Welcome to my blog about Trends and Visual thinking. I am currently studying Ba (Hons) Product Design, were over the next year I will be updating this blog with new Trends that interest me. I will also be discussing topics of design that I feel strongly about.
I will be starting this blog with an article I found in the guardian earlier this week, explaining that Samsung has taken over Apple in the fight for being the best smartphone selling company.
As a neutral debate I feel that Samsung should not be praised for this and should be branded as CHEATS! I have researched Samsung and Apple’s mobiles since 2007 when the first iPhone was released. In my findings I found out that Samsung have actually been copying existing mobile brands in their designs, not just Apple but also Blackberry. Let me explain.
From before June 2007 when the first iPhone was released, no mobile company used touch screen in any of their products, only the occasional touch pad was used.
“The original iPhone was released in June 2007 with an auto-rotate sensor, a multi-touch sensor that allowed multiple inputs while ignoring minor touches, a touch interface that replaced the traditional QWERTY keyboards, and many other features that helped to give Apple an almost instant healthy market share on its release”
In June 2007, Apple released the first ever iPhone that featured a ‘built in’ iPod. In September 2007, Apple released its 6th Generation IPod Classic.
However, a month later (October 2007) Samsung announced the release of its brand new smartphone, the B&O Serenata, featuring an inbuilt mp3 system and a 4gb internal storage capacity.
“Serenata is a music mobile phone focusing on sound quality and at the same time on bringing a more sophisticated lifestyle. To own Serenata is to enjoy the best possible music experience while you are on the move. Bang & Olufsen's expertise in concept development, user interface experience, acoustic sound capabilities and design skills together with Samsung's leadership in mobile phone technology, engineering and quality have realized a new way of combining unique music and mobile experiences for consumers. Featuring hi-fi speakers to deliver high quality sound reproduction and telephony, Serenata also provides a portable conference call feature, enabling multiple users to have a phone call.”
And this is the 6th Gen Ipod Classic. The new shape released September 2007 …
Would you say this image of the Samsung B&O Serenata resembles Apples IPhone Classic? Yes?
In 2007 Samsung started their ‘copy cat’ routine that has carried onto todays market.
After the iPhone 3g was released in 2008 Samsung retaliated by releasing their first touch screen phone ‘Samsung Instinct’. It was described as “The iPhone killer” from Samsung at a bargain price of $129.00”
Samsung revealed that when this phone was released, it would be an “iPhone Killer”, if they were intending to do that then why did they end up copying most of Apple iPhones ideas? From its touch screen, to square icons, the details of it’s battery icons and even down to the rectangular shape and sleek look, every major detail had been completely replicated yet positioned differently. Why? There must have been something that Samsung wanted to achieve, possibly spite over the reputation of the worlds leading technological brand, Apple…?
Right after this the Blackberry Curve 8900 was launched where the world saw a different sort of phone, instead of the Apple iPhones all touch screen mobile, blackberry created an all button mobile.
Soon after this release, Samsung responded by releasing a phone called the ‘Samsung Magnet’. The overall design and function of the phone worked parallel to the ‘Blackberry Curve’. The difference between Samsung’s mobile phones, Apples iPhone and any Blackberry, is that Samsung mobiles seem to have a reputation in malfunction and breakdown, were as Apple and Blackberry are known for making reliable phones that last.
Samsung doesn’t just copy other companies’ ideas; they also copy their names.
All the way through Samsung’s mobile phone history it shows that every phone they released had a different name for each new phone. Since Apple has kept the iPhone name but changed the letter or number at the end, Samsung has now adopted this idea with their brand new mobile – Samsung Galaxy. The Galaxy name has stuck with Samsung for their last 13 phones that I last counted that are on the market at the moment - http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/mobile-devices/smartphones/android
The iPhone 4 was released in June 2010 (Picture on right) and the Samsung Galaxy S2 was released about 10 months later (on the left). Samsung has just blatantly copied the iPhone 4 features, everything from the App Icons being in the exact same position, to the entire shape of the phone, to the next page circle symbols, everything to the speaker at the top. Apple said, “Apple says the product design, user interface and packaging of Samsung's Galaxy devices "slavishly copy" the iPhone and iPad.” Through out the past years, Samsung have been copying all there ideas of other companies – I can understand field research, looking into products on the market – but Samsung have actually been copying the ideas and putting them into there own products. At the moment, the papers are crowning Samsung as the “Smartphone King” in my opinion I feel they do not deserve the glory for there products at all, as in my eyes they are ‘Copy Cats’ and ‘Cheats!’
