Photo: Apple/Samsung
Add Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Jae-yong to the list of people who think his company’s new smartwatch and wireless earbuds are much too similar to Apple’s. He reportedly got angry at executives of Samsung’s mobile (MX) division for approving such copycat devices.
One company executive allegedly admitted his company’s new wearable products are “Apple design plagiarism.”
Samsung chairman gets angry that new products are Apple ripoffs
All it takes is one look at the new Galaxy Watch Ultra to see Samsung’s plagiarism — the design heavily borrows from Apple Watch Ultra. The new design even makes the signature round watch face of Wear OS look as square as possible so it more closely resembles Apple’s watchOS device.
And the same goes for the new Galaxy Buds 3 Pro — they sure resemble AirPods Pro 2. Especially when Samsung’s wireless earbuds are in their redesigned charging case.
The head of Samsung Electronics saw the resemblance, and he’s not happy. According to Korea’s Aju News, executives from the mobile division responsible for the products were called on the carpet by Lee Jae-yong himself.
A company spokesperson told Aju News, “Chairman Lee himself stepped forward as controversy over Apple design plagiarism and quality arose over the Buds 3 series and Galaxy Watch 7 released last month,” according to a machine translation. “The current internal atmosphere is not very good.”
There was apparently more than a reprimand. “According to an insider at Samsung Electronics, personnel actions were also taken against some executives, including the group head of the MX division,” said the Korean business publication.
The temptation to copy must be strong. Apple makes more smartwatches than any rival — more than twice as many as Samsung. And AirPods dominate their market, and have about three times the wireless headphone market share as Galaxy Buds. But Samsung isn’t going to catch up with plagiarism.
A history of Samsung plagiarism
Samsung “borrowing” ideas from Apple is hardly new. More than a decade ago, Apple took the Korean company to U.S. court claiming that some aspects of its Android smartphones infringed on its patents. The jury agreed and awarded the iPhone-maker more than $1 billion in damages. That was later reduced to $539 million, though in 2018 the two tech giants agreed to settle their differences for an undisclosed sum.
There have been no similar patent infringement lawsuits since then, partially because the two companies work together in many ways. Most notably, Samsung makes most of the OLED screens used in iPhones. They need each other.