Every tech company with an app store likes to believe its mobile headquarters is safe from foreign invaders, but that's not the case. Too often, the most reputable app stores contain malware (Google Play) or apps that violate the company's own approval policies. Apps slip through the cracks often, but the issue is not whether or not apps slip through the cracks, but rather, how companies respond to those apps when they become aware that their app store contains them.
There are some “invaders” that have made their way into Samsung's “Galaxy” (the app ecosystem, which is available on Samsung-branded “Galaxies”), both in the company's Theme Store and in the watchface offerings in the Galaxy Apps Store – and it's time for Samsung to rise up and defend its “Galaxy” by making these invading clone themes and watchfaces disappear.
Apple Invasion: IOS clone themes in the Theme Store
It hasn't been that long ago that Samsung faced lawsuits from Apple, with Cupertino claiming that Samsung “copied the look and feel” of the iPhone, even down to the iPhone's icon design. These former lawsuits came back to the forefront of my mind as I perused the Galaxy Theme Store at around 3am one morning on my Galaxy S7 edge. I've been an avid fan of the Theme Store since Samsung announced it last year, and I often stop by the Theme Store at least once or twice a month to purchase new themes and download free ones that I think are the best of what the Theme Store has to offer.
What I ended up seeing was nothing short of copyright infringement, blatant copyright infringement. Five so-called themes from the Theme Store contain iOS icons (yes, icons that anyone who's spent 5 minutes with an iPhone would recognize) and Samsung should remove these themes.
Santana 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0
First, there's the “Santana” themes, that copy Apple's very own “Contacts” icon and “Internet” icons. The messages icon has the green color of Apple's own iMessage icon but Samsung's own TouchWiz design. You could argue that the phone icon of the theme, as shown below, also borrows heavy inspiration from Apple, but the Contacts icon is as infringent as it gets. In Santana 2.0, shown below, the theme steals the camera icon, gallery (with only a slight variation in the gallery icon design), as well as the Internet and Contacts icons.
And, if you can't see these iOS-inspired features of the Santana 2.0 theme, take a look at the wallpaper: the black wallpaper with the purple budding flower is a clear take from one of Apple's wallpapers on the iPad (I know because I own an third-generation iPad that received the wallpaper in a more recent update to iOS). Take a look at the phone app, and you may just forget you're downloading an Android theme on an Android-powered Samsung Galaxy device.
Santana 3.0 provides the most iOS-inspired (if you can use this word correctly here) theme produced yet: the camera icon, along with the iOS gallery icon this time (which changes from 2.0 to 3.0) take on Apple's icon designs, with the Contacts icon remaining infringent and the Internet icon becoming more and more iOS-like.
Whereas Samsung's text message icon takes on the Apple “green” iMessage color in 2.0, the icon goes full iOS with the Messages icon in 3.0. The app drawer has transformed from the first Santana theme to 2.0 and now 3.0, but it seems as though it's been redesigned to match iOS's flat icon design. The camera icon is even more pronounced on the screenshot provided at the theme product page alongside the description.
MyOSUI
This theme, called “MyOSUI,” is basically iOS with a different background. The camera, gallery, contacts, messages, internet, and perhaps the phone icon (the verdict can go either way here, depending on perspective) are all ripoffs of iOS. The phone app is plain and basic like Apple's iOS, with circles around the numbers that is a characteristic of the iOS dialer app. In this setup, even the Mail app has been revamped to mimic Apple's very own in iOS.
The worst part of all is that, for all this ripoff work, the developer charges $2.00 for his iOS clone theme. It was $10 (you'll see the $10 price marked out), but he was kind enough to reduce the price so you wouldn't feel as bad about buying into the infringement.
[Minu] Fantasy White
This theme isn't heavily inspired by iOS in the same sense as the others, though the gallery icon is borrowed directly from iOS without hesitation. Our analysis here is the same as it is with the others: if developers cheat in one icon, they cheat in all icons. If you steal a dollar from someone's house, it's still theft – even if you don't profit much from it. With that said, infringing on one icon is still one icon too many.
Mass Invasion: TAG Heuer watchface clones in the Galaxy Apps Store
Samsung has moved its Gear Apps to the Galaxy Apps Store and given them their own section, and this is the next stop in our journey to uncover copyright infringement. That's right: some developers have decided to craft the most luxurious Gear S2 experience possible by drawing “heavy, heavy inspiration” from luxury and smart watchmaker TAG Heuer. In fact, the inspiration is so heavy that it's no longer inspiration but infringement. The worst part of it all is that a good number of these watchfaces were named with the word “TAG” in them – as though consumers are too oblivious as to the company they're named after. You can see these watchfaces in the photo gallery below.
TAG isn't the only luxury brand whose work has heavily inspired the above watchfaces and others; Emporio, Tissot, Hublot, Armani, and others are also victims of copyright infringement in Samsung's “Galaxy.” TAG Heuer and other luxury brands sell their watches for a few thousand dollars at least (TAG Heuer's $1500 Connected Carrera smartwatch is its most budget-friendly offering), so why should these developers sell these watchfaces in the Galaxy Apps Store for a few dollars at best (if not for free) and profit from them?
Samsung should remove these themes and watchfaces
Steve Jobs said so many years ago that Android is nothing more than just a ripoff of iOS. I don't necessarily think that's true, but a slight perusal of iOS wallpapers in the Google Play Store will tell all. The same goes for Samsung: these heavily-inspired iOS-like icons are an embarrassment to Samsung and all it is trying to do. The iOS ripoff claims are wrong and merely said out of fanboyism, but even I become suspicious and start to give credence to those claims when I see developers trying to capitalize off the success of Apple in iOS and TAG Heuer and other luxury market brands.
When the Theme Store belongs to you, you bear the weight of whatever happens (whether good or bad), and Samsung must bear responsibility here because, whether for good or bad, these themes have been allowed in the Theme Store for some time without any repercussions for developers who are attempting to capitalize (or have capitalized) from Apple's hard work to craft its own unique experience for its customers.
Yes, these developers should be made to answer for their copyright infringement, but Samsung should punish these developers by depriving them of the profit made from this infringement. No criminal can profit from their crimes; I don't see why these developers should.
Conclusion
Samsung has been accused of copying Apple in the past, but the Korean giant has arrived at a place where its own work is no longer considered in the same vein; Samsung is finally seeing recognition for its own innovations, with no need to follow Apple in any regard, but this will only create a new black mark for the company and revive the old statements about it. If Samsung wants to get beyond these copycat claims that have plagued the company's reputation in the past, it will have to deal with developers who think that it's okay to take Apple's work in iOS and bring it to the Samsung Galaxy Apps Store. Why iOS clone developers think that diehard Samsung customers would even appreciate iOS to such an extent is beyond me.
Samsung, this is your Galaxy, your work, your world you've built for your customers. Now that this infringement invasion has come, it's time for you to rise up and defend your Galaxy: make these clones disappear. And when the invasion ends, fortify the walls of your Galaxy so that this unethical conduct never comes its way again. If you don't defend your Galaxy, no one will.
