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Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

Apple sues Samsung over Galaxy line: Co-opetition implodes

By | April 18, 2011, 1:54pm PDT

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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Topics

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

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RE: Apple sues Samsung over Galaxy line: Co-opetition implodes
dunners6 2nd May 2011
@DeusXMachina
YOUR WRONG wink
With revenue of 172 Billion USD approx (compared to your beloved Apples 65 Billion approx) Samsung don't need Apple. Okays if they lose Apples $7 Billion agreement they will be unhappy, but they find business else where (Sony, Dell etc)
And with Apple facing component shortages (e.g. screens, NAND flash memory, DRAM etc) they will need a big reliable company to make parts for them. Funnily enough Samsung makes all these components and has the ability to keep up with the demand.

As i mentioned before Apple ran to Samsung crying once before asking for help with iPad screens. It'll happen again.
Apple needs Samsung.
to Apple (Galaxy sales must have hit a predetermined threshold within Apple) and that company is sued is sues by Apple once it's hit.
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Apple was simply waiting for its patents to be granted before taking legal action. Expect other phone makers to be hit in relatively short order.
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nomorebs Updated - 20th Apr 2011
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Rick_K Updated - 20th Apr 2011
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World History Lesson
camcost@... 19th Apr 2011
Similar to nations which coexist and live in peace... until someone gets fed-up with their neighbor's infringements. It is at that point that battle breaks out. It usually doesn't take long for other once-peaceful neighbors to get caught up in the battle as well.
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cdigan Updated - 20th Apr 2011
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mgaul Updated - 20th Apr 2011
@frgough@...
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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unclefixer@... Updated - 20th Apr 2011
@cdigan@...

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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DeusXMachina Updated - 20th Apr 2011
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@Fletchguy
Another in a long string of misinformed posts.

"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.
@Rick_k, you're high! Mac OS X is still under 10% Market share, how is that such a huge change in the market? Windows 95 on the other hand, Dramatically changed the Market and still remains the single largest selling OS of all time.

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).
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@Rick_K
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 sucker 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?
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@peter perry

"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.
@DeusXMachina, you're high too... 2 Billion is nothing when in 1 quarter Apple lost 740 Million Dollars! How long do you think they would have lasted without Microsoft saying we believe in Apple enough to invest in the company and to recommit to bringing Office fully back to Mac OS?

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.
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@Peter Perry

Again, you are wrong on the facts. No surprise there.

The two billion was in liquid cash reserves, NOT the total worth of the company, which was in the tens of billions. You just don't know what you are talking about, and CLEARLY didn't bother to check your facts.

Also, the 150M, AGAIN, was a SETTLEMENT in a law suit where MS was caught red-handed stealing code, and WOULD have lost, costing them far more.
As for "bringing Office fully back to Mac OS", it never left. The MacOS version was STILL ahead in features over the Windows version.

"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."

The person who is high, and clearly hallucinating, here, is you. There was no such investment. The 1 billion is what the 150M in stock was estimated to be worth when MS SOLD it. Try learning how to read.

"Believe me, if Microsoft wanted to they could have stretched that Law [sic] suit long enough to where Apple either gave up or just could not afford to keep it going."

Um, no they couldn't have. The facts were very clear, and Apple did not have to expend significant resources to prove their case.

"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..."


Funny, that is NOT the point you made. Trying to shift the argument here?

"The first commercially available product was the Microsoft version if memory serves me correctly."

It does not. It wasn't. And that was not that hard to research. Not surprising that you didn't bother. But FYI, your memory does NOT serve you.
Sun used LASER optical mice THREE years prior to the Microsoft intelliMouse. And the technology in the MS mouse came from HP. MS was only the marketer.

"As for other areas, whenever you watch a DVD on your Mac, remember MS had a huge hand in Soft DVD Decoding."

Actually, no they didn't.
@Will Farrell
More than likely Apple is doing this to protect their IP, IF you don?t protect your IP you lose it.
@Rick_K

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.
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@Rick_K
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.
@Rick_K
"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."

Apple has patents for the trade dress of the hardware, and the interface of the OS. So yes, there sure as hell is intellectual property to protect here.
@Doctor Demento

Oh really? Care to list the patents being sued over? Misinformed much, or do you just make stuff up?
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it's about time
banned from zdnet 18th Apr 2011
i was amazed that apple all these years let all those copycats get away with it. first google with their shameless iOS copy android, then htc, samsung and motorola with their iphone copies. it's about time apple protects its intellectual property and shows these unimaginative, inane, mediocre, clueless companies which way to go: to the court.
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@banned from zdnet

You forgot "profitable" in your rant. It's VERY profitable to be the non-Apple choice, which is why the choice exists in the first place.
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profitable
banned from zdnet 19th Apr 2011
@DonRupertBitByte
profitable? not so much. htc makes a tiny profit compared to apple's iphone business, samsung also a little from their mobile business, google is probably losing a lot of money on android development, the rest of the android-"partners" (motorola, sony ericcson, lg) are all in the red. the android ecosystem is a lousy place to make money and is benefiting only google's strategy to protect its core business search against the app-revolution led by apple.
@banned from zdnet Yes, it's a well known fact that Apple has patented the rectangle, the color black, and touching/pinching things (actually it purchased this patent from the porn industry).
dissonance: looking straight at something no one has been able to bring to market before and with a totally straight face claiming that it is so brain dead obvious anyone could have thought of it, so it doesn't deserve a patent.
@jgm@...

This type of post always seem to sound the same lol.

Now which one came first again, Galaxy S or iPhone?

http://glaswelt201.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/iphone-3gs-und-samsung-galaxy-s.png?w=592&h=527
@jgm@... could be worse it could be microsoft patenting the WIndows logo. like the were the ones that invented it. When it comes to technology we will never have a market where people will be able to choose their brands. I like Samsung why can't I buy a Samsung Galaxy. No apple wants to take this away. Apple did invent this but they should allow healthy competition by selling the technology. Why does apple have so much money they keep the technology where no one can compete with them. I mean who can come up with something that apple does not already have in their
patent safe. No more computer geeks in their garage coming up with something great. Apple already has a patent for it.
@jgm@...
I was just going to write something similar, and you beat me to it.
"Your phone is rectangular and black, I'll sue"
People! the patent was devised to protect a new device. Since then it has been bastardized to allow the patenting of ideas (yet to appear), concepts, and other non tangible things.
The patent idea was a good one, but needs to be removed.
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frgough, somebody did do it before
Will Farrell Updated - 19th Apr 2011
@jgm@...
The black Zune HD is square with rounded corners, black on both the front and back, with a silver band encircling the device. Released Sept 2009.

The iPhone 4 is square with rounded corners, black on both the front and back, with a silver band encircling the device. Released June 2010.

So someone DID come up with the design before Apple.
@banned from zdnet

So you're saying that only Apple should be able to create smartphones and tablets and you think the rest of the world will accept that ?

How about Apple copying the basic phone idea ? Motorola have been around a long time you know.

You're as silly as Apple.
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For your education
fr_gough 18th Apr 2011
since it seems to be sorely lacking:

http://www.marco.org/2010/08/19/a-smartphone-retrospective

Question: If it was so obvious and easy, why didn't anyone do it before Apple?
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@frgough
What is this?
http://www.mobiledia.com/phones/audiovox/ppc6600.html
Check the release date. You apple folks completely forget Windows Mobile, with touch screens I might add.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PalmPilot
This too.
@Chipesh Actually, Palm had a few "all screen" PDAs before Apple it with the iPhone and iPod. Sure, they had four buttons rather than just one, and Apple's iOS was far superior to the aging and neglected PalmOS. But really, the mechanicals of the iOS devices have all been evolutionary. My Palm TX had virtually the same screen as the original iPhone.
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" apple all these years let all those copycats "
You are forgetting that Apple is the biggest copycat...
A lot of what Apple has done was not invented by Apple. They just packaged it with clever marketing.
This reminds me of the days when Apple claimed that it invented windows and the mouse when in fact it was the Xerox corporation that invented the technology.
@mktpostal@...

First Apple NEVER claimed that. Second most of the UI on the original macOS was developed in house. Third, unlike, say, MS, Apple PAID XEROX for the technology, and went on to hire many of the original engineers.

As someone who actually USED the XEROX Alto on a regular basis, I can assure you, you have NO idea what you are talking about.
@banned from zdnet

Really, Android is a copy of iOS? You are a little confused sir. iOS is based on BSD Unix. Android is Linux, which is also born of BSD. They took different routes to get there, but the only real difference is the wrapper around it, and that one is open source. As someone else already pointed out, Apple can't patent "rows of icons".
@trybble1

Wow, are you misinformed. First, Linux has NOTHING to do with BSD. It is based mostly on MiNT and MINIX, and in turn Sys V Unix. BSD is an entirely different beast.
Fail.
Second, Android started as a Blackberry clone. It then got bought by Google, who sat on Apple's board. When the iPhone exploded onto the scene, Google rewrote Android from the ground up.

Check your facts (or lack thereof) before you post.
@DeusXMachina, please expand on these features that Make Android an iOS clone?

Maybe it is the App Draw? Nope, Apple thinks every application should clutter the desktop.

Maybe it is the unified Notification Bar? Nope, I don't believe Apple has that either.

Maybe it is the Multitasking? Oh wait, Android had that first and it is still better.

Multitouch? Sure, Apple put it in phones first (Microsoft started using in in their surface computing project 6 years earlier) but they didn't invent it so even that doesn't count.

Widgets? Nope, Apple still lacks those and Android has had them for some time.

Folders? Android did that first as well!

Live Wallpaper? Does iOS even have these features yet?

Copy and Paste? Nope, they didn't do that first either.

I guess, I am trying to find out where Android is nearly an exact clone of iOS! Maybe Google should get a lawyer and go after Apple for all the things Android implemented first.
@Peter Perry

You REALLY need to check your facts before you post.
To wit:

The history of Android is common knowledge at this point. The original phone was a flip phone Blackberry clone. It had a scroll ball and a standard keypad. It did NOT have a touchscreen. It continued this way after Android Inc. was bought by Google, whose CEO was on Apple's board, and satin on iPhone development meetings. After the iPhone became popular, a complete redesign of the UI and device was ordered. Coincidence? yeah, keep telling yourself that. He was promptly kicked off the board.

You then follow with a bunch of rants about the UI:

"Maybe it is the App Draw? Nope, Apple thinks every application should clutter the desktop."

You haven't seen iOS lately.

"Maybe it is the unified Notification Bar? Nope, I don't believe Apple has that either."

So?

"Maybe it is the Multitasking? Oh wait, Android had that first and it is still better."

No they didn't. iOS had multitasking from day 1. iPhone 1.0. And considering battery life and other issues (such as crashing the whole phone) calling the idea that Android's multitasking is better "subjective" would be charity.

"Multitouch? Sure, Apple put it in phones first (Microsoft started using in in their surface computing project 6 years earlier) but they didn't invent it so even that doesn't count."

No, the system Apple uses was invented by FingerWorks, which in now owned by Apple. But then again, Apple never claimed to have invented multitouch, they patented their UI heuristics. There is a BIG difference.

"Widgets? Nope, Apple still lacks those and Android has had them for some time."

The idea of Widgets came from Konfabulator, originally ONLY for OSX (which in turn borrowed heavily from macOS desk accessories in the ORIGINAL macOS from the mid 80s) and was popularized by Apple's implementation in OSX as Dashboard. Android was WAY late to THAT party.

"Folders? Android did that first as well!"

Folders are a basic OS concept. All modern OSes have them. You are confusing them with the UI exposing them.

"Live Wallpaper? Does iOS even have these features yet?"

Ooh, you got one. You can put a live background on your device that kills battery and steals processor cycles. Ouch, the pain.

"Copy and Paste? Nope, they didn't do that first either."

Copy and paste was in the works while the Google CEO was still on Apple's board.

"I guess, I am trying to find out where Android is nearly an exact clone of iOS! Maybe Google should get a lawyer and go after Apple for all the things Android implemented first."

Yeah, good luck with that.
@DeusXMachina. Give it a rest, you don't know what you're talking about... I never claimed Google was the first to ever use these features just that most of them were in place before iOS.

As for Apple multitasking... Apple had "their form" of multi-tasking in iOS 1 but only Apple's Apps were allowed to use it until 4.0... Many argue what Apple has now isn't even real Multitasking.

Again though, read my statement, I asked you what features Apple's iOS had that marked Google's Android as a clone considering they're very different and that isn't up for debate.

As for using iOS lately, yes I have as my wife has one and theirs no App draw even in the 4.3 version on her iPad 2.
@DeusXMachina Linux was not based on Minix, it was developed on Minix... Linux is a Monolithic Kernel with high end access to the Hardware... Minix is a Microkernel... The real difference is that most of the OS was built into the Kernel for Linux and that clearly was not the case with Minix.
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@Peter Perry

"I never claimed Google was the first to ever use these features just that most of them were in place before iOS."

That is the only way your statement has ANY logical relevance.

"As for Apple multitasking... Apple had "their form" of multi-tasking in iOS 1 but only Apple's Apps were allowed to use it until 4.0... Many argue what Apple has now isn't even real Multitasking."

They'd be wrong. Care to list why it isn't?

"Again though, read my statement, I asked you what features Apple's iOS had that marked Google's Android as a clone considering they're very different and that isn't up for debate."

It most certainly is. Thiy are hardly different. They WERE different, until the first iPhone came out, at which point Google rewrote the UI from the ground up.

"As for using iOS lately, yes I have as my wife has one and theirs no App draw even in the 4.3 version on her iPad 2."

1) There is no such thing as an "App Draw".
2) The App Drawer is not an official part of Android.
3) It is little different than iOS App folders, and the App bar, accessible by double clicking the home button.
3) The word is "there's".

"Linux was not based on Minix, it was developed on Minix... Linux is a Monolithic Kernel with high end access to the Hardware... Minix is a Microkernel... The real difference is that most of the OS was built into the Kernel for Linux and that clearly was not the case with Minix."

I am fully aware of what a monolithic kernel is. But apparently you are not. Most monolithic kernels are BASED on microkernels, that move additional functions out of user space into the kernel.
More to the point, Linus Torvalds has talked about the basis of the original Linux kernel, and you are wrong. Also, you might want to read up on Mint (NOT MINIX).
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@Petter Perry

First, being developed on something does NOT mean it is not based on that same thing, so your statement is irrelevant. Linus Torvalds is ON RECORD as stating that the idea of Linux and much of the underpinnings came from MiNT and MiNIX.
I suspect he knows more than you (hardly a feat).
But please, pray tell, what language was C written in?

And I am fully aware of the difference between micro kernels and monolithic ones. Are you? Linux STARTED as a micro kernel that expanded as more core functionality was brought into the kernel from user space. The fact that Linux and MiNIX differ in this regard is both irrelevant, and evinces your lack of knowledge about the matters about which you pretend to post with authority.
@banned from zdnet

You do realize that Apple has copied so many ideas from other companies that it's not even remotely close to funny.

Mac OS - copied from Xerox's XWindows

iPod - First portable MP3 player created by Audio Highway (I was wrong on attributing this to Creative in an earlier post).

iPhone - The bringing together of a variety of options found in other phones created by the likes of Nokia, Sony-Ericcson, RIM, and other.

iPad - the marriage of the iPhone with tablet laptop PCs that have been around since the late 90s.

Apple is just as shameless as everyone else for copying and iterating.
@cdigan
You do realize that you copied so many ideas from your previous post that it is not even remotely close to funny?

And, as already shown, not a SINGLE one is factually correct. X Windows? Really?!?
@cdigan it was Xerox Parc that they ripped off!
@Peter Perry

Oh really?
How much did Jobs pay XEROX?
How much did Bill Gates?
Huh?
Ripped off?!?

How many of the original XEROX PARC engineers did Apple hire? How many did Microsoft?

you don't know what you are talking about.
I USED the XEROX Alto extensively, so I do. The MAJORITY of the macOS UI was developed in house, by Apple. You disagree? Please explain how the Alto accepted user input to the OS. Hint: it was called the Alto Executive.
Please then explain how Apple "ripped that off".
@DeusXMachina Jobs didn't pay Xerox ****! There was a business relationship there and even Woz admitted that.

Now answer this smart guy... Did Apple have a GUI before they ripped, err... visited the Parc labs? Answer? Nope, they didn't! Did the windowing resemble the Parc in Apple's original release? Yes it did.

You see, you don't have to have an exact clone underneath to steal an idea! Even Gates noted that Jobs stole the idea from Xerox and you just don't want to believe that.
@DeusXMachina
YOUR WRONG wink
With revenue of 172 Billion USD approx (compared to your beloved Apples 65 Billion approx) Samsung don't need Apple. Okays if they lose Apples $7 Billion agreement they will be unhappy, but they find business else where (Sony, Dell etc)
And with Apple facing component shortages (e.g. screens, NAND flash memory, DRAM etc) they will need a big reliable company to make parts for them. Funnily enough Samsung makes all these components and has the ability to keep up with the demand.

As i mentioned before Apple ran to Samsung crying once before asking for help with iPad screens. It'll happen again.
Apple needs Samsung.

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