Samsung mini-shop in Italy 'borrows' Apple artwork, icons
updated 10:25 pm EDT, Fri September 23, 2011
Reinforces Apple's claim of "slavish" copying
Samsung, which has been aggressively fighting the perception that it copies Apple's designs and steals its patents, suffered an ironic embarrassment when a photograph surfaced on the company's website showing Samsung's "store-within-a-store" -- itself an Apple concept -- in Italy's Centro Sicilia. The wall design for the mini-shop appears to feature a number of distinctly Apple app icons, including Safari and three instances of the iTunes App Store logo.
As All Things D notes, it's possible that the display wall was re-appropriated from some other even or product launch -- or just an example of sloppy workmanship by a printing company that given a simple mandate to fill the wall with app icons. Needless to say, Apple does not offer Safari or the iTunes App Store for Android or other mobile platforms, which phones from Samsung would run.
Samsung has not commented on the report, the site notes. [via All Things D]
Professional Poster
Joined: Jul 2005
Really not helping their case
The problem is that Samsung is run by people from a different culture (Asia) where ripping off someone else's work is not seen as immoral like it is in the US. So they keep saying that they've done nothing wrong, partly because they've been raised in a way that for all their lives what they do is seen as totally moral. The problem is that Samsung wants to exist in Western markets. I almost assure you that South Korea is going to side with Samsung regardless of what their own laws are simply because of the fact that Samsung is a local company. This whole thing has really soured me on buying anything Samsung related ... well that plus four defective hard drives.