Whether you are Android or iOS team, it cannot be argued that the first iPhone that came out in 2007 was that Basis for the modern smartphone. Apple’s mobile phone was the first to popularize touchscreens, and the company was also the first to introduce application storage. Other vendors quickly followed suit, and one of them managed to surpass Apple in smartphone sales: Samsung.
That certainly left a sour taste in the mouths of the company’s top dogs. Perhaps in an attempt to downplay Samsung’s success, a company executive says the South Korean giant’s phones are just bad rip-offs.
The iPhone turns 15
The Wall Street Journal Joanna Stern made one Documentary (via MacRumors) on the evolution of the iPhone since its inception on June 29, 2007. She interviewed top Apple executives, including some who no longer work at the company, as well as a couple whose first child was born on the same day as the iPhone.
When Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was asked to make a bigger iPhone after some signal loss issues with the 2010 iPhone 4 because of its small 3.5-inch footprint, he said he wasn’t a fan of bigger phones from companies like Samsung, because “she can’t believe it” and “nobody’s going to buy this”.
By 2013, Apple was starting to reconsider as sales slowed. Meanwhile, phones larger than 4 inches were gaining momentum.
The leading big-screen phones at the time were Samsung’s Galaxy S and Note phones. Apple responded by giving the 2014 iPhone 6 a larger display it worked. Never the one to miss an opportunity like this, Samsung Quickly poked fun at Apple for taking back his words.
When Stern asked Apple’s marketing chief Greg Joswiak about Samsung and other Android makers releasing bigger phones at the time, he said he found them annoyed because they only produced bad iPhone knock-offs.
They were annoying. And they were angry because, as you know, they ripped off our technology. They took the innovations we had created and made a bad copy of it and just put a bigger screen around it. So yeah, we weren’t too pleased.”
Funnily enough, the video begins with iPod and iPhone co-creator Tony Fadell saying that the company started work on the iPhone after competitors began releasing feature phones with camera and music capabilities.
Apple actually sued Samsung in court in 2011 for copying its design and user interface, initially winning almost $1 billion in damages. That two settled in 2018, but Apple maintained its stance that it started the smartphone revolution and Samsung was blatantly copying its design.
Around the same time, Apple was also involved in legal battles with manufacturers such as HTC, Motorola, Amazon, and Nokia, some of which had been sued and others sued.
When Stern reached out to a Samsung spokesman, they said the company has pioneered many industry firsts, such as large OLED displays, which Apple buys from him, by the way, and water and dust resistance. The first Apple phones were powered by Samsung processors.
Both Samsung and Apple are behind some of the best phones of 2022 and at the end of the day, it’s a win for consumers by copying each other’s features.