In today’s connected society, having a grievance with someone often involves unsubtly having a go at them on social media. And the practice isn’t limited to people; companies can do it as well.
Motorola has taken to Twitter as a way of suggesting that Samsung stole the “always on display” feature found in the Galaxy S7, S7 Edge and Note 7 from the US firm. It didn’t name the South Korean company or its products directly, but it doesn’t take a genius to work out who Motorola is referring to in the tweet.
“In what galaxy is it okay to steal competitor phones’ cool features? #TheOriginalAlwaysOnDisplay #motozdroid,” it read.
In what galaxy is it okay to steal competitor phones’ cool features? #TheOriginalAlwaysOnDisplay #motozdroid pic.twitter.com/T75byy5bIx
— Moto US (@Moto_USA) August 18, 2016
Samsung has pushed the always on display, which can show information such as battery life, time, date, and other information, as a desirable feature on its range of Galaxy 7 series smartphones, starting with the release of the S7 and Edge variant back in February.
Motorola seems to be claiming that it was the first company to introduce the feature, presumably with the 2013 Moto X and its “Active Display.” But many on Twitter have pointed out that while this may have been first Android smartphone with an AOD, Nokia’s Symbian-powered N86 from 2009 had an always-on clock and date. A few years later, the Finnish firm introduced the Glance screen feature to its Lumia devices, which also shows always-on information.
It’s pretty unlikely that Motorola would start any sort of legal dispute with Samsung, especially with Nokia seemingly coming up with the idea first. But the incident shows how companies don’t shy away from using Twitter to throw jabs at each other.
