People often criticize Samsung for the amount of features that the company includes in their handsets. Those features are often called bloatware and many people really dislike the way Samsung is doing things, mainly because Samsung’s TouchWiz UI is often considered one of the laggiest UIs out there and is first to bog down after a while. That being said, opinions differ, of course, I believe many of you actually appreciate the amount of features Samsung includes in their devices and even the looks of the UI itself. Either way, VentureBeat held an interview with the Ditto (more on that later) creator which briefly shared his experience with Samsung.
Bob Olodort is a product designer of Ditto, the simplest notifications wearable device out there. He also worked with Samsung on several occasions as a consulting designer. He told VentureBeat that he went to Samsung about 4 times a year and showed them “elegant, innovative phone designs” which are “optimized to provide an ideal set of features” and are an example of “simplicity and elegance”. Well, something went wrong on the way, as you might assume. “They would louse it up by putting in everything — that’s their style at Samsung. A few young Samsung engineering managers would each add their own pet features. Later, the carriers Samsung sold to would insist on another set of features. Pretty soon the phones would be crammed with complexity and redundant features.” said Olodort. His statement actually paints a really bad picture of Samsung’s engineering managers and the company itself, but we’ll let you be the judge of that.
Mr. Olodort really appreciates simplicity and he currently runs his own company, Simple Matter. That company is getting ready to release the aforementioned Ditto gadget, which is a $30 plastic pod which vibrates in different patterns on calls, messages, e-mail… well, notifications basically. This thing is so small, you can actually attach it to your bra strap, for example of course. It connects to your phone via Bluetooth. Ditto is currently listed on Kickstarter and has currently raised about $60,000 of its $100,000 goal. Olodort did say the device will become a reality no matter if they manage to raise the required amount or not. What are your thoughts on all this, do you like Samsung’s software approach?