Samsung, who is currently locking horns with Apple over various infringements with regard to cell phone and tablet patents, has just opened another retail store. This store is just a block away from Apple's own store in Sydney, Australia and what's more if you walked in without noticing the missing Apple logo outside, you may think you had walked into an Apple Store. Samsung claims otherwise but this store and the last store that Samsung opened in Canada appear to come straight from the Apple book of retail. The latest store details come from a report by The Sydney Morning Herald.
It's a flagship consumer electronics store on Sydney's George Street with smiling blue shirt-wearing sales staff, a minimalist design and smartphones and tablets that invite customers to pick up and play. But according to Samsung, the new store - just a block from Apple's Sydney store - was all its own idea.
Samsung Australia's vice-president of telecommunications, Tyler McGee, said Apple "didn't even come into the equation when we were looking for a location [for the store]". But come on, the layout of the store is pretty similar, right? "Well, if you look at our layout this is the layout that we use around the world and it's about basically giving the consumers the opportunity to interact, learn and play with our devices," McGee said.
Surely Samsung could have come up with at least a few original ideas; they even dress the sales staff in the traditional blue polo shirts worn by Apple Genius staff. The layout of the stores with the light wooden bench tables all laid out with working products is far too similar for it to be classed as an original Samsung idea. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but it's all getting a little bit silly now. Samsung can copy only so much from Apple, at the end of the day, Apple's customer service is second to none, I bet Samsung haven't fully copied that part yet and probably never will.
Take a look at the video below which gives you a brief look around the store. What do you think? Is Samsung trying to deliberately copy Apple's proven blueprint for retail success?
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
