Last month, we noted that the Swiss Federal Railways service was objecting to Apple's use of its iconic clock design for the new iPad clock app in iOS 6.
The Verge now points to a press release [Google translation] from the railway service announcing that a licensing agreement has been reached.
For the use of the SBB station clock on devices like iPad and iPhone, the Swiss Federal Railways SBB and Apple have agreed and signed a license agreement.
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Apple's iPad clock app (left) and Swiss Federal Railways clock (right)
Terms of the licensing agreement, including payment and term length details, were not disclosed.
Top Rated Comments
Apple: "How about a 20 free iPhone 5s?"
SBB: "20 iPhones?!? Absolutely not!"
Apple: "What if we can guarantee none of them are scratched?"
SBB: "Deal."
This is a clock-face that I could have designed. It's so basic and derivative. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple's designer came up with it on his/her own coincidentally. But yeah, it would look like a total ripoff if it weren't so generic. I would have rejected this design.
People say this all the time and, well, they're pretty much always wrong.
I'm not saying this to have a go at you so please don't take this personally, but great, iconic designs, the simple ones that last for generations, they are the hardest to create - if they weren't then we'd all be doing it!
You see it as generic now, but that's only a measure of how successful it has become. Just how so many say that swipe to unlock is generic, or pinch to zoom... accept people were blown away by the simplicity of them, the implementation was so perfect and so natural that they left everyone scratching their heads and asking "why didn't I think of that?!"
This clock design is iconic and, no, you probably couldn't have designed it. Nor could I. If I could design stuff like this, I'd be a richer man than I am today.
;)