China Phone-Maker Files 'Groufie' Trademark

Huawei uses term for panoramic pic with friends
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted May 9, 2014 8:36 AM CDT
China Phone-Maker Files 'Groufie' Trademark
The Oscars group selfie.   (AP Photo/Ellen DeGeneres)

Picture the celebrity group selfie that went viral during the Oscars and you've got a variation on the next big thing—or at least what a Chinese phone maker hopes is the next big thing. Smartphone maker Huawei has filed to trademark the term "groufie," meaning a panoramic self-portrait with friends. It coincides with the launch of the company's Ascend P7 phone this week, which has an 8-megapixel front-facing camera that makes groufies easier to take, the Telegraph reports.

While a typical group selfie tends to block out scenery, location, and sometimes people, a panoramic image snapped with a front-facing camera gives more context, Huawei says. "It’s a cool technology, as far as it goes, but will any sane person take such photos with friends and call them groufies?" wonders Ishmael Daro at O Canada. The semantics may not matter: "The selfie boom is real, and it's a wonder that the smartphone producers have waited so long to jump on the bandwagon," writes Leonid Bershidsky at Bloomberg View. Other makers could get in on the action, too; it's rumored Apple will have a high-resolution front-facing camera in its upcoming iPhone 6. (Read more groufie stories.)

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