Did Apple steal the iPhone design from Samsung?

The F700 was a high-end touchscreen feature phone that Samsung showed off back at CeBIT 2006, and although hitting the shelves a month after Apple's handset did, it was one of the first unfortunate victims to be slated as 'not quite as good as the iPhone'.

You can see from a glance the similarity to Apple's design, from the form-factor to the application screen, it's clear that someone here was keeping a close eye on competition, and considering WWDC didn't take place until January 2007, it's pretty obvious who the copycats are.

There is no such thing as an original idea

Now of course to say that Apple 'stole' the design from Samsung, or that Samsung 'stole' the design from Apple is ultimately not true. In reality, nobody comes up with anything truly original. Steve Jobs didn't 'invent' the iPhone more than the Wright brothers 'invented' the airplane, it was the product of numerous experiments and huge amounts of work, taking cues from existing ideas and technologies to create a device which is a collaboration of things that already exist.

Manufacturers are products of their environment just as much as any individual is and the less work they put in, the more features they have to regurgitate, for those features are all they know.

This is why Apple's lawsuit against Samsung is wrong. Whether conscious or not, Apple took design cues from pre-existing products such as the F700 as a basis for designing the iPhone, just as Samsung took from the iPhone in designing the Galaxy S. In effect, all companies borrow from each other as information is linear, it's impossible not to.

This is why we see Samsung's counter claim over Apple violating their "patents in communication standards". One tech giant throws their toys out the pram, the other is bound to follow, after all there's no shortage of excuses, because really, everyone lends to each other.

(Source: TechEye.net)