iPhone OS Caused a 'Crisis of Design' at Samsung

News
By Wolfgang Gruener
published

Was Samsung Just Caught With Its Hand in the Cookie Jar?

If it looks like an iPhone and if it feels like an iPhone, it must be an iPhone. Not necessarily. It could also be another smartphone, a Samsung smartphone, for example. A company memo recently released as part of the Apple-Samsung trial seems to confirm that Samsung may have been working on a blatant copy of the iPhone.

The memo, published by All Things Digital, and brought up in the arguments of legal counsels in the court case between Apple and Samsung appears to not have just one smoking gun against Samsung, but several in a rapid fire succession. Here are some examples:

“I hear things like this: Let’s make something like the iPhone.”

“When everybody (both consumers and the industry) talk about UX, they weigh it against the iPhone. The iPhone has become the standard. That’s how things are already.”

 “Do you know how difficult the Omnia is to use? When you compare the 2007 version of the iPhone with our current Omnia, can you honestly say the Omnia is better? If you compare the UX with the iPhone, it’s a difference between Heaven and Earth.”

Of course, these are product discussions that are held in many industries about many products. Intel's competitors may have had discussions that surrounded around the thought "let's make something like an Ultrabook" (purely speculating here), but the Samsung emails are rather damaging for the company under the aspects of the accusation that it has copied the iPhone.

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Wolfgang Gruener
46 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Netherscourge
    Of course Samsung based their initial designs on the iPhone - and then they added to it and made it BETTER!

    It's called innovation.
    Reply
  • Desertlax
    Unfortunately I can't take credit for this analogy, but another journalist mentioned of course you compare yourself to your competition, do you think that the current Olympic athletes don't look at how fast the person next to them is running? You look at your competition, and then attempt to beat them. I feel like this is apple entering the Olympics, and then claiming that they invented and patented the left-foot-then-right-foot style of running, everyone on of the things they are claiming was stolen from then existed before. Rectangles with rounded corners.....uh better call apple, my griddle copied their shape exactly, and an all glass from to a screen, uh oh, TV manufacturers were copying them even before they got the chance to patent it.
    Reply
  • NightLight
    NetherscourgeOf course Samsung based their initial designs on the iPhone - and then they added to it and made it BETTER!It's called innovation.could not have said it better.
    competition is what drives technology. all these documents prove is that samsung said: hey, our products need to improve, and they did that. Anyone who can't tell an iphone and a samsung apart needs glasses.
    these apple lawsuits are getting ridiculous.
    Reply
  • cscott_it
    The only reason those e-mails are "damaging" is because that these patent trials have become more emotional than logical - several important bodies agree with this. I don't care who the patent holder is, you shouldn't be able to patent a "thin rectangular tablet" or "swipe to unlock" or "location of 'X'". Blatant copying is wrong, but this really isn't the case - it's the nature of all industry.
    Reply
  • zzz_b
    These articles from Wolfgang are getting worse!

    It is like Wolg Gang -ing on Samsung, and everything that is not Apple :)
    Reply
  • Tab54o
    "iPhone OS Caused a 'Crisis of Design' at Samsung"

    So what you're saying is it can't run crysis....
    Reply
  • dalethepcman
    I fail to see how this is a smoking gun. Maybe every auto maker should start lawsuits because the other automakers compare their vehicles to each other in emails. That should be proof enough that their design was stolen by the competition.
    Reply
  • Tab54o
    I think this is a very bad idea. The iphone is only a standard because it never changes but i think Android is far ahead of iJunk
    Reply
  • cookoy
    It's normal when people brainstorm on developing or improving a product to start at looking what products are currently selling well out in the market. They look at what are their competitors' strengths and what they are weak at. It's absurd to build your product on failed items that people don't want.
    Reply
  • Netherscourge
    So when Apple releases the iPhone 5 with a bigger screen, aren't they copying all their competition?

    Aren't they copying Google Maps by adding turn-based navigation to their in-house Apple Maps?

    Aren't they copying every other Smartphone manufacturer by adding 4G instead of just 3G?

    Do you see where I'm going here...?
    Reply