Samsung took to its blog to remind the world that it has been building gold phones way before Apple's iPhone 5S, so it's not following Apple.
When rumors first leaked about the new color, many doubted that a gold iPhone 5S would be popular. It has been a runaway hit for the company and stock of the golden iPhone 5s is so limited that some have purchased the champagne color of the phone for premium prices in order to flash their iPhone and let the world know they have the new iPhone 5s and also the hardest to obtain - a person actually paid $10,000.00 for it on ebay. There were over 50 bids placed for the golden-hued iPhone, and the lucky winner won the auction and paid $10,000.00 for a gold factory unlocked 16GB iPhone 5S. You would think for that price, it would have been the highest-capacity 64GB 5s, but shortages of hard-to-find tech devices have an effect on people, urging them to pay a premium just to score a sold out device, even a price as high as $10,000.00 for a normally $649 iPhone from Apple.
Samsung has been known to take inspiration from Apple's designs in both its smartphones and tablets. Employees from the company recently attended the iPhone 5s/5c launch at the 5th. Avenue Apple Store and interviewed people waiting on line because it wanted to figure out why Americans are willing to lineup for Apple products. The company obviously got at least one move it could use from the 5s launch.
Since the gold iPhone 5s is selling extremely well and is wanted by many, Samsung has announced that it has decided to bring a golden Samsung Galaxy S4 to the market as well. The company just announced that it will offer a Gold Brown and Gold Pink Galaxy S4.
Samsung wants/is trying to make it clear that it is not copying Apple, although the timing is a little suspect. Samsung got to the gold smartphone way before Apple did, hence Apple has copied them. The company took to its Samsung Tomorrow blog and posted a 'Golden' History of Samsung Phones. The company shows us phones we've hardly ever seen before, for the most part, but it did make gold smartphones in select parts of the world.
So to be clear, Samsung is not following Apple, it made gold phones before the Cupertino company did. Samsung just seems to be pushing the color more now that it sees that the gold iPhone 5s is in high demand. It might want to remember, however, that a major reason of the high demand is due to Apple not building as many of the gold handsets as the Space Grey and Silver models, but has now increased production of the gold models. It is also the best color to have to show people that you are using the latest and greatest Apple iPhone, since it's the only one to come in gold - another contributing factor to its popularity.
The moral of the story is that Samsung did not copy Apple, it had gold phones before Apple did. It just thought it was a good time to bring gold galaxy S4s to the market right after it saw the success of the gold 5s.
