Apples and iOranges

I stumbled upon a news article talking about how Apple has a $2.5 billion patent lawsuit out against Samsung because they allegedly used Apple’s designs for the iPhone and iPad in their smartphone and tablet products. In recent news, Apple won the ridiculous lawsuit.
At first glance of the original article, I rolled my eyes. I had always said that I was never going to switch to Mac but once I got to college, I changed my mind.
We tend to do that when we get to this specific stage of our lives. Anyway, my friends had MacBook Pros and I was mesmerized by the interface and sleek design. I had to have one! Some time later I bought my very own MacBook Pro and was submersed into the eccentric community Apple is built upon. I see no reason to go back to my old ways, not yet anyway.
As much as I love Apple products, there comes a time when lawsuits like the one Apple had against Samsung becomes ridiculous. Apple just needs to relax. The way I see it, there are only so many ways that someone can build a device before they all start looking the same and have the same, if not similar, interface features.
During a live blog broadcast of the hearing, the director of patent licensing strategy at Apple testified that “We were shocked” when Samsung introduced a smartphone that looked so much like the iPhone.
Really, Apple? It’s a rectangle with a touch screen. Woah! I can’t believe anyone would even think to copy that!  The appearance of the smartphone, however, wasn’t the only thing that Samsung copied. If you’ve ever used an iPhone you are probably familiar with that bouncing affect the screen has when you scroll to the bottom of a page.
According to a computer scientist who testified on the behalf of Apple, that “rubber band” effect was an element Samsung pulled from the iPhone’s user interface.
If I may add, I love that affect. It’s fun to play with. If I could figure out how to program computers I would add that feature to all of my devices. Wait, I use Apple devices. Hm…Anyway, one aspect of the argument that I thought was absolutely ridiculous was that Samsung utilized a feature that enables users to zoom in and out by touching the screen and pinching or expanding their fingers.
With something so intuitive, I don’t think Apple should even have rights over that. I guess they have to take over the world somehow.
I know Apple is attempting to dominate the market by suing anyone who so much as looks at them wrong, but they need to have some perspective on the subject. Maybe the exact dimensions and software designs of the iPhone and iPad shouldn’t be copied, but they have such a simple and innovative design that of course other companies are going to want to copy it.
Why change what isn’t broken? Oh yeah, patents. I also find it ridiculous that one of Apple’s main concerns was that the products that emulate the design of the iPhone will confuse consumers and they will somehow end up buying a product that isn’t actually an iPhone.
Apple, I’m pretty sure that if I wanted to spend roughly $400 on a phone, I’m going to make sure that the phone is exactly what I want; be that an iPhone or otherwise.

Comments on this opinion can be sent to opinions@mercercluster.com