“When 19th century British writer Charles Caleb Colton mused that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, it’s safe to say he wasn’t envisioning today’s tech wars,” Michael Simon writes for Macworld.
“But his timeless witticism has never been more apt,” Simon writes. “Just last week Samsung gave us a peek at its next Gear smartwatch, the Gear S2, and surprise, surprise, it bears a not-so-passing resemblance to Apple Watch’s interface of circular icons.”
Simon writes, “In fact, I’m willing to bet that next year’s Gear S3 is going to ditch the traditional round face for a square one.”
Full article here.
Brad Reed reports for BGR:
In case you need a reminder, this is what the original Gear S looked like when it launched last year:
And then the Apple Watch came out and it featured a home screen with app icons that looked like this:
And then lo and behold, Samsung’s new smartwatch features a home screen with watch icons that look like this:
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What an incredible coincidence, indeed.
Once Google steals Apple’s watchOS ideas and Android watch makers figure out they need to make square displays (lists are square, not round, and lists dominate smartwatch uses), steal the Digital Crown and Force Touch claiming both were obvious, and begin marketing their insecure knockoffs – Buy One Get One Free! – to the world’s billions of meatheads, dullards, and dopes, they’ll begin to move millions of units at razor-thin profits or, more likely, at a loss. — MacDailyNews, August 14, 2015
SEE ALSO:
Amazon and Best Buy slash prices on Moto 360 stupidwatch – April 10, 2015
Apple Watch technologies that destroy Android Wear stupidwatches – part 2 – March 18, 2015
Apple Watch technologies that destroy Android Wear stupidwatches – March 17, 2015
Apple Watch vs. the stupidwatches: No contest – March 10, 2015
Woz on Samsung Galaxy Gear stupidwatch: I threw out the worthless thing after half a day – July 2, 2014
Clueless companies race to debut stupidwatches before Apple defines the smartwatch – January 3, 2014
I can see Samsung copying but the courts, the patent office etc won’t be able to…
(I’m not saying these icons are patentable but just lamenting that judges etc wouldn’t even be able to ‘see’ Samsung’s shameless tendencies to copy).
Samsung is doing this because they think they are now ‘winning’ the iPhone USA patent case on appeal.
The icons may be protected as “trade dress” or by copyright, etc. perhaps – even if not patentable as intellectual property.
The icon design theft “on display” here (literally) is truly blatant. I know the lawsuit wars are winding down, but this one seems to beg for a cease and desist….
Round, lively colored icons are just a sign of the times, with ultrathin fonts, flat imagery, dull backgrounds livened up with a touch of color. Just look at today’s web sites.
Yet round icons are much more convenient for packing closely on a hexagonal grid.
Everything that Apple invents and releases as a product becomes the sign of the times lately… Wouldn’t you agree?
Samsung is a disgusting company. And ANY software designer or engineer that works for them is incompetent.
Even if the CEO boos tells you to copy AGAIN – you people have absolutely no integrity let alone creativity or self worth to say no.
Anyone that uses a Samsung Android phone is as lame as it has ever been to be lame.
Blah blah blah, all other technology stinks. Blah blah blah, Apple is the best at everything. Ugh, this site has become an Apple troll site.
Yes, this is an Apple fan site.. no apologies here. I give credit to other companies when it is due. samsung is a shameless copy artist for the most part. I disagree with MDN however- i think the round face is cool and there will be future round Apple watch. The round Icons and app layout and zooming are usable for square or round faces. If no round watch was planned, why not use a grid and square icons like IOS? The ironic thing is that samsung will use it before Apple…
Apple made the watch rectangular because it shows data better. Samsung made their watch round because they don’t do any usability testing.
Yes it’s better for data. It’s not beautiful. My wife wears hers for casual use only because it is clunky. Fashion is not always about function. There will be a round option in the future…iCal it
So stay with Samsung – the non-innovative cheap phone that most lower IQ people buy and use.
Why don’t you go to the point? Do you think Samsung was not “inspired” by AppleWatch look?
First one Samsung did was MUCH BETER. Bigger screen.
Unless you can do Dick Tracy calls on an Apple watch, NO sale.
But, I think it’s just a matter of time.
You can do Dick Tracy calls.
Yep. My wife’s favorite feature. 🙂
Generally, consumers don’t buy into acquiring “copies.”
Samsung needs to modernize their thinking beyond what is found inside the borders of Korean thought!
Yet here we are discussing all of the things SameSong has copied from Apple and sold to the masses. 😛
Samsung will lose a little bit on each watch, but attempt to make it up in volume. Marketshare!
Samsung is in death road….
Tired of this……
Like it, or hate it, round isn’t square.
The previous Samsung watch models looked the way they did, because they were copying the iPhone interface and making it smaller. It even looks like a bent mini- iPhone 3G with a wrist strap, complete with “home” button exactly where you’d expect.
Now that Apple has released Apple Watch with a newly created interface that is optimized for the wrist (and extra small size), Samsung has had enough time to ditch their old copycat interface to start a new copycat interface.
Nothing to worry about. The courts failed but the 6plus was the fatal blow to Sammy. In 6 months they will be back to feature phones
That’s not copying, the sun on the cloud/weather icon is on the right side, not the left! 😉
Because they traced it in a mirror.
Samdung making sure we dont forget the lowlives they are !
It is round! Samsung Gear 2 orifice S+ , with circle the hole round icons.
The next big thing! 😉
Nothing new from the number one POS Slavish IP copying Guilty as hell SAMSUNG. 👹
I’ve talked two sets of family members out of buying Scumsang washer / dryer sets because of Scumsang’s lack of ethics.
Feels good to have deprived them of a couple of thousand dollars in revenue.
The Samsung Gear S was ahead of it’s time to the point of being a little too scifi – essentially a phone bent over the wrist. When Apple Watch first broke cover I was initially disappointed with its almost traditional watch look, but it was the right direction to take if Apple actually wanted to sell some. And I bought one too. Yes, the new Gear S2 is similar, but Samsung have to follow the market leader if they’re going to make any headway in this new market segment.