Apple sues Samsung over Galaxy line: Co-opetition implodes
Summary: Apple sues Samsung over the Galaxy phone and tablet line in the latest installment of this messy customer-supplier relationship.
Apple is suing Samsung over Galaxy smartphones and tablets for alleged patent infringement. The lawsuit is the latest chapter of an odd coopetition arrangement that appears to be melting down.
According to various reports, Apple filed a lawsuit against Samsung in U.S. District Court in Northern California. Apple is alleging patent and trademark infringement and wants an injunction and damages.
In other words the gauntlet is thrown down. Ina Fried quotes an Apple spokesperson saying that it's' no coincidence that Samsung's devices look like iPad and iPhone clones. We'll overlook the fact that most phones and tablets look like Apple clones.
Apple's lawsuit is reportedly lengthy---we'll upload when we get a hold of it---but the bottom line is that the company alleges that Samsung is a copycat. In other words, Apple's lawsuit resembles dozens of similar suits flying between Nokia, Apple, RIM, HTC and others.
What's most fascinating here, however, is watching the meltdown between a customer and supplier. Apple is a big Samsung customer and some reports indicate that it is the largest customer. On one hand you have Steve Jobs taking aim at Korean companies, mocking Samsung and then depending on those outfits for parts.
Related: Apple's odd symbiotic Samsung relationship
Apple puts chips on TSMC from Samsung: It's just good business
The Apple-Samsung relationship is messy even with all the revenue at stake. In tech, there are always oddball relationships. For instance, SAP is the largest reseller of Oracle databases.
It's obvious that Apple sees Samsung as a threat. This battle will only intensify if Apple ever enters the TV business. In theory, Samsung could cut off Apple. Apple plans to shoot first.
If you delve a little deeper, Apple's lawsuit appears to be the final bell for its relationship with Samsung. Apple has been rumored to be forging its own processor manufacturing deal. If it can procure screens elsewhere along with other components Apple could in theory cut out Samsung. Cutting out Samsung may hurt more than any lawsuit Apple could file.
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Talkback
So the first company that makes a tablet that is actually a "threat"
Nice conspiracy theory, but the reality is
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World History Lesson
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RE: Apple sues Samsung over Galaxy line: Co-opetition implodes
Apple is a big stroke of a company. The Tab has nothing in common with the ipad. The looks are different the os is different the capabilities are different, the buttons are different the layout and hardware are different. Apple has lost its place and is now seeing they are doomed by Steve Jobs wall of jealousy. If Apple doesnt learn to play well with others it will collapse and be gone within 15 years. Samsung shoulkd cut apple off from parts and the Korean alliance shound back samsung and dump apple and kill it off quickly.
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RE: Apple sues Samsung over Galaxy line: Co-opetition implodes
So based on that criteria nothing has ever been invented. Every invention ever conceved is based on something the existed before. Even the wheel took it's queue from rolling logs. The automobile took the pre-existing carrage and married it with pre-existing motors. We really need to learn to give credit for inovation, invention after all is 99% combining existing ideas into new and better solutions. True in modern times there are not many ture new ideas, so we have to expect more than ever inventions now are going to be recombining of ideas that already exist.
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RE: Apple sues Samsung over Galaxy line: Co-opetition implodes
"The Tab has nothing in common with the ipad. The looks are different the os is different the capabilities are different, the buttons are different the layout and hardware are different."
They look all but identical, especially the new, bigger model. Claiming the OS is different is just plain stupid. It runs Android, which is an iOS clone. The original Android, prior to being acquired by Google, was a Linux-based Blackberry clone. Google sat on Apple's board, gleaning info an the iPhone prerelease, and when the iPhone became popular, Android was rewritten from the ground up. Coincidence? Yeah, right.
"Apple has lost its place and is now seeing they are doomed by Steve Jobs wall of jealousy. If Apple doesnt learn to play well with others it will collapse and be gone within 15 years."
Lost it's place?!? Please name the year that Apple failed to increase unit share sales of iPhones. Please list a SINGLE carrier where both iPhone and Android phones have been offered where iPhone does not beat ALL Android devices COMBINED.
"Samsung shoulkd cut apple off from parts and the Korean alliance shound back samsung and dump apple and kill it off quickly."
If Samsung did this, their profits would be cut almost in half. Being that very few Apple parts are manufactured by Korean companies other than Samsung, your suggestion that some collusion on the part of Korean suppliers would somehow kill
Apple just shows your total ignorance (as if your past posting history were not enough). Being that Apple will soon have their own chip fab, It is Samsung that has to worry, NOT Apple.
RE: Apple sues Samsung over Galaxy line: Co-opetition implodes
Crud, Windows 95 started something that would have bankrupt Apple if not for a rather generous investment in the company by Microsoft.
Also, what are these great new ideas that Apple has brought forth? Portable MP3 players? Nope, that was done before... Touch Screen PDA? Nope, that was done before as well... Oh, I know... The Accelerometer as a game controller! Oh wait, nope they stole that idea from Nintendo.
Apple's products aren't revolutionary and in reality, Microsoft's products on many levels are no less original (think Kinnect) if not unique. If I'm not mistaken the Optical Mouse was an MS design as well and the waveform ergonomic keyboard (Love that Keyboard).
Funny thing about all that Apple "innovation"...
My now 5 1/2 yr old Motorola A1200 phone running Linux has an app screen - sorta like Program Manager from the old Windows 3.x era. In it, there are rows and columns of icons all lined up - just like on the iPhone.
Right... So what, exactly was innovative about the iPhone again? Let's see... I'd say that the A1200 has 95% of the features found in the iPhone version 1.0. The only things missing: multitouch, the non-removable battery, the lack of expandable SD memory.
Oh wait... The non-removable battery isn't really an innovation. nor the lack of an SD chip. That's just Apple's way of making more money off of <s>sucker</s> er...users. So all that's left is multitouch. I dunno. I'm not seeing that as being all that important.
Oh and the A1200 came with the ability to add apps (Java apps downloadable almost anywhere), cut and paste - right out of the box, no need to wait until iPhone 2.0...
So exactly what is so bloody innovative about the iPhone again?
RE: Apple sues Samsung over Galaxy line: Co-opetition implodes
"Crud, Windows 95 started something that would have bankrupt Apple if not for a rather generous investment in the company by Microsoft."
Check your facts. Apple was NEVER in ANY danger of going bankrupt. Nor did MS' "investment" have ANY effect on Apple.
1) The money was a settlement of a law suit dat the direction of Jobs when he returned to Apple, so as to remove distractions. MS had been caught dead to rights stealing code, and would have LOST the case. Care to differ? The code (from QuickTime) that MS stole (for Video for Windows, which became WMP) is available online. In it you will see that in the VfW code, MS programmers didn't even bother to change line branch labels, or worse yet, programmer comments left in the QuickTime code by Apple. Again, MS was caught red-handed.
2) The amount was a mere $150M.
3) Apple had in EXCESS of $2-$4 BILLION in LIQUID capital investments at that time. 150M had NOTHING to do with saving Apple, and Apple didn't need saving, anyway.
4) Apple donated the money to its education program.
"Also, what are these great new ideas that Apple has brought forth? Portable MP3 players?"
No, the interface and the ecosystem. Apple never claimed to have invented the PMP.
"Touch Screen PDA? Nope, that was done before as well."
Yes, by Apple. The Newton was the FIRST touchscreen PDA. (The term PDA wan COINED by Apple in the first place.
"Oh, I know... The Accelerometer as a game controller! Oh wait, nope they stole that idea from Nintendo."
iPad development began before the Wii.
"Apple's products aren't revolutionary and in reality, Microsoft's products on many levels are no less original (think Kinnect) if not unique. If I'm not mistaken the Optical Mouse was an MS design as well and the waveform ergonomic keyboard (Love that Keyboard)."
You are mistaken. And the sad and telling (though not at ALL surprising) thing is that you clearly didn't even bother to check. The optical mouse had two independent inventors, the version by Steve Kirsch of MIT and Mouse Systems Corporation, and the version by Richard F. Lyon and sold by Xerox. BOTH versions came out 5 years before Windows.
RE: Apple sues Samsung over Galaxy line: Co-opetition implodes
Sure, Jobs helped and the purchase of NEXT did as well but, there's no guarantee without the statement by Microsoft and the estimated 1 Billion dollars (that is believed to be the settlement over several years) invested, that Apple would be here today.
Believe me, if Microsoft wanted to they could have stretched that Law suit long enough to where Apple either gave up or just could not afford to keep it going.
as for the Optical Mouse, I knew there were two other companies that pioneered the design but I don't ever recall seeing them for sale with either companies branding... The first commercially available product was the Microsoft version if memory serves me correctly.
As for other areas, whenever you watch a DVD on your Mac, remember MS had a huge hand in Soft DVD Decoding.
RE: Apple sues Samsung over Galaxy line: Co-opetition implodes
RE: Apple sues Samsung over Galaxy line: Co-opetition implodes
More than likely Apple is doing this to protect their IP, IF you don?t protect your IP you lose it.
RE: Apple sues Samsung over Galaxy line: Co-opetition implodes
There's no 'intellectual property' to property to protect here, Apple cannot claim a 'patent' on the idea of a flat tablet computer with a display that is composed of a row of icons, that's asinine. That would be like Dell trying to 'patent' the 'power' button on a PC.
Or if you don't try to take someone else's IP
then they get to keep it.
I guess Apple will sue to the point that they patented a square phone, so everyone else is free to make a triangled shaped one.