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Wow. This document illustrates exactly why design and attention to detail matters. In absolutely every comparison the iPhone just makes sense and works and the

Wow. This document illustrates exactly why design and attention to detail matters. In absolutely every comparison the iPhone just makes sense and works and the S1 has some kind of clumsiness. Very impressive, Apple.

slurgfest 14y ago
What would be the point of an internal memo which only highlights areas where your company is doing better than the competition? Particularly when the competition is making a lot more money?
- meanJim 14y ago
  I think you got it mixed up.
- epo 14y ago
  SWOT analysis exists to cover all areas, even Samsung must have heard of it and copied that as a methodology. Perhaps no Apple weaknesses were highlighted because there were none that Samsung could find.
maegget 14y ago
Almost every "Directions for improvement" statement could be replaced with "Do it how the iPhone does it" and still basically be saying the same thing. Some example "Directions for improvement" statements: * Phone: Need to modify the call end button on the call screen so that it is a separate large button * Calendar: The date displayed on the Calendar icon should match the current date on the phone * Calendar: Need to modify by enlarging the area displaying daily schedule and the font size in order to address the low visibility * PC Program: Need to [make some kind of change], like iTunes Picturing myself as a Samsung engineer having finished reading that document, I could quite easily think "they just want us to copy the iPhone as closely as possible" even though the wording in the document itself doesn't explicitly say "copy the iPhone".
- jkn 14y ago
  As a Samsung engineer I would think "they want us to stop making crap and learn from the iPhone". These are all cases where the iPhone basically does it the Right Way. For every issue they explain why the iPhone does it well and the S1 not. To me it doesn't read like they want to copy the iPhone, but rather like they want to make it right (by copying the iPhone). Important distinction. This is consistent with their last direction for improvement: "Remove a feeling that iPhone's menu icons are copied by differentiating design".
  - cremnob 14y ago
    The intuitiveness is why Apple makes great products. That takes time and money to do right. Everything looks obvious and simple in hindsight. This really makes me question my stance on software patents.
    - CamperBob2 14y ago
      Then it must also make you question your stance on recipe patents, fashion patents, and screenplay patents.
    - jkn 14y ago
      Thanks to the iPhone, Apple has become the largest publicly traded company in the world and stashed 100 billion dollars in the bank. They did this without winning a big trial against Samsung, HTC or Google. I don't think Apple needs to win this or another patent trial to have the incentives to build top quality products. On the contrary, letting them secure a monopoly on all these good ideas might diminish the incentive for innovation. They already have ridiculous profit margins[1], which if anything indicates a lack of competition. [1] over 50% gross margins: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/26/us-apple-margins-idUSBRE86P1NI20120726 http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/26/us-apple-margins-i...
    - hazov 14y ago
      After all it would be so nice if Microsoft patented kernel low level algorithms and we would not be able to run these cheap Linux servers in the US. Or if IBM patented them first in which case MS and Apple would not even exists, long live software patents. Sorry for the sarcasm.
jkn 14y ago
Of course the iPhone gets it right in every comparison, since the purpose of the document is to list cases where the iPhone is better and the S1 should be improved. Still very impressed by the difference in polish though.
o1iver 14y ago
No! The document shows the areas where Samsung believes there to be room for improvement. This document does not mean that "in absolutely every comparison" the iPhone finishes first.
stevenwei 14y ago
Some of the examples are so poorly executed (on Samsung's side) that I can't think of any possible explanation for them beyond pure laziness. For example: 1. Landscape mode is only supported in Memo and Calculator when rotating left, not when rotating right. 6. The buttons are cut off when the keyboard is visible. 11. Pressing NEXT changes the font to lowercase. Huh? 27. Long telephone numbers get cut off (instead of shrinking the font size to fit). 36. Alarm settings buttons are cut off by the number pad. None of these examples are particularly difficult to get right, as long as you have someone paying attention to basic UI design. What's amazing to me is that they actually shipped a product with these glaringly obvious deficiencies.
- Jelte12345 14y ago
  The first one was just not implemented in Android at that point, it didn't work for any app. The second and last are also part of how Android works (/worked, not sure if it has been changed), because it's supposed to work on different screen sizes. Of course it would have been possible for Samsung to implement those in Android, but I'm just pointing out it would be more work than just changing some values in the app. At the time of the S1 Android just hadn't matured yet.
josephlord 14y ago
Double wow. This is a March 2010 document and the iPhone has already got copy and paste (was that iOS 3 or 4?). That means Samsung and Android had already been playing catch up for several years to get to this stage, this wasn't a comparison of their first prototype. It is also disappointing that Samsung wasn't pointing out the iPhone and challenging their designers to do even better rather than trying to match Apple. Although maybe that happened later for the S2 and S3 development programmes. Also without a good example to follow (although there were plenty of bad ones which probably all had some good parts) it is impressive how much Apple got right from the very beginning.
- youngtaff 14y ago
  Based on Wikipedia, Android got copy and past marginally before iOS (April 2009 vs June 2009) From my personal experience Android copy and paste is more reliable than iOS - I get quite a few web pages on iOS where I can't mark text to copy, turning JS often gets around this
  - josephlord 14y ago
    I wasn't claiming copy and paste was first on Apple (or even best) but I recall that it wasn't there to start with which made me go back and check the date on this document. I had originally assumed it was a much earlier document and the Samsung interface being benchmarked was an internal prototype of a first generation Android but it seems it was an actual product and probably not the first (although I don't have mobile phone model histories in my head).

slurgfest 14y ago

What would be the point of an internal memo which only highlights areas where your company is doing better than the competition? Particularly when the competition is making a lot more money?

meanJim 14y ago
I think you got it mixed up.
epo 14y ago
SWOT analysis exists to cover all areas, even Samsung must have heard of it and copied that as a methodology. Perhaps no Apple weaknesses were highlighted because there were none that Samsung could find.

maegget 14y ago

Almost every "Directions for improvement" statement could be replaced with "Do it how the iPhone does it" and still basically be saying the same thing. Some example "Directions for improvement" statements: * Phone: Need to modify the call end button on the call screen so that it is a separate large button * Calendar: The date displayed on the Calendar icon should match the current date on the phone * Calendar: Need to modify by enlarging the area displaying daily schedule and the font size in order to address the low visibility * PC Program: Need to [make some kind of change], like iTunes Picturing myself as a Samsung engineer having finished reading that document, I could quite easily think "they just want us to copy the iPhone as closely as possible" even though the wording in the document itself doesn't explicitly say "copy the iPhone".

jkn 14y ago
As a Samsung engineer I would think "they want us to stop making crap and learn from the iPhone". These are all cases where the iPhone basically does it the Right Way. For every issue they explain why the iPhone does it well and the S1 not. To me it doesn't read like they want to copy the iPhone, but rather like they want to make it right (by copying the iPhone). Important distinction. This is consistent with their last direction for improvement: "Remove a feeling that iPhone's menu icons are copied by differentiating design".
- cremnob 14y ago
  The intuitiveness is why Apple makes great products. That takes time and money to do right. Everything looks obvious and simple in hindsight. This really makes me question my stance on software patents.
  - CamperBob2 14y ago
    Then it must also make you question your stance on recipe patents, fashion patents, and screenplay patents.
  - jkn 14y ago
    Thanks to the iPhone, Apple has become the largest publicly traded company in the world and stashed 100 billion dollars in the bank. They did this without winning a big trial against Samsung, HTC or Google. I don't think Apple needs to win this or another patent trial to have the incentives to build top quality products. On the contrary, letting them secure a monopoly on all these good ideas might diminish the incentive for innovation. They already have ridiculous profit margins[1], which if anything indicates a lack of competition. [1] over 50% gross margins: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/26/us-apple-margins-idUSBRE86P1NI20120726 http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/26/us-apple-margins-i...
  - hazov 14y ago
    After all it would be so nice if Microsoft patented kernel low level algorithms and we would not be able to run these cheap Linux servers in the US. Or if IBM patented them first in which case MS and Apple would not even exists, long live software patents. Sorry for the sarcasm.

jkn 14y ago

Of course the iPhone gets it right in every comparison, since the purpose of the document is to list cases where the iPhone is better and the S1 should be improved. Still very impressed by the difference in polish though.

o1iver 14y ago

No! The document shows the areas where Samsung believes there to be room for improvement. This document does not mean that "in absolutely every comparison" the iPhone finishes first.

stevenwei 14y ago

Some of the examples are so poorly executed (on Samsung's side) that I can't think of any possible explanation for them beyond pure laziness. For example: 1. Landscape mode is only supported in Memo and Calculator when rotating left, not when rotating right. 6. The buttons are cut off when the keyboard is visible. 11. Pressing NEXT changes the font to lowercase. Huh? 27. Long telephone numbers get cut off (instead of shrinking the font size to fit). 36. Alarm settings buttons are cut off by the number pad. None of these examples are particularly difficult to get right, as long as you have someone paying attention to basic UI design. What's amazing to me is that they actually shipped a product with these glaringly obvious deficiencies.

Jelte12345 14y ago
The first one was just not implemented in Android at that point, it didn't work for any app. The second and last are also part of how Android works (/worked, not sure if it has been changed), because it's supposed to work on different screen sizes. Of course it would have been possible for Samsung to implement those in Android, but I'm just pointing out it would be more work than just changing some values in the app. At the time of the S1 Android just hadn't matured yet.

josephlord 14y ago

Double wow. This is a March 2010 document and the iPhone has already got copy and paste (was that iOS 3 or 4?). That means Samsung and Android had already been playing catch up for several years to get to this stage, this wasn't a comparison of their first prototype. It is also disappointing that Samsung wasn't pointing out the iPhone and challenging their designers to do even better rather than trying to match Apple. Although maybe that happened later for the S2 and S3 development programmes. Also without a good example to follow (although there were plenty of bad ones which probably all had some good parts) it is impressive how much Apple got right from the very beginning.

youngtaff 14y ago
Based on Wikipedia, Android got copy and past marginally before iOS (April 2009 vs June 2009) From my personal experience Android copy and paste is more reliable than iOS - I get quite a few web pages on iOS where I can't mark text to copy, turning JS often gets around this
- josephlord 14y ago
  I wasn't claiming copy and paste was first on Apple (or even best) but I recall that it wasn't there to start with which made me go back and check the date on this document. I had originally assumed it was a much earlier document and the Samsung interface being benchmarked was an internal prototype of a first generation Android but it seems it was an actual product and probably not the first (although I don't have mobile phone model histories in my head).