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Samsung internal document evaluating the iPhone (translated)

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Re: Samsung internal document evaluating the iPhone (translated)

#31

Wow. This document illustrates exactly why design and attention to detail matters. In absolutely every comparison the iPhone just makes sense and works and the S1 has some kind of clumsiness. Very impressive, Apple.

Double wow. This is a March 2010 document and the iPhone has already got copy and paste (was that iOS 3 or 4?). That means Samsung and Android had already been playing catch up for several years to get to this stage, this wasn't a comparison of their first prototype. It is also disappointing that Samsung wasn't pointing out the iPhone and challenging their designers to do even better rather than trying to match Apple…

Based on Wikipedia, Android got copy and past marginally before iOS (April 2009 vs June 2009)

From my personal experience Android copy and paste is more reliable than iOS - I get quite a few web pages on iOS where I can't mark text to copy, turning JS often gets around this

Re: Samsung internal document evaluating the iPhone (translated)

#32
I haven't been able to follow discussions of this case closely, but from the samples that I have seen, the dominant narrative seems to be that the similarities between Samsung's devices and those of Apple are like the similarities between the Great White Shark and the Orca: of course they're sleek & hydrodynamic, of course they have dorsal fins, of course they have sharp, pointy teeth — they are filling similar niches, and given enough time evolution can make sea-dwelling, top-predator mammal look like a sea-dwelling, top-predator fish.

But now it looks like the designers of the orca have been studying the shark in excruciating detail.

If these design elements of touch-screen phones are so obvious and natural, then why do deep, point-by-point comparisons like this?

Re: Samsung internal document evaluating the iPhone (translated)

#33
post #30
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The intuitiveness is why Apple makes great products. That takes time and money to do right. Everything looks obvious and simple in hindsight. This really makes me question my stance on software patents.

After all it would be so nice if Microsoft patented kernel low level algorithms and we would not be able to run these cheap Linux servers in the US. Or if IBM patented them first in which case MS and Apple would not even exists, long live software patents. Sorry for the sarcasm.

I would suggest we are not even talking about software patents but design and dress patents. I dont really think you can compare low level kernel algorithms to a visual design and dress patents. So to me thats an unfair comparison. In fact according to to other documents Ive seen, these are all dress patents being argued over.

Re: Samsung internal document evaluating the iPhone (translated)

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Double wow. This is a March 2010 document and the iPhone has already got copy and paste (was that iOS 3 or 4?). That means Samsung and Android had already been playing catch up for several years to get to this stage, this wasn't a comparison of their first prototype. It is also disappointing that Samsung wasn't pointing out the iPhone and challenging their designers to do even better rather than trying to match Apple…

Based on Wikipedia, Android got copy and past marginally before iOS (April 2009 vs June 2009) From my personal experience Android copy and paste is more reliable than iOS - I get quite a few web pages on iOS where I can't mark text to copy, turning JS often gets around this

I wasn't claiming copy and paste was first on Apple (or even best) but I recall that it wasn't there to start with which made me go back and check the date on this document. I had originally assumed it was a much earlier document and the Samsung interface being benchmarked was an internal prototype of a first generation Android but it seems it was an actual product and probably not the first (although I don't have mobile phone model histories in my head).

Re: Samsung internal document evaluating the iPhone (translated)

#35
post #28

I am an Android fan but Samsung simply doesn't "get" UI design and user experience. Sometimes even the most basic things.

Good thing Google seems to have improved their sense of UX/UI since ICS, I love my Galaxy Nexus with Jelly Bean

Are Samsung and others still screwing up the vanilla Android UI with things which are worse?

Re: Samsung internal document evaluating the iPhone (translated)

#36

Wow. This document illustrates exactly why design and attention to detail matters. In absolutely every comparison the iPhone just makes sense and works and the S1 has some kind of clumsiness. Very impressive, Apple.

What would be the point of an internal memo which only highlights areas where your company is doing better than the competition? Particularly when the competition is making a lot more money?

SWOT analysis exists to cover all areas, even Samsung must have heard of it and copied that as a methodology. Perhaps no Apple weaknesses were highlighted because there were none that Samsung could find.

Re: Samsung internal document evaluating the iPhone (translated)

#38
post #33
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After all it would be so nice if Microsoft patented kernel low level algorithms and we would not be able to run these cheap Linux servers in the US. Or if IBM patented them first in which case MS and Apple would not even exists, long live software patents. Sorry for the sarcasm.

I would suggest we are not even talking about software patents but design and dress patents. I dont really think you can compare low level kernel algorithms to a visual design and dress patents. So to me thats an unfair comparison. In fact according to to other documents Ive seen, these are all dress patents being argued over.

Usability is technology. In every case in the document, it's, we got it wrong, the iphone got it right, let's fix it. Not, let's copy the look and feel of the iphone, it's purely a usability comparison not a style comparison.

Re: Samsung internal document evaluating the iPhone (translated)

#39
post #21

I don't think there is anything wrong with this documentation. I am sure Samsung has hundreds of other documents for other devices. A good company looks at the competition and takes apart what they are doing right and wrong. Its what the company I work for does. We own a copy every competitors software. When a new version comes out we look at each change to see if there is anything we can learn and if we need to reac…

I'm sure they've made similar comparisons, just look at the Samsung phones that preceded the iPhone. But if they have hundreds of other documents, I assume they would try to get them admitted into court in order to marginalize this document. And failing that, that they would leak it to the press in order to win popular support.
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