Thanks to Apple ’s fete - or - famine approach to product announcements , January can be a irksome calendar month for the Macworld crowd . The last batch of new product come out in the declivity , and the next ones in all probability wo n’t be here until the spring ; in between , we thrill and get blase . In their wintry desperation , keynote - starved Apple reporters have even been known to watch product first appearance by other companies .
I do n’t cognise if I ’ll go that far this week when Samsung hold its next Galaxy Unpacked event . Not because Samsung phone are in and of itself substandard to iPhones — although coincidently they are — but because I feel like I ’ve see it all before .
Samsung , you see , is the original . Not , deplorably , in the sense that it does thing first , but in the sense that it was run off iPhone designs before it was cool . I recognize this because the long - running patent conflict between Apple and Samsung was my first heartbeat subject as a Macworld newsman . The first lawsuit were file back in 2011 , and thesagadragged on until 2018 . I got a bunch of articles out of that difference , and an appearance on British TV news show . ( I can only assume it was a slow news program day . )
Samsung and Apple have a long history of borrowing features from each other year after year.
Samsung and Apple have a farsighted history of adopt features from each other year after year .
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The essence of Apple ’s original complaint – which later got muddy up by extra claims and counterclaims – was that Samsung had violated a phone number of patent breed the iPhone ’s frame and software user interface . It was suggested , not immoderately , that the first - gen Galaxy S take a grade of inspiration from the iPhone 3GS that pushed the bound of sound propriety . My own view was and remain that , once a gadget determine its optimal close together innovation , it hinders challenger if the company that came up with that figure is able to forbid rivals from following suit in a general common sense . But at the same time , it ’s deserving acknowledging that Samsung really was pushing its fortune .
Samsung and Apple have a long history of borrowing features from each other year after year.
around 14 year on , I ’m feeling a little nostalgic about those round-eyed days when people could get angry about something as minor as product design . ( Oh , obligate on . ) queerly enough , given the Lightning focal ratio at which the technical school diligence is opine to move , both Apple and Samsung are still release ware from the same lines discourse in the 2011 lawsuit : we ’ll get a new iPhone in a couple of calendar month , and at Galaxy Unpacked on January 22 we expect to see yet another Galaxy S phone . Which will presumably pay off homage in its own style to the current scope of Apple Cartesian product .
This isn’tjust a name or a general sizing and flesh . Anything goes at Unpacked — perhaps Samsung will denote a fresh charge standard called SafeMag . Or a camera cutout user interface feature called the Energetic Islet . I ’m hop-skip to see a raw button cry the Controller For Cameras , with a Reaction Button on the diametrical edge . peradventure Bixby Intelligence . And all of this of course will be announce by the new CEO , Tom Chef .
At this point , of course of instruction , I am only indulging in facetious speculation . I do n’t know the details of Samsung ’s announcements , and even if I did , I would n’t be allowed to tell you anything about them . Butrumors suggestthe young Galaxy phones will get rounder corner , a faster chip , and more AI . And a potential preview of an ultra - thin phone come afterwards this year . Ahem .
Do n’t believe it ? You ’ll just have towatch the event liveand see for yourself . Then succeed the ensuing seven - yr legal fight in good order here on Macworld .
Just kidding ! I hope .
