Apple Was Once Inspired By Samsung’s Clickwheel ‘Fashion Phone’

While yesterday’s court case revealed a bandwagon full of Apple’s long-held secrets, an interesting email involving Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, and Tony Fadell surfaced. It turns out Samsung’s allegations remarking that both companies were inspired by each other, may actually hold true.

The email exchange was first sent from Steve Jobs to Apple’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, Jony Ive. In the email, the subject line was labeled, “Samsung’s SGH-E910 fashion phone.” The contents of the email then went on to describe the clickwheel phone as Apple’s “answer.”

A reply from Jony Ive wasn’t presented in court, but an email-reply from Tony Fadell on other hand, was shown. He overall loved the round center control pad, mentioning it “seems comfortable.” But he did provide one negative comment saying it’s a “weird way to hold a cellphone.”

This evidence was presented by Samsung in attempt to further prove that both companies were nothing more than inspired by each other’s designs. And Samsung got the point across fairly well in my opinion.

Set aside from this being evidence, it amazes me some of the prototypes Apple considered during the past. This is the craziest one yet — it looks like the iPod’s clickwheel with numbers around the perimeter.

[via The Verge]