I think you guys are barking up the wrong tree. I don't think Samsung sales are dying because they're copying Apple. I think they're dying because it's an insanely crowded field of devices with no real differentiation between any of them. Year over year smartphones aren't getting more innovative or interesting. How does the Note, for instance, differentiate itself in a market where iPhones are now 5.5"? The Note used to mean a specific size device (I'd argue that was its trademark much more than the Stylus), that's no longer an advantage or unique. Mainstream appeal isn't in SD Cards or swappable batteries. That appeals to a niche market, one which is getting smaller by the day (power users don't generate a lot of income for companies).
So yes, Samsung is "copying" Apple in the sense that it's trying to point its product line in the direction the market has been heading. I think the reason their current offerings only look incrementally better than last year (if at all) is because that's where all smartphone vendors are. The iPhone 6S is going to be incredibly boring, where the highlight of the show will probably be Apple's version of a long press (Long time Android fans are gonna have a field day with "Force Touch" and rightfully so). But it'll sell a metric ton for a number of reasons - marketing, user base locked into their ecosystem, etc.
Name me one vendor doing anything interesting right now? Moto might have something with the Pure but that's only due to how they're selling the device. The device itself is, like, every other Android device on the market in late 2015.