Earlier this month, Samsung announced a slate of new products. The biggest new devices were the latest foldable smartphones, which look quite impressive. But its new Galaxy Watch Ultra has drawn ire for looking suspiciously like an Apple Watch Ultra – complete with its own version of the iconic orange Ocean Band. It reminds me of that meme from The Office where Pam tries to spot the difference between two identical photos.
And the internet seemed to accept that. Until larger tech reviewers, such as MKBHD, shared their thoughts on the clone of the best Apple Watch right now. Now, lots of online chatter wants to defend the Galaxy Watch Ultra from being called a rip-off.
Let's get to this right off the bat. It's time to call a spade a spade. The Galaxy Watch Ultra is a rip-off of the Apple Watch Ultra. No ifs, buts, or coconuts. It's almost impossible to ignore the differences, with both having a similar battery capacity and weight. That's before you get to the orange band that looks just like one of the best Apple Watch bands, the customizable button, squircle design with titanium, and plenty of features on the watch itself.
Of course, that's not good enough for some, who want to defend this shameless copy. One Samsung Watch from 2017 (the Gear Sport) used an almost squircle design, so we can discount that. Samsung's Watch 5 Pro used titanium, so that one model excuses that. And there are other similar excuses to that effect. But what some people fail to realize is that copying all of those features in one product (which Samsung hasn't done before) just because your biggest competitor did so makes this a rip-off. You tell me if the Galaxy Watch Ultra looks more like the Apple Watch Ultra or Gear Sport.
But it's okay to admit that Samsung ripped off the Apple Watch Ultra. They're not the only ones to take a feature from a competitor and use it for themselves. But this device is one of the most shameless copies, which is a problem.
Why the Galaxy Watch Ultra ripping Apple off is such a problem
Broadly speaking, following your competitors is a good move. And we see it all the time in technology. Android had widgets and customization options for years, which the iPhone has. Plenty of other examples come to mind as well. Fingerprint sensors, multiple cameras, and so on. But in these cases, everyone implements things slightly differently.
And that different implementation is what makes inspiration like this so good for the devices you use. Each company is trying to outdo the other – trying to create something better. And then the first company tries to improve. And so on and so on. The end result is better devices in your hands, on your wrist, or anywhere else. Everybody wins. I want Samsung to have an Ultra smartwatch to rival the Apple Watch. They might have a good feature for Apple to draw inspiration from next year.
But when you copy a product almost identically, nobody wins. Nothing is getting better, nobody's learning anything. And then the products become the same, which is problematic. Inspiration is okay. Looking at someone's homework and changing the answers is okay (to me at least, maybe not to teachers). But just copying things word for word isn't.
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