Definitely a rip off.  However, I'd put it more towards the designers hired by Apple being fans of B&O design than any sort of conspiratorial infringement on Apple's behalf.  

I Love Apple design aesthetics but in this case I like B&O's version much better.

"form follows function" ?

and the B&O illustration lives today at ...

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I cannot get the link to work...

Molotow wrote:

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I cannot get the link to work...

Still works for me.

Here's the webpage

http://www.hoerup.dk/tech/archives/culture-apple_ripoff_bang_olufsen.php

What irritates me is when friends are round, take a look at my Beocom 6000s and say 'they pinched that click wheel idea from Apple!'. I then feel obliged to lecture them that the Beocom handset is ten years old and the first iPods came in when? Exactly!

PeterC

The iPod came out in October 2001.

BeoCom 6000 came out in 1998.

In 2008 or 2009, I forget when exactly, the B&O CEO pathetically admitted in an interview B&O had failed to patent the clickwheel.  Sad, really.  The original iPod's wheel, which was mechanical, was nearly identical in feel and sound to the BC 6000 wheel.

But let's look at the positive.  At least Apple has not yet sued B&O for using clickwheels on BeoCom 3 nor BeoCom 5 –the folks at Apple are agressive bastards when it comes to protecting their brand names and are currently attempting to claim the "Pod" name, if you can believe it.  

And I like where B&O has evolved the clickwheel concept into the 3rd dimension with BeoSound 5.