Info on PDMI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDMI Image of Dell Streak PDMI: http://www.images.technologyking.co.uk/25032011/hgggg.jpg

That's not the same as either Apple's or Samsung's. Samsung's connection is a mirrored version of Apple's. Here's a comparison of the 3 device connectors: http://android.modaco.com/topic/324387-docking-port-is-it-pd...

It's pretty hard to say that Samsung is "just following the standard" if it's different than Dell's connector.

"It is designed as an alternative to the iPod interface which was used exclusively by Apple Inc."

The connector looks like an attempt to confuse people with the iPod peripherals and visual branding. Why that exact shape?

As for the shape of Samsung's plug, form follows function. USB plugs all mostly look the same too.

(1) Some copying is legal.

(2) Some copying is illegal.

(3) The line between (1) and (2) is not clearly drawn.

(4) Many companies copy Apple -- some legally and some illegally.

(5) Samsung copies Apple a lot closer then most other mainstream (read: non-pirate) companies do.

...

The problem with Samsung is why (5)?

To say "that's the only way to design something" flies in the face of (4). Why can't Samsung differentiate their tablet as well as (say) the HTC Flyer?

They appear to be interested in looking as identical to Apple's products as possible -- to the point where Samsung lawyers can't even quickly say which is which when a judge holds both products over their head. When the copying is this blatant and close, accusations of piracy are unavoidable.

I'm not saying Samsung's guilty of crossing the line between legal and illegal - that's what experts and lawyers and judges are paid to do. But I'm saying they are knowingly closer to the line then most companies are comfortable being and that it's silly to casually dismiss the idea that Samsung could have infringed Apple's IP (as people here frequently do).

(6) As this article says, Apple [un]designs things by "creating the simplest shape possible".

(7) This is a good thing. It leads in very many cases to the best products.

(8) Samsung, more than others, recognizes (7) and so follows Apple's lead.

If so, then the only way for Samsung to be legal, if (5) is past the line of acceptability, is to intentionally put effort into making worse products.

Which would, at the very least, make a Samsung designer's job description an interesting one.

Here this is a nice photo frame samsung made in 2006, interestingly no one sued anyone for it. Apple is just full of bullshit and does everything to halt sales of their competitor.

Or you are saying that the Ipad copied the samsung photo frame design, and samsung should sue apple for it?

What a compelling argument!

The reason many competitor products look similar or worse than apple products, is because we have unimaginative industrial designers that think like this blogger.

The next generation of apple tablets will find a way to distinguish themselves from their competitors, despite having already created 'the perfect design'.

I really wish they had put an actual USB port on the thing, or at least a place to put a micro SD card. But if anyone is copying Apple's whole "we don't believe in strain relief" nonsense, I really do hope they stop that. Damaged cables are not beautiful. They make the device look like junk.

But I do wish it was a more standard USB port, like the micro one that Amazon's adopted.

Maybe the Apple USB connector is not even protected design and Samsung was allowed to use it? Is it actually compatible to the Apple connector.

Once you go for a wider connector, perhaps again there are not that many options if you want to be thin. It has to be some kind of slot of some length. Presumably the amount of pins is fixed, and you want a minimum length per pin for good connectivity? (I am just guessing, don't know much about electronics).

Anyway, do you feel offended by a slot in a tablet? Does it really matter that much?

I'm offended that anyone can look at the situation and argue that Samsung arrived at their designs independently.

Apple has of course influenced the market. The question is whether Apple has the right to be only company in the market to sell certain things, like rectangular touchscreen tablet devices. I don't think they have that right.

I have ~10 apple USB cables. I keep 1 in my backpack, 1 in the car, 1 in the bedroom, I have a 6' long one I bought from deal extreme and several others in various places.

I have an iPad - but I'm open to other devices and I hate it when I cant usethe cables I have.

(I have about 8 dell power adapters for the same reasons)

I am very good about my employers buying me requisite devices for work. I have had the iphone since launch and have gone through 12 of them (in all the various models) as I tend to drop them a lot.

The iPad was a gift.

I have not bought a phone or computer for myself in ~10 years.

Precisely that, and no other? I don't mean to be flip, but it beggars belief to say that this is some sort of platonic form of tablet connector, especially given that the connector originated on the iPod in 2003, and existed not for stability, but for thinness, and to provide additional pins for accessories in a larger Apple-specific ecosystem. It was designed with a purpose, no part of which beyond thinness obtains when applied to a non-Apple device.

We agree. That reason being, it looks like Apple's, and consumers love that.

I have a Sansa music player that uses an iPod cable but with the wires hooked up differently for no apparent reason. It seems to be a pretty common thing.

http://android.modaco.com/topic/324387-docking-port-is-it-pd...

I agree that the USB cable is rather a smoking gun - but it's the only one. If that's what's wrong, attack that. Don't go and use that to argue about everything else.

This almost borders on the deliberately obtuse, here.

The USB cable doesn't exist in isolation, a decorative piece in the packaging, to be displayed on your desk as the proud owner of a Samsung product.

The cable plugs into the tablets Samsung is selling. Only those tablets, no others. The cables serve no other use. These tablets have a port on the bottom that has been specifically to designed to fit these and only these cables. So this pretty blatantly lifted design is integral to the tablet. Not just the cable.

Which is the smoke in the gun barrel. It's the obvious signal that says Samsung was looking in a very specific, singular direction when they made their design decisions.

But let's go with your thinking, here:

If such a ban prevailed, and those cables were forbidden from distribution anywhere on earth, even inside the box of a Samsung tablet, the tablet would not function. Couldn't charge.

So it would be an effective short term remedy. And, there again, your smoking gun. The most critical, non-negotiable piece of the entire device was lifted wholesale from Apple.

Anyone copying the no strain relief cables should be shot, though. I appear to have lost the charging cable for my Galaxy Tab, so I can't check that right now.

EDIT: Found them. The cables that came with my Tab have strain relievers. They're hard to see, but they're there. Point for Samsung.

Apple are asking them to change a whole load of things - colour, size, proportionality etc. Why not just ask them to change the cable?

Let's put it the other way - if someone came out and said they had a patent on some part of Apple's power cable - be it a design patent or a technology one - would you say that Apple would have to stop selling iPads? Or just stop selling those particular cables, and design around it?

For a similar case, look at the recent Doom 3 source code release. John Carmack had to remove the code for Carmack's Reverse because it infringed a Creative Labs patent (which had been licensed specifically to id, not to outside developers). He didn't have to remove the whole code base, just the one bit that actually infringed.

And a new port. Given the scenario where that cable is banned, they'd need to replace the port on every existing tablet they've sold. This is a linchpin.

The point is that this isn't something that exists in isolation. This is evidence that suggests Samsung is comfortable ripping off Apple, and did so. Pretty blatantly. And so if they did it here, you think they didn't do it elsewhere in their industrial design?

Not so much – the cable isn't actually compatible. It just looks like it should be.