August 25, 2012
Samsung can still beat Apple, but it will have to innovate
The idea that Apple’s patent lawsuit win over Samsung will stifle innovation is puzzling.
Even if you don’t believe that Samsung copied Apple, you have to admit that they followed pretty closely. But they didn’t need to.
Apple would have us believe that what they do is the apex of innovation and design, and in some ways I agree that this is currently the case — with the emphasis on currently.
But there are a lot of very smart and talented people in the world, and there is no reason Samsung or other companies can’t hire them and find a way of surpassing Apple’s efforts. Personally, I would love to see what they come up with.
Apple’s designs might seem obvious, but there’s no reason we have to stop there. By forcing other companies to come up their own innovations, Apple is in a way creating more competition for itself.
It’s only a matter of time before Apple is beaten at its own game — and will wind up having to play catchup. For consumers, that would be the best scenario of all.
Update: A lot of people criticize Apple design for being obvious. They don’t seem to understand that the whole point of good design is to make the function of a product so obvious that anyone can pick it up and understand how to use it right away. Conclusion: obvious is a good thing.