Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. et al

Filing 648

Declaration of Cyndi Wheeler in Support of #602 Administrative Motion to File Under Seal re Samsung's January 10, 2012 Filings filed byApple Inc.. (Attachments: #1 Exhibit 1, #2 Exhibit 2, #3 Exhibit 3, #4 Exhibit 4, #5 Exhibit 5, #6 Exhibit 6, #7 Exhibit 7, #8 Exhibit 8, #9 Exhibit 9, #10 Exhibit 10, #11 Exhibit 11, #12 Exhibit 12, #13 Exhibit 13, #14 Exhibit 14, #15 Exhibit 15, #16 Exhibit 16, #17 Exhibit 17, #18 Proposed Order)(Related document(s) #602 ) (Hung, Richard) (Filed on 1/18/2012)

EXHIBIT 14
REDACTED VERSION

Subject: Fwd: Sony Strives for Original Design (Business Week)
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 14:59:23 +0000

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Begin forwarded message:
FEBRUARY 22, 2006
Newsmaker Q&A
Sony Strives for Original Design
A top strategist and designer from the electronics giant talk about the
challenges of staying at the top of gearheads' wish lists
Ever since former Chairman and Chief Executive Norio Ohga formed the
company's first design team in 1961, Sony (SNE) has given geeky gadgets -from robot pets to video-game consoles -- a familiar cutting-edge coolness.
Just pick up any Sony gizmo, and you'll see why the brand has so much cachet
worldwide.
But lately the competition has been whittling down Sony's edge. Plenty of
onetime tech upstarts, from Samsung Electronics of Korea to China's Lenovo
(LNVGF), have taken note of Sony's success and sought to copy it by setting
up their own design shops. PC heavyweights such as Apple Computer (AAPL) are
moving in as well: Since its debut in 2001, the iPod has far outsold Sony's
Walkman in Japan, beating the electronics giant at its own game.
These days, Sony designers aren't just eyeing the competition. They have had
to cope with an internal organization in flux ever since last year's
management shakeup, which was aimed at reinvigorating Sony's loss-making
electronics division. The task of keeping the creative juices flowing falls
partly on Takashi Ashida, 40. As the Creative Center's top strategist, he
keeps tabs on a staff of 400, sprinkled across three continents -- in Tokyo,
Los Angeles, London, Singapore, and, most recently, Shanghai. As Ashida puts
it, designing is about "being original, not a copy."
Fortunately for him, Sony has attracted plenty of young talent. Yujin
Morisawa, 30, spent four years at New York-based design shop Karim Rashid,
where he crafted perfume flasks and personal digital assistants, before
joining Sony. He headed the team that redesigned the Walkman digital-music
player, which was released in Japan last September and in Europe just last
month.
Ashida and Morisawa recently spoke with BusinessWeek correspondent Kenji

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Hall in Tokyo about Sony's design process and the impact of last year's
reorganization. Edited excerpts of the conversation follow:
What is Sony's design philosophy?
Ashida: The Sony spirit is about being original, not a copy. We generally
don't rely on surveys, because we're always trying to make something that's
never been done before. When Sony opened its first design center in 1961,
the color theme was black and silver. The idea was to do away with excessive
ornamentation. We're continuing that tradition.
How has the environment changed for designers under the new management team
headed by Chairman and CEO Howard Stringer?
Ashida: There has been big change under Sir Howard and [President Ryoji]
Chubachi. Before the Howard era, design teams were scattered into product
groups. The disadvantage was you could lose touch of the overall Sony design
strategy.
Now we have a unified team of designers. They can freely talk with the
software interface designer and the graphics designer without any
limitations, without any walls. That's a big change over what we did for
seven years. And designers now report directly to [Senior General Manager
Keiji] Saito and [Senior Vice-President Masao] Morita, whereas before it was
indirect reporting.
Is the reorganization having the desired effect?
Ashida: I think it's working. Morita is very much involved in the design
process. We have weekly meetings on design confirmation. Previously,
[Nobuyuki] Idei was the chairman and CEO, and was overseeing design, and
obviously he was very busy. So we only had operational meetings once a
month, but they weren't to cover design.
Masao Morita also has a very important role in brand management. He's very
active. His points are straightforward. His main concern is how to increase
the visibility of the Sony brand. He's especially concerned about how the
Sony logo is being treated, where it is on the product. And he's a very
heavy user of products, so he's very strict on ease of use.
Designers present to him, and there are tough discussions. Designers look at
originality. But Morita will often ask, "How about the usability? What's the
product concept? Who are you targeting?" You have to become the user when
you design the products. He's going back to the basics of good product
design. Some designers are good craftsmen, but you have to really think
about the concept as well, how the product is being placed at home. Morita
is challenging designers.
The Walkman digital-music player recently got a makeover. Its corners have
been rounded out, and its 20-gigabyte version can store 10,000 or more
songs. [There's also an 8-gigabyte and 6-gigabyte type.] Released in Japan
last September and in Europe in January, it's Sony's first product developed

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under the new management. Describe how you got started.
Morisawa: There were five or six people from product planning and
engineering already working on the Walkman when I joined last year. They
asked me to design something that didn't look like any other music player.
They said, "Do something new." These [photos of a trumpet, a flood-lighted
concert stage, a darkened sky at dusk] are some of the images I showed to
the team to get them to think about the concept.
How much did the iPod influence your design?
Morisawa: When I started this project, that was my concern. I looked at the
first Walkman [which debuted in 1979]. Then I thought, "How can I give shape
to the music?" Music doesn't have shape; it's flowing. I was listening to
music and waving my hand in the air. I thought there shouldn't be an end to
its lines. So I started drawing a round shape, and I kept moving the line.
My team had shown me their sketch: It was a square with a screen and
buttons. Most other players have a screen and buttons. My first mock-up
didn't have buttons. I didn't want buttons. With any digital-music player,
the hard disk drive and chips are similar. I thought, "How can we make the
layout different?" I knew what would go inside, so I could start the design
from the outside. I knew how big the hard disk drive would be, how many
chips there would be.
What challenges did you face in making sure the final product would look
like your sketch?
Morisawa: It's really tough to make something round. You can't really
measure where the components are inside [the device] when using the CAD
[computer-aided design] system. I didn't want the engineers to change the
shape or the size. I didn't want something larger than this; it fits in your
hand.
I thought it had to be smooth on the back. The engineers wanted to make the
back side flat. But I didn't want the flatness to bother you when you're
listening to the music. I made two physical mock-ups for engineers so they
could feel the difference. That's how I convinced them to keep working on
this. Afterward, the engineers joked that they didn't want to work with me
twice in a row.
Are you satisfied with the design?
Morisawa: Yes.
What are you not satisfied with?
Morisawa: The buttons. I want to say there's a way not to have buttons.
The Walkman is bulkier than rivals' music players. The iPod nano, for
instance, has been a hit among consumers who like its featherweight, compact
size. How much was size a factor in the Walkman's new design?
Morisawa: I told the project team, "It's not about the size." It's not a
challenge for us to make it small.

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Ashida: In the past, the size of the media was important; it determined the
size of the product. CD players could only be as small as the size of the
CDs. Now there's no limitation. It's just silicon and components. I think
the value has shifted to other things. For example, the Walkman has
artificial intelligence [a feature called Artist Link that analyzes a
consumer's tastes and suggests new songs], which the iPod doesn't have.

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