We all know Apple's industrial designs come by way of Jonathan Ive, but who's designing the devices that Cupertino claims are copycats? At Samsung, it's someone who seems to take as much pride in his work as Ive does.
Reuters has a fascinating study on the work that goes into designing Samsung's Galaxy series, which has drawn the ire of Apple as being slavish copies of the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. As it turns out, that work is the creation of 40-year-old Lee Minhyouk, the youngest senior executive at Samsung's Seoul-based headquarters, who has led the company to success with 44 million Galaxy-branded devices sold since launching the summer of 2010.
Despite their success, not everyone is impressed by Samsung Mobile's vice president for design. Chief innovation officer of service design for Fjord Christian Lindholm likens Samsung to making soap. "Their products get you clean, lathers well," the Finland-based executive says. "However, they do not know how to make perfumes, an industry where margins are significantly higher. Perfume is an experience. Perfume is meant to seduce, make you attractive and feel good. You love your perfume, but you like your soap."
To be fair, Samsung's Lee doesn't claim to be the next Jony Ive -- but feels he may be one great product away from such acclaim. "I might not be at (Ive's) level yet, but I believe Samsung will produce such iconic products one day," the designer reveals. "It's not just effort that makes it possible for a new product to be a massive hit. It also has to be timely, and technology should be ready to make a certain design a reality."
And what of Apple's charges that Samsung has "slavishly" copied the iPad and iPhone? Not surprisingly, Lee takes it personally.
"I've made thousands of sketches and hundreds of prototype products (for the Galaxy)," Lee explains. "Does that mean I was putting on a mock show for so long, pretending to be designing? As a designer, there's an issue of dignity. (The Galaxy) is original from the beginning, and I'm the one who made it. It's a totally different product with a different design language and different technology infused."
That may eventually be decided by the legal system, as Apple and Samsung continue to duke it out over patents. Meanwhile, Samsung is headed in another direction, going "back to the future" with the Galaxy Note -- reintroducing a stylus pen to a world already comfortable using what Steve Jobs called the best stylus ever made: Your finger.
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