They ripped off Apple's significantly contrasting, virtually elevated, rounded-corner button invention.</sarcasm>
That keyboard looks like someone took the iPad keyboard and beat it with an ugly stick a little bit. What makes this especially sad is that the default Android keyboard is really good and they should have just used that, but in an attempt to "differentiate" they basically just badly copied the iPad.
As much as I dislike Apple for the current lawsuit mess, I'm starting to dislike Samsung just as much because unlike most of the rest of the Android ecosystem Samsung clearly DO have a problem with badly copying Apple's design elements to a confusingly similar degree which gives an unfortunate truth to at least some of Apple's claims which then makes it harder for the layman to see when Apple is overstepping.
Fix your shit, Samsung. Hire a couple of real designers.
Maybe even the G1 took hints from iOS, but I'd be dubious to believe Apple created or holds any merits over much of their design(s). Does Samsung lift Apple designs? I think so. Does Apple own much of the designs they have legal documents over? I think not.
I don't believe this is about confusing customers; I think it is about closing the gap with customer awareness. I'd love for most of these interfaces to share common grounds; I think it is a large reason to why Windows, OSX, and GNU/Linux <insert GUI> are so fragmented and unfamiliar to those that have to or are looking to move between platforms.
Sadly, the resemblance of the keyboard is going to be what generates the most discussion, not the new (and very impressive) features.