Samsung can't blame Apple's iPhone monopoly for a lifetime of terrible software

The US government says Apple is holding back smartphones. Using tactics that make its competitors seem worse, rather than making its own phones better, Apple has unfairly hurt competitors like Samsung and Google, says the Justice Department. Whether or not the government is right, one thing is clear – Samsung has been making terrible software for years, and it can’t blame Apple.

Among all the major smartphone makers, Samsung saw the threat from Apple’s iPhone earlier than most. Among the biggest phone makers of the day (2007), Blackberry execs dismissed Apple as a consumer play, and Nokia stuck to its aging and unfriendly software. Only Samsung changed course quickly to meet the iPhone.

Unfortunately, Samsung thought the iPhone was all about features. It never understood that the iPhone’s real advancement was making those features so incredibly easy to use with intuitive software.

The ...