If any of you have paid attention to this or have followed this legal battle you know how ridiculous this is getting, if you have not I will break this down to you all in the most simplistic way that I can.
So to begin here is what is known; Apple is suing Samsung for patent infringement and copying their devices (ipad and the iphone), and naturally Samsung is counter suing in defense that they in fact have not copied the flagship devices that is owned by apple.
So lets talk about the devices that are in question.
The iphone and the two phone that closely resemble the iphone which are the Samsung Fascinate and The Galaxy S line of phones.
To begin this examination of the phones lets look at them side by side.
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The reason these two are being compared are that the consumer will get "confused" and believe the samsung product is an apple product.
In looking at these phones, what consumer would not be able to distinguish the iphone to any other samsung phone? Where are the differences?
Well lets view the similarities.
- The iphone, fascinate, and GS3 are all candy bar style phones.
- They all have rounded edges
- they have capactitive touch screens
- the iphone and gs3 have home buttons
- all three have cameras
- volume buttons and power buttons
Differences (Which lay with physical attributes)
- The only phone that has a bezel on it is the iphone, the other two phones wouldn't necessarily have what is to be considered a bezel since the body of the phone is all one piece that wraps around the glass, and not 3 to 4 pieces that fit on to a frame that creates the bezel.
- The volume buttons are also different. The iphone has 2 physical buttons -/+ for volume up and down, and screen lock button, home button, and a power button. The galaxy s 3 and fascinate have a power button on the side of the phone not on top, a volume "rocker" which in true form is a button that just rocks up or down depending on what your volume preference is, and a home button that is more rectangular in nature than round.
- The cameras on the iphone are offset to the side of the phone where the samsung phones it varies per model. we can get into really detailed specifics, but I would like to keep this is minimalistic as possible.
- Newer samsung phones have a slight curve to their body in contrast to the phone prior which has a slight hump on the back of the phone, which was usually focused near the bottom of the phone. Where as the iphone was simply flat on both sides without a curvature to its body.
- Unlike the iphone line almost all samsung phones had other buttons that are touch sensitive and on screen buttons that help with navigation of the device.
Do note that there are plenty more differences and similarities on a per device basis, but as for what is currently listed, does the make samsung phones copy cats of the iphone or hard to determine what is a samsung phone and what is an iphone?
In truth neither of which I believe to be true and this is why. Its a consumer market out there, and with most consumers they usually research enough of what they want to get next or see enough ads on TV that they should be able to distinguish between what is an apple iphone and what is not.
The iphone is a very distinctive phone even for its very simple and streamlined appearance, why is this the case? Well besides the fact there is a nice big apple on the back of the phone, the most remembered feature of this phone is the "round" home button at the bottom of the phone, the smaller screen that has been the same size for near 4 generations of the phone, and the rest of the common place features of the phone itself.
As with the samsung devices mentioned the only striking similarity is the home button on the Galaxy s 3, and even which any one who knows what an iphone looks like would know that this, even though carries the same functionality, is not the same design. Samsung devices are naturally larger in size, come in may colors, different sized buttons and style of buttons, and the brand "Samsung" in bold print on the front of the phone itself.
So for these issues on top of patent infringements apple now wants 2.88 Billion dollars in damages.
Now I know I didnt cover eveything that is being discussed with the entire court hearing, but this part really caught my attention. My overall opinion is that Samsung is simply trying to compete in a market that is driven by consumer wants and needs and that apple, despite their fighting spirit, seem to want to control the market with all the lawsuits they have out there against other manufactures in other countries.
Please leave comments about your thoughts over this battle between two of the biggest tech giants in the technology industry.
