Apple Posts Non-Apology To Samsung 413
We recently discussed news of a UK court ruling in which the judge decided Apple must publicly acknowledge that Samsung's Galaxy Tab did not infringe upon the iPad's design, both on the Apple website and in several publications. The acknowledgement has now been posted, and it's anything but apologetic. It states the court's ruling, helpfully referring to "Apple's registered design No. 000018607-0001," and quotes the judges words as an advertisement. The judge wrote, "The informed user's overall impression of each of the Samsung Galaxy Tablets is the following. From the front they belong to the family which includes the Apple design; but the Samsung products are very thin, almost insubstantial members of that family with unusual details on the back. They do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design. They are not as cool." They go on to mention German and U.S. cases which found in Apple's favor. Apple's statement concludes, "So while the U.K. court did not find Samsung guilty of infringement, other courts have recognized that in the course of creating its Galaxy tablet, Samsung willfully copied Apple's far more popular iPad."
You want me to say they are not cool? OK (Score:5, Funny)
Heh. Not sure if Samsung prefers to have this up or down :)
Called it (Score:5, Funny)
About a week ago.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3194259&cid=41692165 [slashdot.org]
Apple will definitely go down this road.
The judge gave clear language on how to display the apology, but not on what the apology should entail.
Something like:
"We apologize for implying that any Samsung product was as sleek or as easy to use as the (link to ipad page)Apple iPad.(\link)"
Re:Placement of the ad (Score:5, Funny)
I thought that too - but it's in small writing, in the link bar at the bottom of the UK home page.
Apparently if you go there, you also find the stairs are missing and the announcement is in a locked cubicle with a sign on the door saying "beware of the OS X Leopard".
Re:It was there non-apologetic... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The court didn't ask for an apology... (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe it isn't such a bad idea? If individuals had to publicly humiliate themselves for bringing false and expensive lawsuits, maybe there would be fewer of them. But then - I've always thought we should bring back the racks!
My favorite non-apology (Score:5, Funny)
In the Tracy Kidder book, "The Soul of a New Machine", he documents a year or so with the engineering team designing a new computer. Time pressure... long hours... high tension... and finally one of the engineers called one of the others an asshole.
The project manager called the fellow into the office & explained that we all need to be able to work with each other... yadda yadda.... and you must apologize to him.
The fellow left the office, approached the other engineer and said, "I'm sorry you're an asshole".
Re:The court didn't ask for an apology... (Score:2, Funny)
Reincarnated as a plankton most likely.
With his karma? He wishes! It'll be a while before he gets back into the food chain again. Right now, he's a herpes sore on Courtney Love.
Re:Just Apple.. (Score:5, Funny)
There are four lights.
Re:It was there non-apologetic... (Score:2, Funny)
And, just like an Apple product, you can't edit it!
Yes, they can just jailbreak. (Score:4, Funny)
nt
Put it in the REAL context (Score:0, Funny)
Well, remember that Apple is primarily a religion. You wouldn't want the Catholic church to have to apologize for a thousand years of child rape, would you?
Oh, wait... never mind, then.
A sincere apology... (Score:4, Funny)
Apple is what M$ was 10 years ago for /. current demographics - Evil Satan that can do no right.
As someone who has been on /. longer than that (and around technology of any kind even longer) - all I can say is "this too shall pass".
In the meantime, I think Apple did the right thing. Take it on the personal level. Let's say you feel someone wronged you. You go to court, try to correct the wrong, and court decides against you and (in your opinion, adding insult to injury) requires you to apologize to the party that offended you. How do you feel? Can you offer an honest apology? Why would you? Regardless of whether you agree or don't agree Samsung copied Apple. For the record, while I am not a big fan of Apple policies, I *do* feel that most manufacturers, including Samsung, are copying them. In these things the devil is in the details, and *imho* these details are what make Apple products convenient and others (Samsung) are convenient mostly as far as they follow these same details. Feel free to disagree.
And of course no discussion of British legal system and apologies is complete without this, which I find extremely pertinent: :) Linking here because youtube is misbehaving at the moment)
http://movieclips.com/CDHXP-a-fish-called-wanda-movie-upside-down-apology/
(Now you can tell how old I am
Re:The court didn't ask for an apology... (Score:5, Funny)
In fact, I find the entire idea that someone can patent a touchescreen with some processing capability in a housing with a battery to be stupid
The touché screen - is that some special type of app that automatically finds the top 10 wittiest remarks (relevant to the current display on the screen)? That sounds like a legitimately patentable idea to me. A damn good one at that.