It’s only natural to be offended by shameless copying of iOS and iPhone. I think most people remember what phones looked like before the iPhone and now see how the Samsung business model works. I’m willing to bet that somewhere inside Samsung there is a big poster that just reads “Don’t think different, think like Apple.” It feels frustrating. It feels like cheating. But if I really stop to think about it, this is what we all wanted.
We[1] wanted the Apple aesthetic and “consumer first” model to win. We wanted crapware free computers to be the norm. We wanted everyone to experience what it’s like to use a Mac or an iPhone. We wanted taste to prevail in the marketplace. Well, I think it has.
We got what we wanted. Apple proved that good design and happy users are very profitable. They taught the market a lesson in making something look and feel good from top to bottom. Samsung, Microsoft, HTC and even Google are admiting as much with their product iterations. While some, like Samsung, are content with copying successful designs outright, others like Microsoft are actually creating something new and interesting. Now they are, at least, equally concerned with the user experience as with partner relationships.
This is what we Mac users had hoped for. What did everyone think it would look like? Did people imagine that Apple would win and everyone else would just walk away from the market? I suggest we sit back and enjoy the future Apple designed.
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I use the royal we here to mean users of Apple products. Ok, maybe not MobileMe. ↩
I think Samsung does copy pretty closely at times. But I also think Apple and Apple fans worry about it too much. The Android supporters have a good point – how many ways are there to do this sort of thing? That said I’ll give Microsoft credit for attempting to do things more differently. I just thing Samsung emphasizes their similarity to iOS rather than what they do differently which is what Microsoft and even HTC do. However Samsung appears to be the only Android developer really doing well in terms of profits. So maybe there’s something to their strategy?
There’s also a bit of culture clash in all this. People in Asia simply see borrowing ideas very different than we in the US do. (And arguably the way Americans have patents and copyright isn’t even the best way to do it even if I think Asia goes too far the other direction)
I never really considered the culture clash perspective. I would like to see some more innovation going on that doesn’t look so much like a gimmick. I think everyone was saying “How many ways are there to do this sort of thing” before Apple presented the first iPhone. Then suddenly there was a new single way to do these things. There’s more innovation to be done.
My point is that I learned to appreciate that at least they’re copying something good and they all stopped copying the Treo.