Apple Offers Samsung Suggestions for Differentiating Its Products

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Posted December 2, 2011 at 7:24pm by iClarified

As part of the legal proceedings in its case against Samsung, Apple has outlined some alternative design options that could have been used to differentiate the Galaxy devices from the iPhone and iPad, reports The Verge.

In its defense against Apple's request for an injunction, Samsung argues that it had no other feasible design options when creating the Galaxy S, Infuse, and Galaxy Tab 10.1. In order to prove to the court that Samsung did have other options, Apple has had to provide suggestions on how the company might have differentiated its products.

Here's some of Apple's ideas:

Smartphones:
● Front surface that isn't black.
● Overall shape that isn't rectangular, or doesn't have rounded corners.
● Display screens that aren't centered on the front face and have substantial lateral borders.
● Non-horizontal speaker slots.
● Front surfaces with substantial adornment.
● No front bezel at all.

Tablets:
● Overall shape that isn't rectangular, or doesn't have rounded corners.
● Thick frames rather than a thin rim around the front surface.
● Front surface that isn't entirely flat.
● Profiles that aren't thin.
● Cluttered appearance.

Let us know what design changes you think Samsung could have made to differentiate itself from Apple products.

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Apple Offers Samsung Suggestions for Differentiating Its Products

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tabosko - December 3, 2011 at 9:57pm

WHAT THE HELL???? you might as well sue every single company with mobile technology based on those factors! hell hey would have to sue themselves is thats the bases.

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Mohammad - December 3, 2011 at 3:03pm

They could have: 1. have less or more real buttons, with different places 2. the placement of the camera could have been different. 3. A different system control, like a different approach on how to unlock, change volume, take a picture. but overall all smart-phones have some same features that you can't make different compared to it. Sometimes what apple is doing seems like: the CEO of Benz telling the CEO of BMW:" hey go and make a car with out whees" which is stupid, hope apple won't be doing that

Junaid - December 3, 2011 at 7:38am

hahahaha, very funny, i so hate Samsung.

x86tech - December 3, 2011 at 2:04am

Place a big SAMSUNG name on the front. That's it.

tim - December 3, 2011 at 12:48am

well samsung products are clear rip offs of apple designs. the samsung os is far to close to apples layout. windows, htc or hp have great os layouts! why does samsung look like apples? Same for the case design on the tablet. they look almost identical. The phones are close but no as close as the tablet. so its almost a "let it go scenario on the Phone design when not talking of the os." its too bad, samsung makes really great hardware. just my 2 cents.

Seanobx - December 3, 2011 at 12:38am

One major way they could have differentiated was make them in colors. Apple ok silver white black. Three colors only for the chassis design. If Samsung made different colors there's no mistaking which is Apple and which is not

aussie1 - December 2, 2011 at 10:50pm

To those who think Apple's suggestions are stupid: do you really think Apple will suggest good design options to a competitor? Will you? I will suggest adding wheels to the tablet so that it can roll of a table if it makes the competitor's product look silly :)

iubuntu - December 2, 2011 at 9:56pm

May not have a screen, battery, or buttons

Nick - December 2, 2011 at 9:56pm

Just because you don't like Apple and their products doesn't mean you have to put down those that do. Just because people may pay more for something doesn't mean they did it to feel "special" or "trendy". I like my Macbook because I do a lot of work that can only be done with a Mac, and I also have it setup to dual boot into Windows. I personally like the design in the macbook (especially the touchpad) more than any other laptop I've ever used. The iPhone's price isn't that far off the competition and neither is the iPad, so your arguments there are incorrect. I like the iPhone and iPad because of how great they work, especially together and with a Macbook. Everything just works and is very fluent on Apple products, and that's what I like about them. I'm still a huge Windows person and I'll always be, but Apple got the mobile part right and since I can still use Windows with it, it doesn't bother me.

Tjp - December 3, 2011 at 12:55am

If the competitors can make the same hardware and sell it for 1/3 the price Apple charges, then why are all the macbook air clones, errr... ultra books, looking for ways to cut costs to be competitive with Apple's products. Apple actually invents not only the designs of the products, but the production methods in many cases. And, I invented a touchscreen tablet (single touch at the time, who knew) in the mid to late 1970s, with a few prototypes in the early 1980s. They had square-ish corners and a raised bevel over the touchscreen area and squared off in one, and rounded over in another lump at one side/end where the battery pack lived. It also server as the handle in landscape mode, and added stability in portrait mode. They were based on Inmos transputers and ran about 35 to 75 minutes on a charge and weighed about 1.5 pounds. There are a bunch of still innovative features in them, but they were pretty void of buttons. They were novel at the time as they had a docking connector for smart peripherals (that could have more processors... disks, a/d converters, and lots more planned but never prototyped. So lots of different possible designs. Just because one seems like the natural form now doesn't mean it wasn't unique. Look at the tablets that came before it. Lots of buttons, interruptions to the front surface, gray or black plastic with ribs and other textures, round or square obvious grills for speakers, usually downward firing as if the desk was the work environment, and most often even on touch devices a separate keypad or keyboard. Much like a fat version of an original Amazon Kindle might look like. As the Amazon Kindle sort of looks like the tablets that came before it. Then of course the Fire is out and looks much more "modern" as we've all been exposed to the iPad meme. Stop hating people for wanting to protect their own stuff.

hahahaha - December 2, 2011 at 9:25pm

oh gosh that was hilarious i'm glad i have an iPhone and an iPad coz if they made the galaxy products look like what apple suggested i dunno what i'd end up with. those suggestions are really screwed up.

Josh howe - December 2, 2011 at 9:14pm

Samsung could of made there smart phones in a number of different bright colours and sizes in displays like 3.7" small, 4.3 medium and 5" large. Tablets can be the same but with 7" small, 8.5" medium and 10.1" large sizes. All these with smaller rounded bezels in the different Colours matching the colours of the Devices them selves. They could have had a thin curved back with the coloured plastic as before. The different sized Displays can be curved displays featuring android touch buttons or like the galaxy nexus smart phone no touch buttons for ice Cream sandwich os. And

Josh howe - December 2, 2011 at 9:13pm

Me84 - December 2, 2011 at 8:58pm

Before Apple released phone, each manufacturer has their own look and feel. After Apple released a phone, Apple's approach is the only one that makes sense. Now the same seems to be true for tablets. I find it funny that Samsung is claiming that they have no other feasible design options. If it is so obvious that the design has to look this way, why didn't any tablet manufacturer's do it before Apple?

iubuntu - December 2, 2011 at 10:01pm

Because before apple, tablets weren't the practical, slim devices they are now. They were clunky, expensive devices that resembled a laptop with the movement of the screen.

Tjp - December 3, 2011 at 1:04am

They were clunky before because manufactures though consumers wanted a high end game playing computer in tablet form. What people want as expressed by iPad sales, is a simple appliance that can have a few features added. But basically read books and documents, do email, search the web, and a few other bells and whistles possible with a lower powered processor, and most of all consumers trade that power for 7-10 hours of useful battery life. There are still lots of design options that don't look like an iPhone or iPad though ... Like an OLED touch display with no buttons that is minimally rounded at the corner with narrow margins. Essentially wall to wall display, no speaker hole on the front surface, no home button on the front surface. Rather than copy Apple, folks need to go beyond J. Ives and co. and go even more minimal. Something that looked like a letter pad at rest would do the trick.

dt - December 2, 2011 at 8:34pm

This is probably in reply to Samsung's advertisements making phone iPhone users who sometimes wait in line to purchase an iPhone.

Tjp - December 3, 2011 at 12:57am

You mean those ads are not making fun of Samsung for not having products worth waiting in line for? Wow. wrong meme from them on my part. oops...

Lm - December 2, 2011 at 8:05pm

I didnt know apple was this stupid! I like suggesting make a car with no wheels, doors and windows.

lool - December 2, 2011 at 9:50pm

lool I completely agree. What if for example Ford tried to band the sale of Chevrolet vehicles somewhere because they said it looks too much like a car. That is essentially what apple is doing to Sammy. Your tablet looks like a tablet therefore it should be banned from use. What do they want them to do???? Maybe they should just use a single block of aluminum and machine it to make it look all pretty slap in some hardware comparable to other tablets and raise the price by about 100 to 200 dollars..... oh wait.... Apple already does that...

asd - December 2, 2011 at 7:31pm

Hahaha, Apple made me laugh.

LOL@Samsung - December 2, 2011 at 7:38pm

Hahahahahhaahaa... I'm an apple fan boy .. .but still those suggestions are pretty hilarious..LOL

Nick - December 2, 2011 at 7:50pm

Wow lol, I agree with both of you, Apple's suggestions are ridiculous.

matrixmaniac - December 2, 2011 at 9:44pm

yeah, some are ridiculous... some are not, though. E.g. rectangular shape with rounded corners is a very distinctive design element. I'd say it was introduced by Braun's designer (a guy who inspired lots of Jony Ive's and Apple's designs). I believe that even Steve had to convince some people about this design element at one point in time. It's used all over in Apple's design language. And there clearly are alternatives (e.g. rectangular corners). Look at Acer's tablets. Nobody would think they could be from Apple.... So, even if it all sounds silly it's all about design and detail and it seems obvious to me that Samsung did copy lots of that and much more.