Samsung's new Wallet app has numerous similarities to Apple's Passbook - Page 2

I agree with a poster on another forum that Samsung just wants to troll Apple at this point. All the attack ads, all the blatant copying. There's NO WAY someone at Samsung didn't look at the Wallet app and either notice the resemblance to Passport or blatantly copy it on purpose. The two companies are so obviously competitors that someone would have pointed out the resemblance.

 

I'll say this at least for Samsung, they've got guts.

hahahahahahahaa
 

If I were LG I would be trying to stop Samsung because its creating resentment to all things Korean.  I used to deal with them in business, shady lot

I use it daily for my StarSchumucks (sorry Foamy Squirrel reference).  More company's need to start using it, saves paper, always have the ticket/etc on you.  Most times when standing in line for something, travel, event, coffee, etc, your looking at your phone anyways, why need to pull out your wallet, or have to hold onto something else.  Simplify.

 

And yes, if your going to steal, at least change the colors around to other colors, not just different shades of the same color.  Granted they have something "similar" to Apple, but they have better used different tech on the inside for it.  (which prob did not do) May drive a few more corp's to start thinking of using the new app's.  But at least change the bloody icon to something totally different.  This is just a middle finger to those judges that sided with them against Apple, of HAHA you sided with us, but we do copy, See... :P  

I use passbook a lot because I live in US. My sister lives in Taiwan, passbook so far is useless for her. I think it depends on where you live.

Although I'll admit that the argument lacked a certain.... elegance. One has to concur that the main thrust of the point was not really very far off the mark, at the end of the day who genuinely uses passbook on a daily basis and feels that it is truly an essential feature of their device?

Even when they copy, they can't get the design right. Did anyone notice how the white ticket on top is getting cut off? Why would the top ticket get cut off?

That Microsoft is dead.

 

Sure, rename it to Mansanas.

 

 

I have a 24 page brochure from Australia's largest carrier in front of me and while samesung is advertised on perhaps half of the pages, Apple is not advertised on a single one. They also advertise windows and nokia phones and samesung tablets.

And apple copied passbook from other 3rd party apps. Apple didn't innovate it either.

Mansanas. Good one.

Other suggestions for Samsung to change it's company name to be more like Apple include Gala, Granny Smith, and McIntosh (*lawsuit in European or Australian court system to come).

Let me guess, this was one of the reasons they're trying to get Apple to let go of all their Design Patents (or intellectual property):

http://forums.appleinsider.com/t/156194/samsung-questions-whether-apple-can-patent-beauty-in-australian-court-case

 

Why not use ány other color other than black, or use ány other shape than cards, or any other way of putting a collection together other than the "wave" of cards? They're so ignorant and arrogant about how they blatantly copy Apple and yet they still insist they're not copying at all. As much as I like some of Samsung's products (primarily TV's), I really hate how their designs are mostly copies of someone better than them at that specific subject.

 

Use it all the time. When I am waiting in line at the airport or at Starbucks, it kills time to toggle passes. I can see future improvements: Right now, the passes toggle when you bounce them off the bottom. Why not also the top? Why not allow us to flick through them as in cover flow? Limitless potential.

 

Seriously, I do use them. It's a bit convenient that as I enter my local Starbucks, the Starbucks pass pops up and allows me to pay without entering my passcode. Saves me at least 5 seconds. I guess anyone who steals my phone can also get free coffees.

For sure, it's not a totally new concept. But come on, look at the design of the two icons - the motifs, the colors ... I don't believe Samsung does not innovate (that's flat out untrue), but this is what they call a flagrant foul in basketball.

Edited by ankleskater - 2/27/13 at 8:11am

At the same time, try to find one Apple product, ever, that hasn't been preceeded by someone else attempting the same thing and failing at it. Apple has been effective at identifying what's wrong with products, but they've always stood on the shoulders of more innovative people. Samsung does the same, and there's a huge uproar.

 

Further to that, a competing product is going to have to duplicate features to a large extent. Otherwise there wouldn't be an iBooks, since they had to duplicate pre-existing eReader app functionality that at least Kindle had beforehand. I mean, iWork duplicates a ton of functionality that was in MS Office before that. Xcode is hardly the first IDE, it has a ton of IDE features.

 

Anything you interface with, from TV remotes to cars, is going to have to have some similarity to the pre-existing competitors. That's even more true for software.

 

So the real argument is that Samsung ripped off an icon.  Sort of.  They blatantly took elements of the icon, and rearranged them in a way that nobody would mistake one for the other.  Except probably OS X icon designer Susan Kare.

 

Oh, and also lest we forget, Apple has been sued over Passbook for IP violations:

http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/10/01/apple-sued-over-passbook-by-hospitality-software-maker-ameranth

This Samsung Wallet widget doesn't just Apple. It is also aimed at Google. What happens to Google Wallet now? Will/can Google sue for trademark infringement?

I will second that! I have used it for my boarding passes on some Airline (matter of fact, people have stopped and asked me what app was I using) And without fail I use it for my Starbucks! I really loved the location based feature on it. Especially, when I go to Starbucks, it is all there on my home page to swipe it!

It seems boarding passes and Starbucks are the two popular passes. With baseball season starting, I wonder how much the MLB pass will catch on. With MLB a partner of both Apple and Samsung, it will provide another metric to stir up controversy about who's "winning".

Why lead when you can follow?

And then when you end up in court, you simply tell the judge the plaintiff is whining and that your Passbook app is not a copy of Apple's Passbook app because we spell it with a 'ch' instead of a 'k' (Passbooch).

"If we were copying their product, we'd spell it 'Passbook'. As such, ours is 'Passbooch', which is original and wholly our idea."

Why would they? People are complaining because it's a direct ripoff of Passbook. It isn't a ripoff of gwallet.

Scamsung lawyers will be claiming Apple is trying to claim it invented oblong tickets to obfuscate Scamsung's inability to do anything but copy everything Apple does as usual.

They'll revive a golden oldie: "Apple never invented anything."

So Starbucks and airline tickets is what I'm gathering from all the replies... i use the starbucks app as it tells me when my rewards are ready and its just as easy as hitting my passport button.. I fly maybe once a year. anything else I'm missing out on??

Hoping not to sound like I'm defending Samsung here - because I'm not, and these two app are clearly identical in intent and maybe even in design, but isn't this just more of sleazy manufacturers feeding the bottom feeders of the world?  You know, the folks who sit around at dinner parties saying that they are 'smarter' because they got the SAME features with better a phone (spec-wise) but at a lot less than what an iPhone costs?  It's sort of like some of my knuckle dragging friends (acquaintances?) who insist that their over engineered, turbo boosted, grocery getting VW Passat is a 'sports car'.  99% of the cars on the road these days are nothing close to being a true 'sports car', but somehow otherwise smart adults have been convinced (by advertising?) that calling something other than what is makes it so.  Passport = Wallet = Passport. 
 

Of course its similar. You wouldn't expect Samsung to actually innovate, would you?!?!?

1) I love Passbook! use it nearly everyday at Starbucks. I do wish it was better in the sense that it will know that I I drive by a Starbucks at midnight that I don't want to stop in or if I've accessed the Passbook app and brought a pass for the Starbucks it told me about that I don't want it to contibually pop up while I study at Starbucks.

2) Where the hell is CVS's pass?

3) Unfortunately morality doesn't play a part in these legal matters so if Samsung can steal from Apple, kill their Androsi-based competitors in the market and only get a slap on the wrist years later have making dozens of billions of dollars and securing a huge marketshare at the same time then why would they stop now with Passbook. If there customers don't care about blatant and obvious thievery then why should they. The mentality kind of reminds me of that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where the aliens kidnapped Geordie and kept using the lame excuse that "You have so much and we have so little." to justify their actions.

Samesung.

"trademark"

Lucky Goldstar isn't culpable?

 

Funny that NFC was supposedly the killer Android feature, but merchants aren't interested.  So Samsung copies what's hot, and out-Googles Google in the process.

Samsung has no reason not to blatantly rip off Apple's ideas because the courts in this country have done nothing to stop them. The company will continue to make a mockery of our patent defense system until they are compelled to stop.

Shame on Samsung. They seem to have become 'copiers' as opposed to using Innovation. But why should they innovate if the patent laws don't protect the creator.

There is already a passbook compatible app (with NFC) for Android, it works with the web downloads and the Mail loading I think.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.attidomobile.passwallet&hl=en

Maybe this will be th year it happens. Visa has teamed up with Samsung and considering the popularity of Samsung in the Android community and the Galaxy S III it's the 2nd best smartphone vendor to choose for trying to get NFC adopted.

• http://investor.visa.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=215693&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1788782&highlight=

Android is Doomed. Seriously.

Samsung has been launching feature after feature to create their own ecosystem:

Media Hub (music)
Music Hub (Movies and Television)
S Beam
S Cloud
S Voice
Wallet

next?

If the strategy continues to demonstrate success, Samsung could simply purchase more infrastructure and services.



What this really tells me, what with the dominance of Apple and Samsung is that (pretty much) everyone wants Apple products and services but some people have an irrational hatred of Apple, some recieve more compensation for selling against Apple and others are uninformed. Even Samsung knows everyone wants Apple products and services.
Edited by MacBook Pro - 2/27/13 at 9:45am

This might not not have deep roots in reality, but a friend of mine is close with a former Apple employee who was poached by Samsung for their mobile division.  His reputation is killer, and Samsung's fortunate to have him.  He went to Samsung about a year ago.  Whether or not he's on the team responsible for S Wallet, it sheds some light on how Samsung might be going about building their Copy Machine. 

 

You don't know just how accurate you are about that… 

Microsoft:

 

Google:

 

Apple:

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, clearly making a black, square, stitched, leather pouch, with angled passes inside, including a plane ticket, a movie ticket, and a coffee ticket, using the colors blue, green, and yellow, is the only obvious way to create a wallet icon. 

 

But seriously, I'm trying to figure out Samsung's strategy here. This is far more than a copy- it's cynically, willfully making an obvious knockoff icon in order to attract comparisons. I guess this IS their strategy. I'm a designer, and in a single day I could come up with 10 completely different concepts for a wallet, that all look good, are unique, intuitive, and obvious. Samsung, the massive company that it is, can't do the same? They can, but willfully choose not to. It's not even like passbook is a well known or much used app- most iPhone owners I know haven't even touched it. But Samsung insists on ripping off even this icon, even when it is oh so easy to make a million different concepts that look NOTHING like passbook. This is extremely cynical, underhanded, and seems to be done solely to provoke Apple and invite comparisons and confusion- even after being on the losing end of a $1B lawsuit . How the **** anyone can respect such a company is beyond me. 

 

On a side note, I wonder what Google thoughts are on Samsung replacing their own built in Wallet feature with their own app. I doubt they're pleased, and this is definitely a shot in the face of Google wallet's adoption and usage prospects. 

Edited by Slurpy - 2/27/13 at 10:06am

Apple has has the benefit of being able to pay their employees less because working for a thriving, fast growing, and popular company whose products employees love. It has its benefits, but ultimately that honeymoon will end and how much you get paid will be a deciding factor.

For that reason this is one area I will say "Apple should use some of that $100+ billion to pay their employees more so they aren't as easily poached."
Edited by SolipsismX - 2/27/13 at 11:23am