Samsung Certifies The Most Shameless Smart Cover Rip-Off You’ll Ever See

John Brownlee (12:00 pm PDT, Jul 18 2011)

Samsung Certifies The Most Shameless Smart Cover Rip-Off You’ll Ever See

What peels away from your tablet’s display, folds to allow you to prop it up or type on it, comes in five pastel colors and has a product name that starts with the word ‘smart?’

Apple’s Smart Cover for iPad 2 is a good guess. But that’s not what we’re talking about here: we’re talking about the Smart Case for Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1. And hey, no surprise here: Samsung’s officially certified the copycat Smart Cover to be used with their copycat iPad.

Samsung Certifies The Most Shameless Smart Cover Rip-Off You’ll Ever See

The Smart Case is a blatant imitation of the Smart Cover in everything except the way it fixes to the Galaxy Tab: because the Tab 10.1 doesn’t have magnets to affix the case, the Smart Case instead affixes to the back of the Tab, which affords some additional protection from dings.

We’d be tempted to leave it there. It’s a blatant rip-off, but the accessory world is filled with many such rip-offs, and Samsung can’t be faulted for this one.

Or can they? First of all, Samsung has given an official endorsement to the Smart Case by way of certification. Second, it is a copycat Smart Cover for a copycat iPad affiliated with a company that is already well known for ripping off Apple.

But third? According to 9to5Mac, the makers of the Smart Case have deep family ties to Samsung itself:

The Smart Case is designed exclusively for Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 – and not by a coincidence, warns our reader Jun.

Apparently Sang-yong Kim, the Anymode CEO, was “born in Samsung family”. Jun tells us – and you’re free to take it at face value – that the Anymode CEO “is nephew of the Samsung’s chairman Kun-Hee Lee“, the claim we were unable to verify at the time of this writing. The 69-year old chairman of Samsung Electronics stepped down in April 2008 amid the Slush funds scandal, but returned at the group’s helm in March of last year. He is credited for improving the quality of Samsung’s design and products. Anymode is not even attempting to conceal the Samsung link.

Jeez. Copying Apple’s mobile product designs is just endemic at Samsung, isn’t it? No wonder Cupetino had enough.

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229 comments »

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  • http://www.netbooknews.de Sascha Pallenberg

    i’ve seen a lot of fails when it comes to rants, i’ve seen a lot of epic fails, too. This one Mr. Brownlee is the superlative of a fanboy driven rant, that backfires for ages.
    I don’t even wanna explain the asian hardware business to you and how a couple of families rule over Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan.
    Nope, i won’t even bring up the fact that incase introduced this cover already around 9 months ago and no i won’t even speculate that Apple actually copied it.
    You know what i would love to point out? Your CultofMac.com 300×250 banner in the right sidebar, which leads us to this site here:

    http://www.ion-factory.com/carboncover.php?gclid=CJqe2crdi6oCFQJrKgod_37ByA

    This is just pathetic!

  • http://www.netbooknews.de Sascha Pallenberg

    i’ve seen a lot of fails when it comes to rants, i’ve seen a lot of epic fails, too. This one Mr. Brownlee is the superlative of a fanboy driven rant, that backfires for ages.
    I don’t even wanna explain the asian hardware business to you and how a couple of families rule over Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan.
    Nope, i won’t even bring up the fact that incase introduced this cover already around 9 months ago and no i won’t even speculate that Apple actually copied it.
    You know what i would love to point out? Your CultofMac.com 300×250 banner in the right sidebar, which leads us to this site here:

    http://www.ion-factory.com/carboncover.php?gclid=CJqe2crdi6oCFQJrKgod_37ByA

    This is just pathetic!

  • Alex Ray

    Lol these comment trolls.  :P  They get me every time. I love how they say it’s Just a case and yet they write 4 pages on why they are right about why design imitation is ok. Sure, there are different things about it.  Would they have made the back panel if they had magnets in their tablet? probably not.  Maybe samsung was hoping to get some money from the misinformed elderly that buy this case for their child’s ipad 2. 

    Heck, when I was scrolling through the page, I thought they were ipad covers.  

  • http://twitter.com/Nickrockerr Nikita

    WTF ?

    Samsung, my ass

  • http://www.iphoneblog.de iphoneblog

    Update: http://global.samsungtomorrow.com/?p=3476

  • Andy Shaw

    Is this cover magnetic? 

  • http://twitter.com/weltraumpirat Claus not Han Solo

    EPIC LOL! I even like my Mac Pro, but this “Apple should sue everything” is ridiculous! Just remember the last iOS5 Keynote! Apple shows over 90% new features, which where based on Android OS… Now ask yourself… “Who is the copycat?”
    Apples iPad 2 smartcover is a copy of the Convertible Magazine Jacket, which was introduced in November 2010…  http://goincase.com/blog/2010/11/23/introducing-the-convertible-magazine-jacket-for-ipad/
    So, even Apple is not an angle!

  • http://twitter.com/5murfette Mr Smurf

    R**ards, samsung came out clear on that one and the cover wasnt really certified by them. Way to make hatred-news.

  • http://twitter.com/Sekao8 Dan Oakes

    Maybe if some you actually looked at the product and the descrption you would see that this is not a Samsung product, but one that was made for a Samsung product. So be a fan boy of either Apple or Android, but at least be smart about it and realize this is just a third party product, and a prime example of how the world turns. Someone makes something great and everyone tries to make the same thing or tries to make it better.

    And if you don’t believe me, just check out how many snuggie rip-offs there are

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_AKBTXDPZPHA263RHOAQ73WQXTA EvilEmpireRaiders

    All I want to know is if the Smart Case is less expensive than Apple’s Smart Cover.  If it is, and the Smart Case dimensions can hold an iPad, then MORE POWER TO SAMSUNG.  Even though I love Apple’s innovations, some stuff, like the Smart Cover, are a blalant price rip off.  

    • Zomby2D

      The iPad and Galaxy Tab have very different form factors so no, this third-party case won’t fit.  But there are many third party cases for the iPad too.

    • Zomby2D

      The iPad and Galaxy Tab have very different form factors so no, this third-party case won’t fit.  But there are many third party cases for the iPad too.

  • http://twitter.com/kennymatic Kenny Louie

    When are they going to make one of these for the iPad 2? 

  • http://twitter.com/kennymatic Kenny Louie

    When are they going to make one of these for the iPad 2? 

  • http://twitter.com/kennymatic Kenny Louie

    When are they going to make one of these for the iPad 2? 

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4XBDHCVVEQRFFIB43UHUOHTMYA Tanaka Jiro

    Korea always copy other countries’ product and clutures. Finally, they claim they invente it.

    see
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWfUJZUfDfA
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaOCQ9AQyP0

  • Anonymous

    Apple did not design this cover it’s from incase company design, exactly copied but not many site tell about. apple copied just like same as Samsung copied. Touch screen, UI and other infringement copied form other companies but they act like they invented everything innovation? You believe apple is? Maybe if you read only junk site like this it is, you believe fox news tells truth? This writer needs come up something and he may get call from Steve jobs for this.
    Apple is a copycat just like others. Apple lost lawsuit to Kodak

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_AB4JPYUOSMUOITMX7J542ADGYA 버미

    fucking ugly samsung. maybe they have no brain.

  • http://twitter.com/benjaminbtn 편현범

    fucking ugly samsung. maybe they have no brain.

  • http://www.BaloneyGeek.com Boudhayan Gupta

    You do know that Samsung is the OEM for Apple, right? The iPad is technically a Samsung product.

  • Christian Ide

    Somehow the innovative Apple sleeve reminds me of the cover of my eight years old Sony Clié TJ-35 :-)
    http://www.pdamuseum.com/sony_clie/sony_clie_peg-tj35.htm

  • http://twitter.com/Needo87 Needo

    are you really serious about this articel? Why the hell would you call yourself a Journalist? Go Quit your Job.

  • http://twitter.com/Needo87 Needo

    are you really serious about this articel? Why the hell would you call yourself a Journalist? Go Quit your Job.

  • stefan

    wow one of the worst articles ever read on a blog…

    shame on you for publsihing such ****

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About the author

John BrownleeJohn Brownlee is news editor here at Cult of Mac, and has also written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Cambridge with his charming inamorata and a tiny budgerigar punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous pervert. You can follow him here on Twitter.

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