Apple reportedly paid $21M to use Swiss Railway clock design

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 97

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


     


    GOOD, at least one other person gets it.



    You mean copying cost? In addition to good design? Why even copy the clock? It's a busy looking image. No thanks.

  • Reply 22 of 97
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    mstone wrote: »
    Analog clock face is passé anyway. I'm surprised Apple is using that outdated symbol as it is. When you ask the guy on the street what time it is he pulls out his cell phone and the digital time is exact, not some approximate minutes past the o'clock.

    When was the last time you asked someone for the time?
  • Reply 23 of 97
    mstone wrote: »
    Analog clock face is passé anyway. I'm surprised Apple is using that outdated symbol as it is. When you ask the guy on the street what time it is he pulls out his cell phone and the digital time is exact, not some approximate minutes past the o'clock.

    And what do you do regularly in our life that requires a watch with that digital precision? (I hope your answer is not 'catch trains':rolleyes:).
  • Reply 24 of 97
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post



    100 guys for 2 years to do what? Throwing people behind development at Apple might bring about worse products, not better.


    Perhaps in QA so they don't keep releasing softwares that are half baked.

  • Reply 25 of 97
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    pfisher wrote: »
    Yes, pathetic.

    You know, my daughter is in high school. She told me some people can't even read a clock. They are so used to digital.

    Also, besides copying the design (which is total FAIL), it's too complicated. It should be simpler. Or something innovative and different.

    Thankfully, Ive is in charge now and will turn things around. 

    Forstall is a bozo.

    P

    This clock design actually feels like an Ive decision. You don't know it was Forstall's.
  • Reply 26 of 97


    Originally Posted by mstone View Post

    …not some approximate minutes past the o'clock.


     


    That's what the minute hand is for. It… tells you the minutes past the hour.





    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post

    100 guys for 2 years to do what? Throwing people behind development at Apple might bring about worse products, not better.


     


    *nods* "Too many cooks," as it were.





    Originally Posted by pfisher View Post


    You mean copying cost? In addition to good design? Why even copy the clock? It's a busy looking image. No thanks.



     


    Uh, "busy"? Can you envision a simpler clock?





    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post

    When was the last time you asked someone for the time?


     


    There's a joke in the very existence of this sentence, I just know it. image

  • Reply 27 of 97
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post



    When was the last time you asked someone for the time?


    Only a figure of speech. Just the this morning I was speaking with someone who informed me that the person I needed to wait for comes in at 9:30 AM and we both simultaneously pulled out our iPhones from of our pockets and in unison said "ok it is 9:06 right now". The only place in my life where there is an analog clock in on my iOS devices.

  • Reply 28 of 97
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    mstone wrote: »
    Only a figure of speech. Just the this morning I was speaking with someone who informed me that the person I needed to wait for comes in at 9:30 AM and we both simultaneously pulled out our iPhones from of our pockets and in unison said "ok it is 9:06 right now". The only place in my life where there is an analog clock in on my iOS devices.

    So how did you read it then?
  • Reply 29 of 97

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post





    Why? Under what heading? "Company spends 0.00408% of market cap on design it wants"?


    You're looking at it wrong. It's not about how much it means for Apple, it's about the price for a design part of a software.

    Perhaps you can find some cases where someone paid for names, logos, use of images but design of an irrelevant part of an app...

    Apple has never won the case against MS when it was obvious for everyone that MS has mirrored (copied invertedly) the design of the Mac OS.

    Also how Google has done the same with the design of iOS in its Android.

  • Reply 30 of 97


    Originally Posted by mac-user View Post

    …it's about the price for a design part of a software.


     


    Yeah, and that's the part we're liking. Instead of settling for second-rate crap, Apple will pay what it takes to give us the design they want. That speaks volumes.







    Apple has never won the case against MS when it was obvious for everyone that MS has mirrored (copied invertedly) the design of the Mac OS.

    Also how Google has done the same with the design of iOS in its Android.




     


    See, this I've never understood. I thought you, you know, could protect how something looks. When Samsung is copying the GRADIENT ON THE KEYS OF THEIR KEYBOARD and people still pretend they haven't done anything wrong (and when Apple can't have $20 billion in damages levied), it makes you want to resort to physical violence to lock these people away from where they can speak.

  • Reply 31 of 97
    jkichlinejkichline Posts: 1,369member


    Everyone is getting up in arms that Apple paid $21 million for good design. Here's something I want you to pay attention to... Apple knew full well what they were doing when they used that clock design. The Swiss Railroad knew full well too.  What Apple is doing here is proving a point... that two companies can borrow each other's good design and intellectual property in a way where everyone benefits. Swiss Railroad executives were pleased with Apple that they saw good design, but they wanted to be compensated and Apple was happy to oblige.


     


    Now if only Samsung and these other companies would act the same way.  Apple is willing to share their good ideas (hello Microsoft) as long as it's done in a way they agree with. Some companies just steal ideas and refuse to reward those who had the idea first. Apple is setting an example of how companies and intellectual property should operate.

  • Reply 32 of 97

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    Yeah, and that's the part we're liking. Instead of settling for second-rate crap, Apple will pay what it takes to give us the design they want. That speaks volumes.



    There is a problem for me about this design. Tradicionally, the indicator end of the second hand has an arrow shape, at more modern ones it's just a straight line. The circular shape used to mean the opposite end of the hand. You can argue that the opposite end also used to be shorter so that can indicate which end of the hand is which. However, as it looks unusually the indicator direction with the circular shape, it's confusing.

    Check them:

    Clock


     



    See, this I've never understood. I thought you, you know, could protect how something looks. When Samsung is copying the GRADIENT ON THE KEYS OF THEIR KEYBOARD and people still pretend they haven't done anything wrong (and when Apple can't have $20 billion in damages levied), it makes you want to resort to physical violence to lock these people away from where they can speak.



    I didn't mean Apple could use someone else's design illegally. I think they could have designed something else.

  • Reply 33 of 97


    Originally Posted by mac-user View Post

    There is a problem for me about this design. Tradicionally, the indicator end of the second hand has an arrow shape, at more modern ones it's just a straight line. The circular shape used to mean the opposite end of the hand. You can argue that the opposite end also used to be shorter so that can indicate which end of the hand is which. However, as it looks unusually the indicator direction with the circular shape, it's confusing.


     


    Oh, sure, and I see where you're coming from with that, but I do believe the 'short end' aspect of this renders it at least partially moot.


     


    The Swiss have always had a thing for (perhaps overly) ornamental hands.


     


    image

  • Reply 34 of 97


    Has nobody noticed that Apple is making a deliberate statement here. "OK we are prepared to acknowledge top shelf design and we want to show how much it's worth to us as a company, this is why it's such a complete piss off that other companies copy our designs for use in the same type of competing product, and get away with it too"


     


    On another note, Apple has improved the design as well.


  • Reply 35 of 97
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    mstone wrote: »
    Yeah they argue tooth and nail for $1 per iPhone for Motorola's important cellular patents yet give more than $2 per iPad that will be sold this quarter for a clock face. Makes no sense. They should have just apologized and changed it back to the original design.

    1) With each new iPad sold the cost per device goes down but with the Moto licensing the total cost continues to rise.

    2) They have sold over 100 million iPads (right?) but paid $21 million dollars. That's only 21¢ per device. It's a lot, but it will go down and by the time they are done using it I bet it will be a fraction of a penny as I expect the iPad market to just continue to grow and the use of this clock to be used in their other devices.

    3) They had already used the clock without permission. Maybe they took a calculated risk when they used it or maybe it was an oversight, either way they were in violation and if they had changed it they would have still owed something, probably in the millions whether it was a settled in or out of court.

    4) Calculated or not, this shows Apple will pay for designs.
  • Reply 36 of 97
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    zeromeus wrote: »
    If that's true, that's just a waste of money!  I would just change the clock face.  How many of us actually use this feature?  It sounds like Apple got caught using protected property and just want to pay a lump sum to avoid being sued...  What a waste of $21 million.  Maybe this is the reason why a certain executive is on his way out???

    What all the whiners ignore is that Apple already used the clock - and can therefore be sued. It is quite plausible that they'd have spent a ton of money in legal fees and STILL paid more than $21 M.

    Furthermore, it reinforces their position that people should pay for IP that they use - either intentionally or unintentionally.
  • Reply 37 of 97

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AnalogJack View Post


    Has nobody noticed that Apple is making a deliberate statement here. "OK we are prepared to acknowledge top shelf design and we want to show how much it's worth to us as a company, this is why it's such a complete piss off that other companies copy our designs for use in the same type of competing product, and get away with it too"




    ok, it's a good point.

  • Reply 38 of 97

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    Oh, sure, and I see where you're coming from with that, but I do believe the 'short end' aspect of this renders it at least partially moot.


     


    The Swiss have always had a thing for (perhaps overly) ornamental hands.


     


    image



    The imagine of the sun and the moon perfectly symbolize an arrow, for me, and so the direction of the indicator, what is missing in the costly applied new iOS design

  • Reply 39 of 97
    jakebjakeb Posts: 562member


    The thing here is that Apple was going to be forking over some cash for this no matter what. They already used the design and were open to being sued. Swiss Railways just kept it classy and opted to try and work out a deal behind closed doors first. 




    The options were likely:


    pay SBB smaller sum, change app, incur even more bad PR


    pay SBB larger sum, keep app as-is, save some face

  • Reply 40 of 97
    Also remember Apple is TOP luxury feel product and having digital format is common as muck. If you watch collector like me, Swiss made watches/clocks are still the best in world and the time/detail put into making a swiss made watch is the statement Apple want to send to their consumers. Do you want the same old android common features phone or do you want a phone thats design/functionality has been fully invested by Apple to bring you a product superior in every feature.

    I very much doubt Forstall was the genius behind this decision and looks more like Ive.
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