Apple's legal battle with Samsung has taken a new twist. The California outfit is suing the Korean corporation over alleged copying of Apple products in Samsung's Android range, and a federal court is forcing Samsung to hand over samples of new phones for Apple to pore over.
The phones and tablets in question are the Samsung Galaxy S 2, Galaxy Tab 8.9 and Galaxy Tab 10.1, Infuse 4G and Droid Charge. Fortunately for Samsung, only Apple's legal team for this case will see the products, so no-one from Apple or even Apple's in-house lawyers will see the rival devices.
While the Samsung Galaxy S 2 has just gone on sale in the UK and the Infuse 4G in the US, the other three devices aren't yet on the market.
Normally, there'd be three months before Samsung had to hand over samples, but San Jose Judge Lucy Koh has decided that Samsung has already been shooting its mouth off about the unreleased phones and can't claim they're secret models, Courthouse News reports. Apple points out that Samsung even gave away a Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet to all 5,000 people at the recent Google I/O developer conference.
Apple claims Samsung is causing confusion in the minds of the phone-buying public by aping the look and feel of the iPhone and iPad in the design of phones and tablets, the interface and even the packaging. Samsung has to hand over samples of the phones and their packaging to Apple so it can use them as examples to build its case. When the case is presented, the court will decide whether Samsung products do indeed mimic Apple too closely.
Samsung even has its own version of the iPod touch, which strips out the phone functions for an app-running, Web-connected MP3 player -- the Galaxy S WiFi 5.0 and Galaxy S WiFi 4.0.
They may look alike, but which are the better phones? We pitted the Samsung Galaxy S 2 vs iPhone 4 in head-to-head combat to find out. Which do you prefer: Samsung Galaxy or Apple iDevice? And do you think all phones basically look the same?
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Comments 20
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Anonymous 24 May, 2011 14:15
Sounds like the editor has already sided with apple.
"Samsung even has its own version of the iPod touch" I
have an iPhone and I don't think the samsung looks like it. There are only so many different ways you can make a screen look different, and these phones are almost all screen.
Anonymous 24 May, 2011 16:22
Before the first iPhone was demoed by Steve Jobs, no other phone looked like that or worked like that. It was a revolution. Apple deserves some serious credit here.
Anonymous 24 May, 2011 18:00
Samsung presumably gets to see the Apple designs well before they are released as they are an important OEM for components, especially flash memory.
It's weird that Samsung stuck so close to the overall designs of the iPhone and iPad. Other Android OEMs have had no problem differentiating their products (aside from Meizo). Most telling? The iPad-ification of the Galaxy Tab into the new 8.9 and 10.1 tablets.
anonymous 24 May, 2011 18:03
the tabs I dont agree with perhaps the galaxy phones are reasonable to sue about but definitely not the tabs they are no where near similar, if they want to sue samsung about the tab 10.1 then they should sue motorola for the xoom!
anonymous 24 May, 2011 18:05
"Before the first iPhone was demoed by Steve Jobs, no other phone looked like that or worked like that."
Except the Samsung F700.
Dean Shepherd 24 May, 2011 19:24
samsung f700 for the WIN!!! :D:D:D
seriously...I had 2 of those bad boys...and the only reason I bought the second is cos I dunno...it had an appeal about it...
BUT mike, I think the iPhone came out just before the f700 though..im not 100% on that...I just remember ALOT of review sites writing up bout the F700 AT its launch saying it was trying to be an iPhone killer of the time...especially with similar looks
Anonymous 25 May, 2011 01:31
Yes everyone wants Apple's brains and success but can't manage it on their own IQ.
Theft as flattery is the response with everything looking as close as humanly possible to whatever Apple designs.
This is a straight up rip off of the iPhone creation in every way.
How unfortunate that the industry wallowed in mediocrity for decades until Apple created the real thing then suddenly every single smart phone looks and acts as close to the iPhone as they can mimmic while the droidtards pretend they are breaking new ground when all they're doing is breaking wind.
Anonymous 25 May, 2011 04:21
@anonymous,
yeah, like copy and paste of the revolutionary IDevice(Sarcasm). And A unibody design of HTC.. I know thats different type of Unibody design. but still, its almost the same.. get the point.
For galaxy S2 they might have the point of looking like Iphone, but do iphone have 3 button on front screen? using AMOLED? Having Logo on same location? Same Sensor location . Notification? widgets? homescreen? the box look icon existed long ago.. yeah and they call it blackberry.
for samsung, I think they should atleast provide a decent originality so kudos to Idevice. though not all company mimics iphone, if they will kind of mimic it, these phone should have less feature than the current one and release a new update with additional 3 feature( which already existed few years ago) and call it "Inovation, fantastic and amazing"
Anonymous 25 May, 2011 04:49
Apple has some pretty poor patents for phones. Just some touch/interface stuff and that fingerprint repelling coating. They know that is all they have, so they're suing the pants off of everyone with antenna and general hardware patents. Probably hoping to reach a cheap agreement for use of samsung/nokia/HTC patents.
Apple has always been a lawyer loving company, but I think at this point they are out of ideas. This "sue everyone in sight and see what we can get" is very telling.
Anonymous 25 May, 2011 14:57
What an idiotic lawsuit, apple is just patent-trolling because they are losing huge market share to android and especially samsung with their galaxy S lines.
This would be the same as a car maker suing the other just because it also has 4 wheels and a steering wheel. These patents are too braud and not definite and patent system should be re-done because virtually anyone can claim nonsene like this.
Samsung phones looks absolutely nothing like galaxy s, if you think so you are generalizing too much. Apple did not create buttons, they did not create the touch screen, they did not create the rounded body shell of the phone and they did not create the icons the list goes on etc. So tell me WHY are they claiming anything with this at all? Pure trolling, they should instead focus on making their new phone than wasting time trying to play dirty.
Anonymous 25 May, 2011 15:18
eventho apple did came out first in my experience i like samsung galaxy better. i had iphone before which was mac based and didnt like it.
no i have samsung captivate which is android based and i love it more than i did with iphone.
this is the thing i lived in korea before and samsung came out with the phone call haptic before iphone came out. and samsung had touch screen before iphone did. cant say that they are taking designs of from the iphone all the phone is starting to look a lot its just matter of how thin how light where the camara is etc.
in that case droid and htc they should get sued too.
in my opion apple company got mad because of the fact that they are not exclusive with the smartphone industry anymore. people start to come out similar stuff like ipad and iphone now and they realize that their sales going down than when they had stuff for themselves. are they gonna sue blackberry and dell tab and stuff too now?
they cant play monopoly here. it is technology after all it is gonna get similar down the road.
if this case can go through the court that it just shows that one company can monopolize everything. and in that case all the car company computer company and all the others can sue each other too.
like the others they should just focus on making their new phone better and different unique design after all samsung made so many unique design way before apple did. its the technology for people and their comfortable life that what techonology about making life easier not making money easier and get fat checks out of people.
Anonymous 25 May, 2011 19:43
the LG Prada also had that look before the iPhone.
Anonymous 25 May, 2011 21:12
"Before the first iPhone was demoed by Steve Jobs, no other phone looked like that or worked like that."
" Except the Samsung F700."
iPhone - Announced 2007, January. Released 2007, June
F700 - Announced 2007, February. Released 2007, December
Anonymous 26 May, 2011 01:21
I think it is a lot of sour grapes from apple because they no longer have an illegal monopoly on what is deemed to be desirable in a handset, personally i think all full screen phones look basically the same these days, android is now kicking apple's butt in the sales market and app's,
so suck it up apple you've had a good run.
Anonymous 28 May, 2011 12:06
Bought a Chinese made droid phone, looks downright identical to an IPhone, bet none here could tell the difference.
kiamose 28 May, 2011 17:41
I have the iPhone my husband has the samsung galaxy and IN MY OPINION (just mine) the iPhone is a thousand times better in every way. I think it is very similar in looks but the galaxy is just a poor copy like a Market traders knock off perfume. Please remember this is my opinion and I am allowed one. I LOVE ALL APPLE PRODUCTS AND HAVE THEM ALL (yes I know that's a bit sad)
Anonymous 29 May, 2011 21:28
This is just apple reaction to losing the phone market to android based phones. They run a tightly locked down OS on their phones that they even removed the ability to play flash media on.. People speak with their wallets and go to their competitor..
That being said, making a smart phone will always come out looking very similar, there were smart phones before Iphone that used the same rounded corners,button in middle bottom, square colorful icons on a black background design. This is not new. I mean you have to put the speaker on top, the microphone on bottom. The middle would be dedicated to touch screen so where would you put those other buttons? Oh yes in the middle.
Personally samsung should just pull the plug on being suppliers for their phone. Iphone does not produce their own products on the part my part level. So this type of plug pulling would set apple far enough back they wouldnt recover.
That being said Android > apply. I have owned both and after iphone decided to lock down their phones even more I cant see why any smart consumer would purchase such a gimp product
Anonymous 31 May, 2011 13:33
Apple...the new microsoft.
Anonymous 1 June, 2011 12:09
The design is a complete ripoff, but the software in it is way too different. The samsung laucher sicks and most samsung users by now should be using an alternative launcher (launcherpro, go launcher, adw launcher). With that, it becomes free range android. Iphone = crap proccessor, no flash, couldnt even do video on the second one. crap battery, cant even remove the battery. cant even properly multitask, hate the contacts applicaton? cant do much bout that
Android = u choose what you want, flash, true multitasking, open, you put what you want on it, hate the contacts application? get a new one! Dont like the android os itself???get a new one (i would recommend cm7)
Anonymous 6 June, 2011 05:24
Samsung could accuse apple of pulling a f480 turing it upside down little paint work and bang you have an i-phone 4.
My opinion. the galaxy can be used in anyway shape of form you desire. you can customize it in your way. the i-phopne is built and you need to fit into it's way of running. it's what gets up my nose with apple.
I would hardly say the Galaxy s 2 looks just like the i-phone 4. it's .8" larger. thinner. lighter and shaped slightly different...
My rant towards Apple..
In the car world many cars are made similar. and when a car is built on the design of another car it's seen as respect to your product - the bench mark. however those makers don't buy your product strip it and place their name on it with a few colour changes.. my beef with apple is they believe they have created the wheel and car, plus the power and light bulb. they are wonderful, and full credit to them. but they are not holier than thou.