The Real Reason Apple Is Suing Samsung 514
doperative writes with this quote from a speculative piece at Business Insider about Apple's real motive behind its recent lawsuit against Samsung's Galaxy devices:
"Android is free. In some cases, it's even cheaper than free, with Google sharing some revenue from Google searches on Android phones with partners. This is hugely disruptive to both Microsoft and Apple's business models; Microsoft because they make money on software licenses, and Apple on hardware. And this disruptive approach is winning: Android is surging past iOS in marketshare. A lawsuit from a big company, even if doomed, still takes a lot of time, energy and money to fight off. So Samsung or someone else might settle, accepting to pay some form of license. If that happens, Apple can go around to the other manufacturers asking for the same license and have a much stronger claim. And now OEMs have to factor that cost into the decision to choose Android. And all of a sudden, Android has a price."
Samsung has fired back with a lawsuit of its own.
Doesn't make sense (Score:5, Interesting)
This doesn't make sense. Why? Because the Apple v. Samsung suit is supposedly about trademark/design infringement. Because the Galaxy looks way too much like Apple's products. Not about anything technical about it.
Or am I missing something here? And is there something fundamental to Android that this suit is about?
And if it is fundamental to Android, logically the suit should be targeting Google - the author of the Android system. But it seems Google is not involved in this one (yet).
Oh and Android surging over iOS is no surprise but just natural... iOS is limited to one current and a few old models phone, and one current and one old model tablet. Android is not limited and currently available on dozens of current, and possibly hundreds of old models of phones and tablets. Not exactly an even fight.
Sorry it's bedtime (midnight here) so not going to read TFA. Apple shouldn't have much to fear from Android - about as much as it has to fear from Windows in the personal computing world. It competes just fine there.
Microsoft that's the potential big loser here, as they have to sell their OS and are really competing head-to-head with Android. In a market where pennies count, they want to add dollars to the cost. Apple has no such issues, there is no price on an iOS license, afaik it's not even for sale other than in combination with a piece of hardware.
Re:Yes, and? (Score:5, Interesting)
Does the Samsung UI look like the Apple UI? Yes it does, but not enough that a user is going to mistakenly buy a Samsung instead of an Apple product. Is the Apple claim the the Samsung tablet looks too much like the iPad valid? Well, both are flat, rectangular, have rounded corners and have edges around the screen. Isn't that basically a description of the tablet form factor?
Re:it is why (Score:5, Interesting)
I seldom worry about apple's lock strategies. Once you start down the road of tight lockin you either have to sue your way out of it, or you are forced to let go.
They are hoping to make the other party let go.
But instead of doing that, Samsung is counter-suing Apple all over the world. This is a good strategy, forcing Apple to fight off of their own turf. Dragging Apple executives half way around the world where they don't have the advantage of pre-filled pockets and rabid fanbois in the jury pool.
In fact Apple could lose big time to this technique. Sure Samsung makes parts for iPhones, but they make pennies on this compared to what they make on a Galaxy handset. Samsung can send Apple packing, and quietly "suggest" a reduction in supply of key components to any other companies that favor Apple too strongly. Apple can not win a land war in Asia.
But more to the point, Apples current round of suits are predominantly alleging that the Galaxy phones look too much like iPhones. This is a really hard claim to win. Nikon and Canon and Minolta as well as Ford and Chevy would get nowhere with that claim. This screams desperation. Especially when Galaxy phones don't look at all like iPhones.
Re:Quality will win (Score:4, Interesting)
I recently ditched my iPhone for a Nexus S; which was purely because I was so fed up with my old carrier that I was willing to "downgrade" my phone to switch companies.
I was shocked to find that Android is just a better system. Sure there are things that iPhone wins on, but overall Android takes the cake.
Consumers don't give a **** if it's open, or about the business strategy. Android is winning because it's better.
Maybe you haven't tried 2.3... it's leaps and bounds ahead of 2.1.
Is Apple Evil? (Score:4, Interesting)
In just over one year:
Apple iPhone illegally tracks users - April 2011
Apple suee Samsung over "rectangle with rounded corners" - April 2011
Apple sues Amazon over the phrase "App Store" - March 2011
Apple hides and denies iPhone-4 defects - June 2010
Apple sues HTC over Android - March 2010
Not that any of this is new for Apple. Remember Apple's "look and feel" lawsuit against Microsoft, about 20 years ago?
Re:Doesn't make sense (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, they're arguing that
a) samsung galaxy hardware look too much like the iphone/ipad. Cos, it's rectangular with rounded corners. And black, both high original apple features that only they did first.
b) samsung's 'touchwiz' user interface (as opposed to the standard android one) looks too much like iOS. Cos the 'app drawer' shows all installed apps in a rectangular grid. Which no-one would ever have thought of until apple did it.
Given samsung supplies apple with their screens and cpu's, it seems they want to stop their supplier well, using their own stuff and stay just as a parts supplier, not a competitor. That they have to use laughably generic look-n-feel patents to do it shows how baseless the accusation is.
This is the default galaxy S i9000 homescreen [blogspot.com] vs the apple home screen [google.co.uk]. Absolutely identical, aren't they. If you picked one up, you'd never be able to tell them apart, they're *that* similar.
I hear they're going to sue nokia next because they sell 'phones', which is a trademark infringement of apple's unique name, iPhone.
All evil proprietary companies sue over Android (Score:5, Interesting)
Tag Team effort against Android?
April 2011: Apple sues Samsung over Android
March 2011: Microsoft sues Barnes & Noble, and Foxconn over Android *
December 2010: Sony sues LG over Android
October 2010: Microsoft sues Motorola over Android
August 2010: Oracle sues Google over Android and Java
March 2010: Apple sues HTC over Android
* just when B&N announce the Color Nook as an Android Tablet
Re:Yes, and? (Score:3, Interesting)
What's "innovative" about copying someone else's UI? Whatever you may think of HTC Sense, MotoBlur, WinMo 7's "Metro UI", Palm's WebOS, etc. at least they tried to do something different than just copy the iPhone UI.
Re:What color is the sky on your planet? (Score:3, Interesting)
Umm...no. [wsj.com] The reality is almost the exact opposite of your claim.
This has been answered above. The study you quote (same study the other guy mentioned) is very deceptive, because it has NOTHING TO DO WITH SALES.
The research found that Apple’s iOS platform — on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches – reached 37.9 million people, while Android reached 23.8 million, on phones and tablets.
"Reached"? What the heck does that mean?
Well when you follow the story to its source it is measuring all the iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads ever sold against the number of android devices ever sold. With a four or five year running start its no wonder there are more IOS devices floating around out there (used or no longer being used).
My statement had to do with current sales, or sales over the last quarter, or sales over the last year. Further, this thread is about Apple's lawsuits against Samsung over Smart phone sales. Not about tablets.
You simply can not come up with any statistic that shows IOS outselling Android in smartphones, and if you focus on current sales of all IOS devices and all Android devices Android still wins, and only a handful of Android tablets have actually hit the market.
Lets be honest here and not try to refute sales figures with fleet figures. Talk about blithe disregard for the facts!!!
Oh, and just for your info, I hold Apple stock, and have no plans to sell any time soon. So don't start with that childish "haters" stuff.
And stop insulting people who bring you news you don't like. Shooting the messenger doesn't change the facts.
Re:Yes, and? (Score:3, Interesting)
The Prada phone did not inspire the iPhone, the iPhone did inspire Samsung.
Proof?
The demand for proof is nonsensical, but I can provide evidence. Just look at the phones Samsung introduced before and after the iPhone. As for Prada's influence on the iPhone, there couldn't have been any, there was no time for Apple to have redesigned the iPhone. Also, there was no reason to copy Prada (it wasn't a successful product), but plenty of reason to copy the iPhone. Lastly, Apple has their own design team which is both extremely capable (considered the best in the world) and would take too much pride in their work to copy others.
To me, the Samsung looks like any other tablet.
And this really is the problem. You can't recognize something you don't understand. You keep acting as though this is all about either making something in the same category (it's not) or that it's about vagueries like being a rounded rectangle (it's not that, either). Samsung's phones look like the iPhone's fat, awkward cousin. The Prada phone is a slab, but in its own style.
Why not say the samsung copied the prada? Why not say the iphone copied the blackberries in shape, and functionality? If the F700 did not copy the iphone, then how could later version of samsung phones being copying the iphone? Maybe samsung is simply copying their own earlier designs?
The F700 was a lie that you fandroids conveniently accepted without giving it a second thought because it makes you feel better.
But more to the point, don't kid yourself. Apple's argument isn't simply that the phone is a rounded rectangle.
But that is in Apple's argument. Oh yeah, and the device also has flat surface, as opposed to being shaped like a bubble, or something.
No it's not. Don't you realize that you immediately contradicted your first sentence with the second one? It's about more than just the shape.
Also, the article is factually incorrect when it states Android is surging past iOS in market share
Maybe. But the Android is a threat to Apple's market share, don't kid yourself about that.
So? Who said it wasn't? Do you think Apple is claiming there can't be other phones or something? Their suit makes the point that Samsung should come up with their own style, and not copy Apple.
Apple isn't suing Google, or Android in general, they are suing one Android handset and tablet maker for making their handsets and tablets too similar to how Apple's look. In their suit they make the point very clearly that Samsung should come up with its own design. There's no reason to copy Apple so closely.
Why because it's rectangular with rounded edges? This is junk lawsuit, you know it, and I know it. Apple is suing Samsung because it's easier than suing Google, and suing Samsung may set a precedent.
No, It's not about simply being a rounded rectangle. Read the summaries about the lawsuit. They make this abundantly clear. This has nothing to do with Android in general. It has nothing to do with stopping Samsung from making their own phones. In fact, it's Apple specifically demanding that Samsung do indeed make their own phones, and not so closely copy Apple's phones.
This isn't a "baby stabbing" scenario.
It certainly is. Apple does not want Android phones, or tablets, to get market share.
Of course they don't, but this lawsuit has nothing to do with stopping Android from being available on the market. Nowhere in it does it ask, demand, or imply Android not be available. It only demands that Samsung come up with something not so closely resembling Apple's products.
"Baby stabbing" would be if Apple was trying to ge