In what appears to be some very bad news for Samsung, it appears that the Korean company was explicitly and repeatedly warned that their smartphones and tablets were too similar to the iPhone and iPad, and were cautioned not to copy Apple.
John Paczowski reports for AllThingsD:
- In February 2010, Google told Samsung that Samsung’s “P1” and “P3” tablets (Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Tab 10.1) were “too similar” to the iPad and demanded “distinguishable design vis-à-vis the iPad for the P3.”
- In 2011, Samsung’s own Product Design Group noted that it is “regrettable” that the Galaxy S “looks similar” to older iPhone models.
And that’s not even the worst of it, My personal favorite bit from the report is the following (emphasis added):
As part of a formal, Samsung-sponsored evaluation, famous designers warned Samsung that the Galaxy S “looked like it copied the iPhone too much,” and that “innovation is needed.” The designers explained that the appearance of the Galaxy S “[c]losely resembles the iPhone shape so as to have no distinguishable elements,” and “[a]ll you have to do is cover up the Samsung logo and it’s difficult to find anything different from the iPhone.”
Needless to say, this is bad. While Samsung may be able to argue that designers were biased, and that their opinions shouldn’t be taken entirely seriously (although they shouldn’t argue that), it’ll be a lot harder for Samsung to dodge Google’s warning…
Apple and Samsung have been pursuing one another for copying each others designs and technologies for some while – but despite Samsung’s continued claims that they didn’t copy Apple, the evidence seems to speak for itself (ex: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, etc.).
On second thought, however, perhaps Google doesn’t have much room to talk.