Starting in Germany. How significant is this? (I haven’t been following the tablet wars, just waiting for some way to win an iPad2 since I can’t justify buying one, just lust after one. ;) )
It’s significant because Samsung is one of Apple’s major suppliers, and Apple seems to be doing everything they can to destroy them now after Samsung made an iPhone clone. Sort of like how Apple made an about-face on the new ZFS file system just because Sun dared to release information about it’s inclusion before Apple had officially announced it. But since Samsung needs Apple more than Apple needs Samsung (though they both benefit right now), they’re in this weird middle area where both are fulfilling their current contractual terms while both knowing full well Apple intends to ditch them as soon as they are able.
Tactically, it seems this is significant as the Galaxy Tab was the best regarded of the Andriod tablets; hitting two birds with one stone, as it were. Apple is evil in a way Microsoft could never dream of becoming once the anti-trust cloud began to loom over them in the late 90s-2000s.
I don’t know, Enidigm, most of the other significant sources of the materials Samsung provides Apple are tied up in long-term contracts now.
And I’ve never trusted Apple, nice to see it’s justified (well, I don’t trust ANY large corp, so…)
Knowing Apple they will simply continue to fastidiously fulfill their current obligations, while looking/preparing other suppliers to take their place when they expire. They’ll certainly not add any further agreements with Samsung.
It’s significant because the injunction will probably be applied EU-wide (except for the Netherlands, where a separate case has been filed). It’s probably deserved in this case, too.
As a developer with access to pre-release Android hardware from back before they had any real products on the market, literally the first thing I thought when I saw Samsung’s UI was “wow, they’re trying to get sued”. In all of the prototypes we had worked with up until then, nobody had gone near producing something with an iOS-style app bar at the bottom of the screen… not only did Samsung do that, they made it look exactly like Apple’s. Reading some of their old press-releases, Samsung shows a tendency to treat major aspects of new products as public domain, as if it’s an industry trend they’re allowed to follow. Someone in their senior management just has no scruples; they seem to expect to have market-leading products, regardless of how they get it.
Given their supply contracts, refusing to change the designs when Apple called them on it is a spectacularly bad move for a company that has been making pretty good money with every iOS device sold: no matter the outcome in the case, they have already lost. Those contracts will not be renewed. All that for a bit of corporate hubris. Given how avoidable it was, their shareholders should be furious.
As much as I dislike Apple I have no real sympathy for Samsung. Their phones are replaced every 2-3 months by an incrementally better model and the older ones aren’t updated firmware wise. After getting an i7500 and realising they simply didn’t care about product support beyond 6 months, I vowed never to buy a product from them again. I’m not with Apple on this one as I adore Android and what it represents, but I can’t side with Samsung either. Perhaps they’ll both explode in a litigation singularity?
How are they evil?
Maybe Enidigm doesn’t know that Microsoft make more money from Android licenses than from WP7. Or that Oracle is suing Google.
ht*tp://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/an-explosion-of-mobile-patent-lawsuits/
Its nice to live in a world where megacorporation battling in court is “evil.” It could be worse. ;)
You have no fucking idea what you’re talking about.
Apple may be evil, but not for this. They had a strong case and won it. Samsung has a rep for this kind of thing, and in this case it bit them in the ass.
Oh, interesting, i didn’t realize the consenus was that Samsung was clearly at fault, i believed it was just a case of a “good” tablet that used an icon based system = sue. If Minus Mogul rebels against Barad Dur, i guess it doesn’t really concern us ^^.
Although apparently they’re also going after the Motorola Xoom, which is a lot less obviously confusable with an iPad, if this is a trade dress thing.
Am I wrong to see this as Apple trying to kill competition through the legal system rather than through making better products?
Yes.
Their competitors are failing so badly on their own with subpar products with subpar apps that Apple hardly needs to go out of their way to kill competition.
I think any company in Apple’s position would have done the exact same thing. The iPad is a cash cow for Apple and they own the IP. I think Apple would welcome strong competitors who weren’t infringing on their IP. They pay a lot of money to establish that. Why should they give it away?
I see it more as the competition felt they had to copy Apple (to the point of infringement) because they couldn’t compete with their own ideas.
I don’t really know much about the Galaxy tab, but the Xoom? I know that’s really not trying to copy the iPad at all, other than the fact that it’s a touch based tablet interface.
What exactly is the basis of their infringement lawsuit against Motorola? What are they claiming is being infringed upon?
The main contentions aren’t so heavy on patent infringement, but tradedress – the idea that customers were getting confused and buying Galaxy Tabs instead of iPads, because they looked similar, the boxes were similar, some similar icons, etc.
I find the idea that they are so similar as to be confusing to be fairly weak. All tablets look like a giant screen at this point, what doesn’t look like an iPad. If Samsung actively encouraged salespeople to hit people with, “It’s just like an iPad” then okay, that’s over the line. But I can’t really think of anyone who’d be confused by the devices except for people who call any tablet an iPad.
To be fair, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 looks more iPad-y than is required by the form factor. At first glance, I thought this was an iPad.
The Xoom, though, yeah, no.
That’s just the thing. Apple has MADE the better product. Now, having been outmaneuvered, out-thought, out-marketed and out-engineered, instead of Samsung making a better product, they instead shamelessly copy Apple’s?
And you have the gall to defend Samsung on this point? WTF?
This is not much different than these outrageous knock-off stores in China.
I’m pulling for Apple on this one.