With all the ongoing litigation over alleged patent infringement and general legal nastiness, you might think that Samsung would be on its best behavior with its latest product offerings. But that’s really not the case judging by these Smart Cover knock-offs designed for the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Featuring much of the same functionality as Apple’s Smart Covers, these nearly-identical “Smart Cases” are sold in Samsung’s Korean outlets. While not made by Samsung directly, the cases were manufactured by Anymode, a company that 9-to-5 Mac says has family ties with Samsung itself. This may explain how the things got sold in Samsung’s stores to begin with.
Update: On Tuesday, Samsung responded to the allegations via an official statement. Apparently, there was some oversight with the Anymode Smart Cases getting Samsung’s approval.
“As a general practice, Samsung Electronics reviews and approves all accessories produced by partners before they are given the “Designed for Samsung Mobile” mark.
In this case, approval was not given to Anymode for the accessory to feature this official designation. We are working with Anymode to address this oversight and the product has already been removed from the Anymode sales website. The product has not been sold.”
The iPad’s Smart Cover has been the subject of quite a bit of controversy since its announcement, not the least of which being that Apple itself has been accused of stealing the idea from accessory manufacturer InCase
[9to5Mac]
