2010: Samsung Outlines 126 Different Ways The Galaxy Series Can Improve To Be More Like The iPhone
Apple succeeded yesterday in getting yet another internal Samsung report comparing the iPhone to Samsung’s own Galaxy S series into evidence. This report from 2010 shows Samsung highlighting 126 different aspects of the company’s Galaxy S smartphone line that were considered to need improvement. Samsung is recognizing that Apple’s user experience is superior and changes Samsung needs to make to improve the Galaxy series.
The report itself isn’t by any means a slam dunk for Apple, as it shows that Samsung was merely looking to use the iPhone as a superior device and was looking at how Apple achieved some of their solutions to user interface problems.
The report does show that Samsung’s product engineering team wanted to test everything from the home screen to the browser to the built-in apps, to the ability to the same icon on the home screen multiple times on both devices. In each case, Samsung comes up with a recommendation on how it should move forward and in most cases, they want to make it more like the iPhone.
No matter where you stand, it’s pretty easy to see that the Galaxy “S1″ would be a better product if it looked and behaved more like the iPhone, featuring a similar user interface.
The thing is, companies do this all the time, they make charts and pretty powerpoints comparing their own products to the competition, this is all pretty standard in the business world. Almost none of these companies have it scrutinized in a highly publicized trial, and that’s exactly what Samsung is battling now.
All in all, this document really tells us that Samsung saw a lot of fault with their own product and wanted to make it better, using the iPhone as a guide. The question is whether or not a jury will see it as a guide or as a copy. In order for Apple to win this case, it has to prove Samsung did more than just made its phones more “iPhone-like.” It has to prove that it infringed on design and utility patents at the heart of this court case, or that it infringed on specific design elements Apple has patented for its iOS products.
You can read the guide at the link below:
This looks to me like a Usability Study. I even read a nice book on website usability which included screenshots of websites which did both a good and a bad job of each point the author was illustrating. It is a great way to learn.
IANAL: This by itself is not damning evidence, but if their designers were lazy and their bosses approved design changes that were too close to the look of the corresponding iPhone's feature then I suspect this could be evidence of a problem.
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