Samsung spun up its creative thinking engine again, and this time a new color for its Note 5 smartphone/tablet crossover popped out: rose gold pink gold. Samsung plans to start shipping its rose gold pink gold Note 5 on October 23, which coincidentally is the same day the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus—available in rose gold—will be available in several more countries.
Samsung's Galaxy Note 5: It's pink gold, not rose gold
Samsung's innovative new color will be available only in South Korea, but the company is talking about releasing the rose pink colored Note 5 in other parts of Asia at some point.
Samsung has had a pretty consistent track record in the smartphone space ever since the original iPhone was introduced. The company's smartphones and tablets bear a striking resemblance to Apple's products, although Samsung executives insist they've been coming up with their designs independently of whatever Apple releases.
That led to a string of patent infringement lawsuits around the world where both companies accused each other of copying designs. Apple was the overall winner in those cases, most notably with its landslide victory in the U.S. courts where Samsung was ordered to pay over US$900 million in damages. Samsung lost its appeals on that ruling and will most likely take its fight to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Companies respond to their competition all the time, so seeing new products designed to better compete with Apple's iPhone and iPad lineup is par for the course. In the case of Samsung, however, it comes across as blatant copying—so much so that the running joke is that you only have to look at Apple's latest mobile device announcements to see what Samsung is doing next.
The real surprise here isn't that Samsung followed Apple's lead and introduced a pink gold color option for the Note 5; it's that it didn't happen sooner.