62 thoughts on “Samsung announces new “Gold Edition” Galaxy S4”
Samsung has done gold devices a few times before — more than anything, it’s the timing.
So it’s ok when Apple copies Nokia to do the colored phones, but when Samsung does it….
R&D on this started the day the first gold iPhone 5 rumor was announced.
This is a disingenuous argument, because it ignores the fact that Apple has, for a long time, done different colours on their devices. It shouldn’t be surprising that that comes to the phone.
I think you mean Apple copying what Apple did with iPods and iMacs.
Timing is everything – Nokia sure does colored phones but has done that for many years now – Apple just released a gold iPhone and a few days later Samsung tries to pull a fast one by releasing a gold version of their device
Because Apple has never offered Colorful devices before.
Apple is doomed. Samsung has found the secret to making gold phones.
Apple was first out with colored iMacs and iPods, so it’s Nokia that copied Apple.
Right, because goodness knows, Apple’s recent (i.e. post 1997) history isn’t riddled with the colored iMacs, iBooks, iPod Minis, iPod Nanos, or iPod Touches.
/s
“It’s just G now Jack. I sold the E to Samsung. They are now Samesung.”
Devon, 30 Rock
This is probably good news for Apple since a gold plastic S4 will look like a 80s porn movie prop next to the stylish gold-toned metal of the iPhone.
Seriously? “Apple didn’t invent gold phones”?
-_-
Hilarious.
The Joker: “If you’re good at something, never do it for free.”
We all know what Samsung is good at.
I’ll give thiem this much: The strawberry one looks cool. If they came with Windows Phone, I’d get one.
I defend Apple a lot, but a lot of stuff all over iOS7 proves Ive was paying attention at what Nokia and Microsoft were doing with Windows Phones.
What is fair is fair: Samsung carbon-copied Apple, while Apple was peaking at that cool trick Microsoft pulled that no one else seemed to notice.
Just like Samsung releasing gold phones before: this is about timing. Lets not be so protective of the brand we love that we just turn a blind eye when Apple takes inspiration from a rival.
We’ve briefly seen what Samsung can do when they have the opportunity to take the lead, (Galaxy S4 launch), and that hype died down quick.
They’re good at playing catch-up, but not at trailblazing.
Note also that it’s Samsung Gulf, not worldwide.
Probably Samsung got a lot of calls from people in the Emirates asking about a gold phone.
Which trick?
I mean, I’ve seen WP7/8 devices in person, and the Metro interface on both phones and Tablets.
I’ve got iOS 7 on my Phone and iPad, and I’m not seeing it, offhand.
(I’ve heard people on Facebook say “this looks like Windows Mobile”, which baffles the hell out of me, but plainly there’s something there I’m not grasping.
Then again, people were also saying it “looks like Android”, which equally baffles me, from the Android devices I’ve seen people use.)
(To clarify: I’m sure Apple pays lots of attention to the competition and we’ve seen them take useful features from other platforms before – no denying that, and indeed they’d be stupid not to.
Not trying to deny that in the slightest – just wondering literally which feature/trick/look you’re referring to, because I can’t figure out what it is.)
The entire single-color flat design. Controls that dont have obvious end areas, many that only seem to have lines inside but not around them. These are not an obvious thing as some may insist, just like a pure touch interface is not as obvious as Android users would love to convince the world off.
How much you actually played with Windows Phone 7/8? Have you actually gone beyond the tiles and into the apps?
The biggest mistake I have seen is when users assume “copied windows 8” means “copied the tiles”. Windows 8 is more than just the tiles.
They were done around the same time, I don’t think Samsung developed this phone in 2 weeks.
Samsung announced a gold phone in August, and its a color for pete’s sake not a feature, you can’t copy a color
which was what? apple had done colored ipods before nokia did colored phones. it was certainly only a question of when they did the same w/ phones.
This isn’t the development of a phone we’re taking about here. It’s the development of a new casing for a phone that’s already existed for some time. They changed the colour – of plastic. How long could something like that take? I’m thinking about as long as from when the first gold iPhone rumours surfaced til……. now.
They announced a gold phone in August, and released a another before this, with that logic Apple copied off Samsung. It’s not something ground breaking it’s a color. If they would of came out with a finger print scanner than yes they copied.
I was just commenting on your original comment about Samsung not being able to develop this phone in two weeks, when that’s not actually what happened – they simply updated the casing. I don’t actually care if Samsung copied Apple or not. I think they did, but I don’t care enough to argue about it.
Nokia has done colored phones since they been doing cellphones, that I can remember. I had a Red Nokia phone back in 1998.
The past is irrelevant though, I am not even talking about the phone colors themselves but may as well include them. Apple had departed from color and plastic in their phones as a “serious” device.
If doing colored ipods in the past excuses Apple as “not copying” then doing gold phones in the past excuse Samsung of doing this.
That is the Nokia 5110 introduced in 1998, if my memory servers me right, either at the same time or before the original one-color bondi blue iMac.
Nokia been doing colors for a long long time, and they never stopped.
This they-copy-this-they-copy-that attitude is sometimes taken to the extremes.
Yes, its very very likely the gold S4 exists because the iPhone 5s gold exists. It’s just as likely that the iPhone 5c and iOS7 exist because Ive liked what Nokia did with Windows Phones and the Lumia line.
Very sound logic there sir.
usually I get annoyed when samesung copies, but considering I much I dislike the gold theme, the more the merrier — I hope it goes out of fashion within a year.
I thought it was pretty awesome considering that episode was from 2008. 🙂
Was it, seriously? That’s even funnier now!! HAHAHA
In reality, no one can find any press releases or reviews about the color Nokia phones from “1998” from legit sites. All the articles mentioning it are from the past few years.
I don’t know the year but I do know Nokia had them around then. Moto had some too, if I recall correctly.
Please find a review / press release from that year from a legit site, not just an image with what is “supposedly” released that time.
iPhone 5s “gold” option was confirmed weeks before the Samsung announcement. So when Samsung copies the finger print scanner next year, what excuses will you have?
Sorry but I still don’t see it. And don’t come at me with a “I’m not looking or never used WP” comment, because I have a Lumia 920 in the house that I have extensive use with.
iOS7 is far from a “single color flat design.” About as far from it as could be. iOS 7 is full of DEPTH, there’s layering used throughout, parallax, and even Safari tab view utilizes a sense of depth and parallax. The only real similarity is the emphasis on more bold solid colors. But iOS 7 uses colors for more than just aesthetics, colors are used to indicate interactivity instead of button borders, the entire system has a color matching algorithm to match the UI to the users wallpaper/content. There’s just a ton of things Apple is doing with color on iOS 7 that isn’t remotely similar to WP.
Is there some similarity? Maybe, but it really ends at using color. The layers of design far beneath the surface differ greatly from WP. And I’d argue if Ive was put in charge of human interface before WP came out, we would have seen a similar direction. iOS 7 just reeks of Ives philosophy everywhere you look.
A rumor is “confirmed’ and there are tons of Apple rumors like a 12 inch iPad where is a larger Samsung tablet
Did Apple copy? Will Samsung copy? No because this idea wasn’t original, you don’t copy numeric pins or other security.
Samsung say they will come out with a curved display, with that logic Apple can’t released anything curved or else they copied.
I had one. I also had a blue 3310
(released in 2000). The faceplate was even removable and you could buy different color ones. Got tired of the red one you bought? It cracked or scratched? No problem: get another faceplate. (I would never want Apple to do this, not if it comes at the expense of thinness and weight.)
Next time, use google’s date range search. It’s easy to find lots of date-appropriate material that way.
“The Nokia 5110 was not Nokia’s first attempt at a consumer phone, but for the first time they decided that a consumer phone was more than a business phone with a few features missing. The Nokia 5110 gave customers a chance to choose a phone that was not just black or grey. The Nokia 5110, thanks to Nokia’s new Xpress-on covers, could be any colour you like.”
You can also see the phone in the 1998 Nokia Annual Report, page 17:
First, I never said everything apple did with iOS 7 was a WinPhone8 ripooff, but there are lots of elements that are.
Yes, color are different and more varied, but the single color nature of most elements (outside icons in the home screen that are mostly gradients) is the same.
The depth effect is actually used in Windows 8. You can see it in the photo app, and the XBox section. Unfortunately MS does not give us a setting to add photos to the home screen in Windows Phone, but they do in their tablets and in windows 8’s start screen, there you can also see the parallax depth effect in action.
But yea, there are lots of original things in iOS 7, I never questioned that.
But of course, Samsung apologists don’t keep track of the most well known product in the world at the time.
You must have thought that a “touchscreen” phone is nothing new when Apple introduced the multi-touch iPhone. All these companies use the flawed slide-finger method. Apple uses an more accurate method that actually works.
That really makes no sense, that was like 5 different color iPods introduced so Samsung introduces 1 gold phone that’s not even the same tint as the iPod.
If Samsung was copying Apple color, why didn’t they release phones for all those colors?
And the second phone clearly says Olympic edition, as in the color of a gold first place medal.
Apple wasn’t the first to do multi-touch and using your logic Apple copied.
A password is off by default but you can use a pin, or a text password, most people use the finger pattern because it is easier, but the option is there.
There’s a story (probably not true) that McDonald’s spends lots of money researching where to open a new store, then Burger King watches where McDonald’s open.
But neither of them created the hamburger.
Those hamburgers branded as Whopper or Big Mac
You can’t brand a color or security measure
I know my analogy was muddled, but I was agreeing with you. 🙂
I think you missed the point. Perhaps by missing my last line.
There’s nothing ethically wrong with them pushing their gold phones now. It’s just sad to see a lack of vision, such complete dependence on someone else setting a trend despite a massive marketing budget.
For what Samsung is spending, they ought to be breaking ground in exciting ways.
I hate to start this again, but the Gold S4 was already available in STORES 2 days before the 5S was announced. And if Samsung was copying apple why would they do it in such a small market?
Samsung has done gold devices a few times before — more than anything, it’s the timing.
So it’s ok when Apple copies Nokia to do the colored phones, but when Samsung does it….
R&D on this started the day the first gold iPhone 5 rumor was announced.
This is a disingenuous argument, because it ignores the fact that Apple has, for a long time, done different colours on their devices. It shouldn’t be surprising that that comes to the phone.
I think you mean Apple copying what Apple did with iPods and iMacs.
Timing is everything – Nokia sure does colored phones but has done that for many years now – Apple just released a gold iPhone and a few days later Samsung tries to pull a fast one by releasing a gold version of their device
Because Apple has never offered Colorful devices before.
You mean, like this? – https://www.google.com/#q=samsung+series+9+gold
Apple is doomed. Samsung has found the secret to making gold phones.
Apple was first out with colored iMacs and iPods, so it’s Nokia that copied Apple.
Right, because goodness knows, Apple’s recent (i.e. post 1997) history isn’t riddled with the colored iMacs, iBooks, iPod Minis, iPod Nanos, or iPod Touches.
/s
“It’s just G now Jack. I sold the E to Samsung. They are now Samesung.”
This is probably good news for Apple since a gold plastic S4 will look like a 80s porn movie prop next to the stylish gold-toned metal of the iPhone.
Seriously? “Apple didn’t invent gold phones”?
-_-
Hilarious.
The Joker: “If you’re good at something, never do it for free.”
We all know what Samsung is good at.
I’ll give thiem this much: The strawberry one looks cool. If they came with Windows Phone, I’d get one.
I defend Apple a lot, but a lot of stuff all over iOS7 proves Ive was paying attention at what Nokia and Microsoft were doing with Windows Phones.
What is fair is fair: Samsung carbon-copied Apple, while Apple was peaking at that cool trick Microsoft pulled that no one else seemed to notice.
Just like Samsung releasing gold phones before: this is about timing. Lets not be so protective of the brand we love that we just turn a blind eye when Apple takes inspiration from a rival.
We’ve briefly seen what Samsung can do when they have the opportunity to take the lead, (Galaxy S4 launch), and that hype died down quick.
They’re good at playing catch-up, but not at trailblazing.
Note also that it’s Samsung Gulf, not worldwide.
Probably Samsung got a lot of calls from people in the Emirates asking about a gold phone.
Which trick?
I mean, I’ve seen WP7/8 devices in person, and the Metro interface on both phones and Tablets.
I’ve got iOS 7 on my Phone and iPad, and I’m not seeing it, offhand.
(I’ve heard people on Facebook say “this looks like Windows Mobile”, which baffles the hell out of me, but plainly there’s something there I’m not grasping.
Then again, people were also saying it “looks like Android”, which equally baffles me, from the Android devices I’ve seen people use.)
(To clarify: I’m sure Apple pays lots of attention to the competition and we’ve seen them take useful features from other platforms before – no denying that, and indeed they’d be stupid not to.
Not trying to deny that in the slightest – just wondering literally which feature/trick/look you’re referring to, because I can’t figure out what it is.)
The entire single-color flat design. Controls that dont have obvious end areas, many that only seem to have lines inside but not around them. These are not an obvious thing as some may insist, just like a pure touch interface is not as obvious as Android users would love to convince the world off.
How much you actually played with Windows Phone 7/8? Have you actually gone beyond the tiles and into the apps?
The biggest mistake I have seen is when users assume “copied windows 8” means “copied the tiles”. Windows 8 is more than just the tiles.
They were done around the same time, I don’t think Samsung developed this phone in 2 weeks.
Samsung announced a gold phone in August, and its a color for pete’s sake not a feature, you can’t copy a color
http://bgr.com/2013/08/21/samsung-galaxy-golden-release-date-specs/
Why would anyone be surprised by this?
which was what? apple had done colored ipods before nokia did colored phones. it was certainly only a question of when they did the same w/ phones.
This isn’t the development of a phone we’re taking about here. It’s the development of a new casing for a phone that’s already existed for some time. They changed the colour – of plastic. How long could something like that take? I’m thinking about as long as from when the first gold iPhone rumours surfaced til……. now.
They announced a gold phone in August, and released a another before this, with that logic Apple copied off Samsung. It’s not something ground breaking it’s a color. If they would of came out with a finger print scanner than yes they copied.
I was just commenting on your original comment about Samsung not being able to develop this phone in two weeks, when that’s not actually what happened – they simply updated the casing. I don’t actually care if Samsung copied Apple or not. I think they did, but I don’t care enough to argue about it.
Nokia has done colored phones since they been doing cellphones, that I can remember. I had a Red Nokia phone back in 1998.
The past is irrelevant though, I am not even talking about the phone colors themselves but may as well include them. Apple had departed from color and plastic in their phones as a “serious” device.
If doing colored ipods in the past excuses Apple as “not copying” then doing gold phones in the past excuse Samsung of doing this.
Heck, Samsung actually used gold in the past.
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2007/10/samsung-e848-goes-gold/
http://i.i.cbsi.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim//2010/09/13/Nokia_5110.jpg
That is the Nokia 5110 introduced in 1998, if my memory servers me right, either at the same time or before the original one-color bondi blue iMac.
Nokia been doing colors for a long long time, and they never stopped.
This they-copy-this-they-copy-that attitude is sometimes taken to the extremes.
Yes, its very very likely the gold S4 exists because the iPhone 5s gold exists. It’s just as likely that the iPhone 5c and iOS7 exist because Ive liked what Nokia did with Windows Phones and the Lumia line.
Very sound logic there sir.
usually I get annoyed when samesung copies, but considering I much I dislike the gold theme, the more the merrier — I hope it goes out of fashion within a year.
I thought it was pretty awesome considering that episode was from 2008. 🙂
Was it, seriously? That’s even funnier now!! HAHAHA
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1236458/
I really love the male and female editions
In reality, no one can find any press releases or reviews about the color Nokia phones from “1998” from legit sites. All the articles mentioning it are from the past few years.
I don’t know the year but I do know Nokia had them around then. Moto had some too, if I recall correctly.
Please find a review / press release from that year from a legit site, not just an image with what is “supposedly” released that time.
iPhone 5s “gold” option was confirmed weeks before that http://www.macrumors.com/2013/08/11/more-claims-of-iphone-5c-name-iphone-5s-with-gold-color-option-and-home-button-changes/ and rumors were circulating all summer
iPhone 5s “gold” option was confirmed weeks before the Samsung announcement. So when Samsung copies the finger print scanner next year, what excuses will you have?
Sorry but I still don’t see it. And don’t come at me with a “I’m not looking or never used WP” comment, because I have a Lumia 920 in the house that I have extensive use with.
iOS7 is far from a “single color flat design.” About as far from it as could be. iOS 7 is full of DEPTH, there’s layering used throughout, parallax, and even Safari tab view utilizes a sense of depth and parallax. The only real similarity is the emphasis on more bold solid colors. But iOS 7 uses colors for more than just aesthetics, colors are used to indicate interactivity instead of button borders, the entire system has a color matching algorithm to match the UI to the users wallpaper/content. There’s just a ton of things Apple is doing with color on iOS 7 that isn’t remotely similar to WP.
Is there some similarity? Maybe, but it really ends at using color. The layers of design far beneath the surface differ greatly from WP. And I’d argue if Ive was put in charge of human interface before WP came out, we would have seen a similar direction. iOS 7 just reeks of Ives philosophy everywhere you look.
A rumor is “confirmed’ and there are tons of Apple rumors like a 12 inch iPad where is a larger Samsung tablet
Here is a samsung gold phone from 2006:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/05/samsung-pimps-out-18k-gold-yp-z5/
One even before that from 2004:
http://www.engadget.com/2004/08/09/samsungs-olympic-gold/
Did Apple/Samsung copy no because it is a color
Yes that will be a response at Apple but finger print scanners aren’t new ideas, company’s used them before.
They were in laptops 2012:
http://support.authentec.com/KnowledgeBase/KBview/tabid/843/ArticleId/504/Laptop-Fingerprint-Sensor-Reader.aspx
And phones 2011:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1383133/James-Bond-Motorola-ATRIX-smartphone-operate-using-fingerprint-recognition.html
Did Apple copy? Will Samsung copy? No because this idea wasn’t original, you don’t copy numeric pins or other security.
Samsung say they will come out with a curved display, with that logic Apple can’t released anything curved or else they copied.
I had one. I also had a blue 3310
(released in 2000). The faceplate was even removable and you could buy different color ones. Got tired of the red one you bought? It cracked or scratched? No problem: get another faceplate. (I would never want Apple to do this, not if it comes at the expense of thinness and weight.)
Next time, use google’s date range search. It’s easy to find lots of date-appropriate material that way.
http://www.mobilephonehistory.co.uk/nokia/nokia_5110.php
http://nokiamuseum.com/view.php?model=5110
Excerpt from one of those links:
“The Nokia 5110 was not Nokia’s first attempt at a consumer phone, but for the first time they decided that a consumer phone was more than a business phone with a few features missing. The Nokia 5110 gave customers a chance to choose a phone that was not just black or grey. The Nokia 5110, thanks to Nokia’s new Xpress-on covers, could be any colour you like.”
You can also see the phone in the 1998 Nokia Annual Report, page 17:
http://web.lib.hse.fi/FI/yrityspalvelin/pdf/1998/enokia.pdf
In that same page you also get to see a blue 6110, also released that year, and a green 7110 to be released the February of the next year (1999.)
Nokia was BIG on color ever since, as this was very profitable.
Please, next time, actually search:
http://web.lib.hse.fi/FI/yrityspalvelin/pdf/1998/enokia.pdf
1998’s annual report from Nokia. Look at page 17.
First, I never said everything apple did with iOS 7 was a WinPhone8 ripooff, but there are lots of elements that are.
Yes, color are different and more varied, but the single color nature of most elements (outside icons in the home screen that are mostly gradients) is the same.
The depth effect is actually used in Windows 8. You can see it in the photo app, and the XBox section. Unfortunately MS does not give us a setting to add photos to the home screen in Windows Phone, but they do in their tablets and in windows 8’s start screen, there you can also see the parallax depth effect in action.
But yea, there are lots of original things in iOS 7, I never questioned that.
But of course, Samsung apologists don’t keep track of the most well known product in the world at the time.
http://obamapacman.com/2013/09/samsung-gold-phone-e900-d780-vs-apple-gold-ipod-mini/
You must have thought that a “touchscreen” phone is nothing new when Apple introduced the multi-touch iPhone. All these companies use the flawed slide-finger method. Apple uses an more accurate method that actually works.
That really makes no sense, that was like 5 different color iPods introduced so Samsung introduces 1 gold phone that’s not even the same tint as the iPod.
If Samsung was copying Apple color, why didn’t they release phones for all those colors?
And the second phone clearly says Olympic edition, as in the color of a gold first place medal.
Apple wasn’t the first to do multi-touch and using your logic Apple copied.
A password is off by default but you can use a pin, or a text password, most people use the finger pattern because it is easier, but the option is there.
There’s a story (probably not true) that McDonald’s spends lots of money researching where to open a new store, then Burger King watches where McDonald’s open.
But neither of them created the hamburger.
Those hamburgers branded as Whopper or Big Mac
You can’t brand a color or security measure
I know my analogy was muddled, but I was agreeing with you. 🙂
Not to join the color argument here but this came across my feed: http://global.samsungtomorrow.com/?p=28658.
Hello, “Tim Chaten”.
I think you missed the point. Perhaps by missing my last line.
There’s nothing ethically wrong with them pushing their gold phones now. It’s just sad to see a lack of vision, such complete dependence on someone else setting a trend despite a massive marketing budget.
For what Samsung is spending, they ought to be breaking ground in exciting ways.
I hate to start this again, but the Gold S4 was already available in STORES 2 days before the 5S was announced. And if Samsung was copying apple why would they do it in such a small market?