 4x4 row and column arrangement is a mirror of how it looks like in iOS 7. The calendar and also the caculator, two apps bundled with the iOS 7 and most iOS updates, have a similar look with its MIUI 6 counterpart.

And last are the pop-up notifications. Those updates coming from the upper portion of your iPhones? They have the same format available in MIUI 6.

It seems that Xiaomi, which is expected to enter the U.S. in 2015, is indeed mastering the art of being the “Apple of China,” but somehow exhibiting in almost mirror-like form the Cupertino company’s practices and design.