Samsung's Instinct Doesn't Ring True As an iPhone Clone: WSJ

PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY
By WALTER S. MOSSBERG

The parade of iPhone lookalikes continues. Soon after Apple announced the first iPhone a year ago, factories in Asia, at the behest of U.S. phone carriers, were asked to respond to the sleek, touch-screen device. Some already have reached America; more are coming.

The latest to arrive is the Samsung Instinct, to be introduced by Sprint on June 20. I've been testing the Instinct, and while it isn't a bad phone and has some features the Apple product lacks, it's no match for the iPhone. The manufacturers haven't replicated the iPhone's greatest strength: beautiful, powerful, breakthrough software.

Also, the timing of the Instinct is unfortunate. It was designed to go up against the first iPhone. Sprint even has a Web site (nowisgood.com) comparing the two devices. But the Instinct will go on sale only three weeks before Apple and AT&T start selling the new 3G iPhone, the second-generation model announced earlier this week. This second iPhone model corrects some of the first model's main weaknesses, wiping out some advantages Sprint hoped the Instinct would have.

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