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  > Look at the following photo and tell me that Samsung 
  > didn't completely rip off the iPhone's look and feel, 
  > right down to the icon layout

A grid of icons with text underneath is considered ripping off Apple now? Are you serious?

  > Samsung had an opportunity to innovate in a way that 
  > would make the Galaxy S2 look and feel nothing like an 
  > iPhone and instead look and feel like a new, innovative 
  > product. They clearly didn't do that.

Have you actually used a Samsung Android phone? The "look and feel" is nothing like an iPhone. In some cases this is to Samsung's detriment. Just because one screen happens to look similar to an iPhone doesn't mean the entire UI is copied.

  > Comments like "My G2 has a back button unlike the iPhone" 
  > or "But the icons have square corners instead of rounded 
  > corners!!", in my opinion, completely miss the point.

But they're entirely the point! You can not say on one hand that Samsung is incapable of differentiating their product, and then wave away all the ways in which their product is differentiated.

  > The point is that Samsung is clearly trying their hardest to make their 
  > products look very similar to Apple's products.

Recall that iOS 5 has been announced with a notification tray that is a carbon copy of Android's notification tray. Taking good features from the competition and iterating on them is par for the course.

But they're entirely the point! You can not say on one hand that Samsung is incapable of differentiating their product, and then wave away all the ways in which their product is differentiated.

You can unless the difference is attributable to Samsung. The back button was present on Android prototypes in 2007. Samsung didn't hop on the Android bandwagon until 2009.

    A grid of icons with text underneath is considered *ripping off*
    Apple now? Are you serious?

As I said in another comment here:

    It's not just the app icon layout. It should be obvious to any
    casual observer just how many things Samsung copied: the 
    highlighting on the bottom row of icons, the dots that represent 
    different pages of apps, the overall aesthetics of the handset
    itself, etc.
    
    Pointing out one of these things and saying "Should Apple have a 
    monopoly on X?" is, once again, missing the point. It's the 
    combination of X, Y, and Z that makes the product look like an 
    iPhone instead of a differentiated product.

You said:

    Have you actually used a Samsung Android phone? The "look and
    feel" is nothing like an iPhone. [...] Just because one screen 
    happens to look similar to an iPhone doesn't mean the entire UI 
    is copied.

If Samsung's Android phones have differentiated user experiences that aren't evident from the home screen, then I applaud them. That doesn't, in my opinion, negate the fact that their home screen and phone design looks entirely too similar to the iPhone.

    You can not say on one hand that Samsung is incapable of 
    differentiating their product, and then wave away all the ways in 
    which their product is differentiated.

I never said that. My point is that those minor tweaks are, in my opinion, insignificant in relation to how similar the rest of it looks. To proffer a crude and admittedly horrible analogy, it seems like Samsung is painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa and selling it as a separate product.

In any case, I'm guessing we disagree on how much differentiation Samsung has done here, but different opinions are what make the world go 'round. :)

    Recall that iOS 5 has been announced with a notification tray 
    that is a carbon copy of Android's notification tray. Taking good 
    features from the competition and iterating on them is par for 
    the course.

I agree completely, which is why I've said all along that this whole patent litigation silliness should go away.

> If Samsung's Android phones have differentiated user experiences that aren't evident from the home screen, then I applaud them. That doesn't, in my opinion, negate the fact that their home screen and phone design looks entirely too similar to the iPhone.

why would you expect these two products to be differentiated on every feature? do you actually expect two touch screen phones to be different in every way? is it ridiculous that iphone's voice calling feature (where you can talk, and someone on the other side can hear you) is a "carbon copy" of old dumb phones?

> their home screen [...] looks entirely too similar to the iPhone

Maybe that's a small nit, but Samsungs's home screen looks nothing at all like the iPhone. You have to go to the less used "applications list screen" on their phones and compare that to the iPhone's default home screen so that they look similar. It is less used because on android you put you most accessed stuff on the main screen and click the icons/widgets form there.

Here is a pic: http://www.itworld.com/sites/default/files/iPhone_vs_Galaxy-...

Left is iPhone's main screen, middle is Samsung's application list (I heard it repeated so much even I used to think that was Samsung's home screen), right is Samsung's actual home screen which is very different.

> A grid of icons with text underneath is considered ripping off Apple now? Are you serious?

People keep using this same argument, but there's a little more too it than that. For example, if a graphic designer took the Coca-Cola logo and changed it just slightly. By your logic, they are in the clear because it's just "type", it's not like Coca-Cola invented fonts, right?

I think most people agree that there are enough similarities between the phones that it could be confusing, hence Apple is trying to protect it. You don't hear anyone complaining that MS ripped off Apple. MS came up with something that is different. All though it's still just a "grid of icons with text underneath".

A grid of icons with text underneath has been with us since the start of WIMP interfaces, and every OS that has a GUI has displayed this. Comparing it to the static image of a highly-stylised corporate logo is utter nonsense.

The screens are always going to be black. Is having a black surround to match exclusive to Apple?

The device is always going to have corners; are Apple the only ones who are allowed to evenly round the corners? I'm viewing this on a Samsung monitor, which has evenly rounded corners...

I don't deny the Samsung device has similarities, but... Apple have gone out of their way to make the iPhone look very, very generic quite frankly. Call it minimalist if you want, but it has so few visible features as a piece of hardware that if you're going to produce a competing device then there really aren't very many ways to make sure it doesn't look at least slightly like one or other design generation of iPhone.

Windows Phone 7 has proven that it is very possible to innovate on interface. I really don't think the physical similarity really matters -- they're mostly just black slabs with screens. Doesn't seem like copying to me. The interface, on the other hand, looks almost exactly like the iPhone.

The Voice-Features on the G2 are mixed Google and Vlingo products. Samsung chose to incorporate Vlingos Technology in addition to Googles since it allows for easier in-car usage of the Phone.

Why do people always compare the Applists? There are not many ways to display a list of icons in a meaningful way. The Windows Desktop has had a grid of icons for years and there was much else like that beforehand, but in addition the Android handsets offer more useful ways of using the screen when not starting apps(widgets&live backgrounds).

I won't admit that Samsung sure took inspiration from Apple, but that is true for most of the things, if not only because of usability reasons. There are just some design patterns that have proven to work and which people have come to expect. The race should be about who makes the best phone, not who made the first design patents.

Apple didn't have copy and paste on a mobile phone long after windows mobile had it... should microsoft have sued because of that?

I just want the best of all worlds and Samsung delivers there. If they have to stop selling the Galaxies in Europe, i'd import them from Asia.

It's not just the app icon layout. It should be obvious to any casual observer just how many things Samsung copied: the highlighting on the bottom row of icons, the dots that represent different pages of apps, the overall aesthetics of the handset itself, etc.

Pointing out one of these things and saying "Should Apple have a monopoly on X?" is, once again, missing the point. It's the combination of X, Y, and Z that makes the product look like an iPhone instead of a differentiated product.

Defending this practice with "There aren't many ways to do X" doesn't seem like a very persuasive argument. Before the iPhone was introduced, companies seemed to find a myriad of ways to do these same things. Once the iPhone became overwhelmingly popular, however, companies like Samsung stopped trying to raise the bar and just made their products as Apple-like as possible.

So to reiterate my original point, I think Samsung should differentiate their design functions and aesthetics instead of mimicking Apple. Samsung isn't going to hit the ball out of the park if they keep making conservative bets -- they should take some chances.

But as I said from the very beginning, the common good is better served without all this software patent litigation crap. As much as I think Samsung does itself a disservice by mimicking Apple so closely, it probably should be regulated to a moral question rather than a legal one.