[citation][nom]AndrewMD[/nom]Since Samsung had so much insight into what went into an Apple product at the time, Samsung entering the smartphone business was a mistake they took. Actually, I doubt Apple would have sued them if their phones did not look like an Apple product to begin with.This reminds me about Hyundai's entry into the entry-level luxury market with their first Almati, it was then during the German auto show a Mercedes's rep commented thinking that Mercedes completed their showing of new cars only to be shocked that Hyundai copied their iconic front-end design for their own car. It seems that Asians have an issue creating a unique product to wow the world, only know how to copy an existing product....[/citation]
So you use two examples within a single time period to exemplify an entire race of people. The way technology works is it evolves horizontally as well as vertically. Innovation and iteration. So.. since China built the first cannon dating back more then a hundred years before Europe, does that mean any device that uses gun powder to shoot projectiles are copies? No it doesn't. Because cannons built in Europe were more efficient, accurate, and powerful. They took an idea and functionality of something that already existed and made it better. That is called iterating.
Samsung already stated in an interview that they let the market drive them unlike Apple's philosophy of they drive the market because consumers don't know what they want. So when the smartphone market was established, Samsung took an existing product and added things that Apple didn't offer. Like SD card slots, removable batteries, Android OS, bigger screens, etc. Of course back in 2010 when Galaxy S first launched, it wasn't as popular. The reason for it was the masses didn't really understand what a Smartphone was capable of so they wanted something easy that just made calls, texts, etc. As the market matures, so does the consumers of the market. They started looking for more features which is why the S2 and S3 became more popular.