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I’ve often stood behind Android OEM’s like Samsung whenever they’ve locked horns with Apple over software patents and the like. Sure they original Galaxy S looked eerily similar to the original iPhone 3G, but there’s only so many ways to make a rectangle, right? Be all that as it may, I think if you were to say Samsung’s latest venture was “inspired” by Apple, that’d be an understatement.
The South Korean manufacturer recently opened up their very first retail store in North America and if you think it looks familiar, you’re not alone. I don’t know, maybe I’m being harsh. Apple doesn’t exactly have a patent (yet) on tables displaying wares in the middle of showroom floors or staff in blue shirts that are eager to help customers with 1-on-1 demos, but honestly, at first glance, you thought it was an “Apple Store,” didn’t you? Check out the video and let me know what you think.
Samsung’s new retail store can be found in the Metrotown mall in Burnaby, Vancouver if you were looking to swing by. What do you guys think? Is it just good business for stores like Best Buy, Microsoft and now Samsung to imitate Apple’s design and customer service model? Or does Samsung have another lawsuit on their hands?
not a bad idea at all. If it gets the products out there to the masses, then go for it. The only thing missing (as far as i can tell from the vid) is their latest and greatest Smart Tv’s and monitors! That alone would be enough to draw in customers. Apple can deal with it, they cant sue over having an oem store like this.
yea they need to push all of their products not just the phones. i DID actually think it was an apple store at 1st. then the giant GSIII on the back wall killed that thought LOL
Yep. Apple Store wannabe.
Pitiful…..absolutely pitiful. Never in my life have I witnessed a company work THIS hard to emulate another….shameless
You have not idea about stores design…
That Samsung store look like the SonyStyle store close to my house.
… and blue is the original Samsung color…
I was hoping someone was going to mention that Samsung’s color is blue. Has been for some time now.
Yet another fandroid with his head in the sand, even when it is something THIS obvious….frightening
If you don’t like droids why are you here?
Simple, iTroll.
Its called the First Amendment, fandroid. Something your fellow fandroids are all too familiar with when they invade Apple blogs
You don’t like the actions someone makes? Why not do them yourself, then! It’ll really show that person how you are the stronger man, and not at all a hypocrite!
I couldn’t care less how many fandroids comment on Apple blogs…I, unlike you insecure fandroids, can handle an opposing opinion :-)
I agree, this is awful. I wish they would sell their AMOLED screens to HTC and close up shop. It actually makes me want to go buy another iPhone when I swore I was sticking with Android.
Have you guys actually been to an Apple store? It’s really not that similar. There’s giant TV’s everywhere (Apple usually only has one or two for showing off Apple TV) and everything is all white (Apple has wooden tables). The employees are dressed completely differently too. Definitely a non-story.
To Apple it`s copy for their store, what and see what Apple has to say.
To Apple everything is a copy of what they’ve done. Apple’s opinion and real life are two very different things.
It’s more-or-less natural that the store uses so much white because the contrast with the dark colors of the devices is so great. It makes the devices stand out better.
The comment about the employees wearing blue shirts is ridiculous. Blue has been a Samsung color since as long as I can remember. If they really wanted to be copy-cats, they would have hired a bunch of hipsters that have never heard of a) hair-cutting/grooming products, and/or b) showers and wear t-shirts.
There’s nothing wrong with this store. If you really want to point fingers at an Apple store copy-cat, go visit a Microsoft store. The resemblance is uncanny. T-shirts, neck lanyard name tags, flat white tables; pretty much everything.
My only complaint is the stupid home button on the SII and SIII. That’s a blatant and useless ripoff of the iPhone.
Yet another fandroid with his head in the sand , even hen it is something THIS obvious…frightening
Well, we can say the same. another iboy tailgating on android forums..
Wait, are you a copy-cat, you just copied from others the process of commenting on a forum. You should find your own innovative way to say things to comment on a forum.
This model of displaying things on table with plain background and reps with t-shirts is from ages.. have you ever been to AT&T, T-mobile or may be best buy. All laptops, phones are displayed the same way.
Frightening!!!!
I am a Nexus owner and a fan of Android and Samsung. I also dislike apple. But I think Samsung knowing the reactions of others to the similarity’s between company’s should have tried much harder to keep it very different from an Apple store.
They could have used very light wood paneling instead of white. The devices would have stood out very nicely. They also could have used a very dark colored rug with blue samsung logo’s patterned onto it.
So many different things they could have done to have their store be unique.
sorry iPal, apple is the inventor of nothing but unjustly gets the credit for everything!
Anyone in merchandising would know that you need to have your products stand out when they’re on display. Why do you think so many companies use contrasting colors when they display items? When you sell nothing but black or dark-colored products, as is the case in the electronics world, the obvious choice for a contrasting color is white. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. Steve Jobs didn’t have the epiphany of the millennium when he decided on the color white for Apple stores. He wasn’t the first to understand that dark-colored products look good on white shelves.
It amazes me how many people think that everything that’s produced by Apple is an obvious “first” in the industry. When you look at everything that Apple has produced, most of their products are simplified versions of pre-existing products. MP3 players, touchscreen cell phones, and tablet computers existed before Apple came out with the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. They’re fantastic at merchandising, building up hype for their products. They are masters at marketing. There’s no denying that.
That being said, they’ve invented little. You say my head is in the sand? I can actually pick up a book and figure things out for myself. I don’t take Apple’s word as the gospel. On the converse, your brand of ignorance is frightening.
OK yeah there’s no defending this. Apple copycat. The fan boys are gonna have a field day with this one.
Do the Samsung stores have something like the genius bar? It be nice if they had people to show customers how it all works without the carrier reps that sometimes have no idea what your talking about!
I don’t think Apple can do much since I’m not sure if its possible to patent or copyright a store idea. MS was thinking about opening its own store too. I’m actually starting to like Samsung. They seem to have big dreams.
resembles an Apple store, but i doubt Apple has a patent on that too.
looks like any other phone/carrier store ive walked into to me….
Yup, pretty much every phone/consumer electronics shop I’ve been into in the last few years looks like this. It’s pretty desperate to claim it’s an Apple thing.
It seems like a lot of these phone shops have been somewhat influenced by Apple’s stores, though (not saying they’re copies).
Looks identical to my local Telstra and Optus shop (Australia). I don’t see the problem here.
Love it. Its a big F U to apple in a way.
And before apple gets its undies in an uproar someone should remind them that sony stores were around well before apple stores. Not that it would matter, iRewriteHistory would be in full swing.
Apple: “Judge, we patented stores. Nobody had a patent on stores so we got one. “
I wouldn’t worry too much if I was Samsung, Apple took their store design inspiration from GAP anyway. If there’s anything they want to take from Apple stores it’s the level of service you get. It really is a wonderful shopping experience.
How else is it supposed to look? I mean it does what it needs to..
Just because I rock the Gnex I am no Samsung fanboy. More like an Android fanboy but the amount of products that Samsung could pack into a “Samsung” speciality store is pretty staggering. If they sold all their products instead of just mobile devices the store would be packed with …
TVs, Blu-ray & DVD Players, Home Theater Systems, Cell Phones, Tablets, Laptops, Chrome Devices, Media Players, Cameras, Camcorders, SD Cards, Laptops, All-in-One PCs, Tablet PCs, Monitors, Printers, Memory & Storage, Washers & Dryers, Refrigerators, Microwaves, Dishwashers, Ranges, Vacuums, LED Lighting, TV Accessories, Cell Phone Accessories, Tablet Accessories, Printer Toner & Supplies, Laptop Accessories, Digital Camera Accessories …
It would probably look something like a small Best Buy store with just Samsung hardware. I work for an Appliance manufacturer in the US so I know I wont be buying any of that from Samsung anyways … lol
A better question to ask is why do people think Apple is the only one who can open stores like this? Samsung has enough products for a store, good for them.
This is how most technology retail stores look nowadays. Two of the three telecommunications companies here in KSA look like this. Apple didn’t invent everything. And Samsung is better and more popular as far as phones are concerned now anyways. I see people leaving iPhone for the S3, and not the other way around. And by the way, who’s imitating who? Now Apple will come out with an iPad mini although Jobs said that people will need sandpaper for their hands because of the small screen. When Apple imitates -genius…enough already.
The reason you will be seeing people leaving iPhone for S3, is because it’s only been out a short while. In 18 months, you will see people leaving S3 for iPhone.
Looks really small
Looks like our local (small town Canada) Bell Store. I can’t wait to go there when I’m on holidays in YVR. Hopefully the Note 10.1 will be out even though I just got the Tab 2.
At first glance I thought it was a Sprint store
Looks pretty similar to my local Verizon store. Chris, you may want to write an article about them if I were to send you a picture if this warrants one…
Apple is such a joke with their little watchphones for dumb people who have no tech ability at all lol. Apple has copied someone on every single thing they have done. They haven’t done anything original and its sickening. They copied Sony and MS with their stores full of icrap. Its embarassing to be a human when iLemmings and iSheep really think an iPhone is anywhere near as good as Samsung’s phones. They are sad pack of iMorons lmao
That really hurt to read.
Lol Samsung does about everything possible to copy Apple is really awkward. Even the design of the store, shape of the icons, S-voice, home button, ugh.
Time for another cry baby lawsuit. “Waaah, waaah, we invented the concept of selling consumer electronics in a dedicated store.”
That looks just like every Sprint store I have ever been in. Replace the Sansumg banner on the wall with a Sprint one and bam. That is just the best way to setup stores for small products that you can play with.
Why in the WORLD would anyone CARE what appful likes?
Oh, NO! Appful has patented the retail store!
I’ve never had a reason to ever enter an Apple store so I have no idea what they look like.
Dumb article. Should then Samsung store look like a supermarket?
Amazing. Scamsung sinks to new lows. What is even more pathetic is not that Samsung is copying Apple’s retail stores, even using the same color blue shirts, it is that sad phandroid fanboys here spinning the same tired stories to make their insignificant lives feel better.
“Oh, but Apple doesn’t own the color blue, or patented selling products in a store, or “.
Simply sad. That’s says it all.
“They both contain two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions. But they use a sesame seed bun. My buns have no seeds. They got the Golden Arches, mine the Golden Arcs.”
Brilliant!
Have you been to one of the Microsoft stores? They are remarkable. They finished one last year here in Austin and it’s gorgeous. It has in interactive screen that wraps around the whole interior of the store, a 100+ inch touchscreen TV, Xbox’s with many games, a Kinect station, and all kinds of hardware. The only thing lacking is the personnel. They try to hard to be like Geniuses. The thing about the Apple store is that you have people who truly care about their products. The Microsoft store had people who had no idea what they were talking about, yet still tried to sound smart… annoying. But I’m proud of Microsoft for really distinguishing themselves from the Apple store, and going beyond what Apple has done. Now lets get a Google store!
This is sad…but I guess they are allowed to emulate a style that works…