Why do most smartphone companies copy Apple’s ideas?

iPhone 7

Do most companies copy Apple’s design?

Don’t you think so?

Let me ask some questions -

1. Which company started making commercial PC’s?
2. Which company introduced GUI (commercially)?
3. Which company introduced Music player that can store 1000s of songs and fits in the pocket?
4. Which company introduced OTA updates?
5. Which company introduced smartphone that changed the world ever since?
6. Which company introduced fingerprint scanners in a smartphone?
7. Which company introduced 64-bit processors in a smartphone?

The answer is Apple.

At its core, Apple is known for Innovation. Through the history they had a notable impact on the market with their innovative designs and concepts and somehow Apple’s products shaped the future of modern computers, which is now the present.

In fact Apple stands at 1st position as Most innovative company.

So if a single brand is leading the market with innovative products then what other companies do?

1. Create innovative designs — Companies like Microsoft, IBM are long term rivals with Apple. These companies create innovative products too, but they end up having no impact or very less.
2. In fact, IBM has more patents than Apple. IBM stands in 1st place for having the highest number of patents. But Apple had a good impact on the market.
3. Copy the design — Ever heard this quote “Good artists copy, Great artists steal”

A quote by Picasso

That is exactly what companies do — Work on any design if it reaches the final stage then launch it or else do what others are doing.

As I said, Apple creates an impact in the market and if any brands don’t follow that trend most probably they may not go right. That is due to the Apple’s brand value which was set by late Steve Jobs.

For Example:

1. Apple introduced fingerprint sensors in smartphones and other brands did the same.
2. Apple introduced the dual camera setup in iPhone 7 and since then every smartphone started shipping with dual cameras.
3. Apple introduced the notch and then every company started doing it though it didn’t look good and so on.

This raises one question — Why other companies didn’t try to introduce any of these?

They surely did. Samsung came up with Iris scanner but it failed. First HTC introduced dual camera but failed. Essential phone introduced notch but it failed.

Do companies copy Apple’s ideas? Yes, they do.

But why? Because they are forced to do else they may lose market share.

You may argue that even Apple didn’t introduce all first-time products; I agree with you but somehow they Commercialized it. That’s why other companies copy the Apple’s ideas.