

Samsung internal document evaluating the iPhone (translated) - kposehn
http://www.scribd.com/mobile/doc/102317767

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dchest
"We study every car in order to discover if it has features that might be
developed and adapted. If any one has anything better than we have we want to
know it, and for that reason we buy one of every new car that comes out.
Usually the car is used for a while, put through a road test, taken apart, and
studied as to how and of what everything is made. Scattered about Dearborn
there is probably one of nearly every make of car on earth. Every little while
when we buy a new car it gets into the newspapers and somebody remarks that
Ford doesn't use the Ford. Last year we ordered a big Lanchester--which is
supposed to be the best car in England. It lay in our Long Island factory for
several months and then I decided to drive it to Detroit. There were several
of us and we had a little caravan--the Lanchester, a Packard, and a Ford or
two. I happened to be riding in the Lanchester passing through a New York town
and when the reporters came up they wanted to know right away why I was not
riding in a Ford.

"Well, you see, it is this way," I answered. "I am on a vacation now; I am in
no hurry, we do not care much when we get home. That is the reason I am not in
the Ford."

You know, we also have a line of "Ford stories"!"

\-- _Henry Ford, My Life and Work_ (<http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7213>)

~~~
kokey
Reminds me when I was at a car factory that manufactured Ford, Mazda and
Mitsubishi cars for Africa. They had a model of a car from a different
manufacturer at their office. I won't forget the sight of all the doors and
hood being open while a number of people were inspecting the inside and
outside of the car.

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bobsy
I don't think there is anything wrong with this documentation. I am sure
Samsung has hundreds of other documents for other devices.

A good company looks at the competition and takes apart what they are doing
right and wrong. Its what the company I work for does. We own a copy every
competitors software. When a new version comes out we look at each change to
see if there is anything we can learn and if we need to react to it. I am sure
competitors do similar things with our products.

Its how you react to this study which defines you I guess. We don't just clone
features. If we need to react to a feature we will probably put in something
similar but it will be our take on it so it fits with our design and UI
principles.

Contrast this to Samsung. This document does look like a lot like. "On the
right is what we have now. On the left is how it should work." This is
probably why they are being sued.

~~~
gnaffle
I'm sure they've made similar comparisons, just look at the Samsung phones
that preceded the iPhone. But if they have hundreds of other documents, I
assume they would try to get them admitted into court in order to marginalize
this document. And failing that, that they would leak it to the press in order
to win popular support.

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micheljansen
I was kind of hoping that this document would also address some weaknesses in
iOS an propose solutions for Samsung to innovate ahead of Apple, but if they
had such an analysis, it's not in this document.

Still, this really is a goldmine of stuff. I particularly like the bits about
the keyboard, which Samsung clearly styled to be nearly visually identical to
the iPhone's keyboard, yet misses so many subtleties.

Also, from slide 105 (p110): The iPhone's camera (3G?) actually takes 3 times
as long to start as the camera on the S1, but Apple makes it _feel_ faster by
showing a shutter animation. Perceived speed is so important and Apple is a
master of illusions.

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jhuckestein
Wow. This document illustrates exactly why design and attention to detail
matters. In absolutely every comparison the iPhone just makes sense and works
and the S1 has some kind of clumsiness. Very impressive, Apple.

~~~
maegget
Almost every "Directions for improvement" statement could be replaced with "Do
it how the iPhone does it" and still basically be saying the same thing.

Some example "Directions for improvement" statements:

* Phone: Need to modify the call end button on the call screen so that it is a separate large button

* Calendar: The date displayed on the Calendar icon should match the current date on the phone

* Calendar: Need to modify by enlarging the area displaying daily schedule and the font size in order to address the low visibility

* PC Program: Need to [make some kind of change], like iTunes

Picturing myself as a Samsung engineer having finished reading that document,
I could quite easily think "they just want us to copy the iPhone as closely as
possible" even though the wording in the document itself doesn't explicitly
say "copy the iPhone".

~~~
jkn
As a Samsung engineer I would think "they want us to stop making crap and
learn from the iPhone". These are all cases where the iPhone basically does it
the Right Way.

For every issue they explain why the iPhone does it well and the S1 not. To me
it doesn't read like they want to copy the iPhone, but rather like they want
to make it right (by copying the iPhone). Important distinction. This is
consistent with their last direction for improvement: "Remove a feeling that
iPhone's menu icons are copied by differentiating design".

~~~
cremnob
The intuitiveness is why Apple makes great products. That takes time and money
to do right. Everything looks obvious and simple in hindsight. This really
makes me question my stance on software patents.

~~~
hazov
After all it would be so nice if Microsoft patented kernel low level
algorithms and we would not be able to run these cheap Linux servers in the
US.

Or if IBM patented them first in which case MS and Apple would not even
exists, long live software patents.

Sorry for the sarcasm.

~~~
maxd
I would suggest we are not even talking about software patents but design and
dress patents. I dont really think you can compare low level kernel algorithms
to a visual design and dress patents. So to me thats an unfair comparison. In
fact according to to other documents Ive seen, these are all dress patents
being argued over.

~~~
KaoruAoiShiho
Usability is technology. In every case in the document, it's, we got it wrong,
the iphone got it right, let's fix it. Not, let's copy the look and feel of
the iphone, it's purely a usability comparison not a style comparison.

~~~
maxd
In other words, you dont know what a design patent or a dress patent is.
gotcha...

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RivieraKid
I am an Android fan but Samsung simply doesn't "get" UI design and user
experience. Sometimes even the most basic things.

~~~
Blara
Good thing Google seems to have improved their sense of UX/UI since ICS, I
love my Galaxy Nexus with Jelly Bean

~~~
Tyrannosaurs
Are Samsung and others still screwing up the vanilla Android UI with things
which are worse?

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yogrish
IMO, Samsung has come a long way in smartphone market just because it copied
or got inspired from one and only Apple. Few years back it was one among
Nokia,RIM,HTC. Now, it has transformed/evolved itself Technologically and
Aesthetically (see the power and design of S3)by looking at apple (i would say
getting indirectly groomed by apple) and now as analyst Neil Shah puts it
"Volumes have polarized around only these two
brands".([http://mashable.com/2012/07/27/samsung-surpasses-iphone-
ship...](http://mashable.com/2012/07/27/samsung-surpasses-iphone-shipments))
So,it is time to pay back at least part of its profit share to Apple. And
then, from now continue on its own innovations instead of Ctrl-C &Ctrl-V from
Apple.

~~~
stinos
yup, and basically Apple just did Copy/Paste/Polish from others, who in turn
did Copy/Paste/Polish from others. And so on, and so on, back to the inventor
of the portable phone. Now let's all pay him back.

~~~
Tloewald
It's one thing to look at what's come before and synthesize and improve on it.
This OS "creativity". The idea that all everyone does is copy and paste is
ridiculous and disingenuous.

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babuskov
Hey, I like any document containing "Plaintiff's exhibit" and "Highly
confidential - Attorney's Eyes Only" made publicly available on the Internet
;)

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pohl
I haven't been able to follow discussions of this case closely, but from the
samples that I have seen, the dominant narrative seems to be that the
similarities between Samsung's devices and those of Apple are like the
similarities between the Great White Shark and the Orca: of course they're
sleek & hydrodynamic, of course they have dorsal fins, of course they have
sharp, pointy teeth — they are filling similar niches, and given enough time
evolution can make sea-dwelling, top-predator mammal look like a sea-dwelling,
top-predator fish.

But now it looks like the designers of the orca have been studying the shark
in excruciating detail.

If these design elements of touch-screen phones are so obvious and natural,
then why do deep, point-by-point comparisons like this?

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ivanmilles
I get advertisements for the S3 inbetween pages. Nice touch.

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wdr1
Does anyone have a link to the straight up PDF version?

It's easier for me to read the text that way & I think it's sorta evil Scribd
wants me to log in (or give access to my Facebook account?) before I can
download.

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phatbyte
This should be transformed into a book on good VS bad UI practices

