Dear tech media, enough with the manufactured drama about Xiaomi

Another day, another Xiaomi controversy, this time surrounding the company’s new mobile OS, the MIUI 6.

TechCrunch’s Matt Burns went on a rampage, listing “Eight ridiculous examples of how Xiaomi’s MIUI 6 copied iOS 7 And 8”.

Gizmodo’s Pranav Dixit scolded Xiaomi for creating “the most shameless iOS rip-off you will ever see.”

Much of the tech media referenced Liliputing, which was one of the first to highlight the iOS7 resemblance, but didn’t make such a big fuss out of it.

Enough of the manufactured drama.

As Tech in Asia chief editor Steven Millward and The Next Web’s Jon Russell notes, much of MIUI’s design language and user interface elements came before iOS7 was around:

Xiaomi's MIUI copying iOS? nope. MIUI looked that way before iOS 7 coming along. seems like a misguided story.

— Steven Millward (@SirSteven) August 18, 2014

True, Xiaomi MIUI has had this look since before iOS 7 MT @arnoudwokke: here's a little video to illustrate that https://t.co/QhvivZbV0Y

— Jon Russell (@jonrussell) August 18, 2014