It’s getting difficult to keep up with the pace of Samsung’s slavish copying.
John Brownlee reports for Cult of Mac, “Samsung’s predilection for shamelessly ripping off Apple’s design is well documented at this point.”
“If Samsung’s ever going to quit ripping off Apple’s design team and make their own damn products, they show no sign of abating, as the latest product design to be ripped off by Samsung is their new Chromebox, which looks almost identical to the Mac mini: a tiny aluminum box with a black circular opening at the bottom,” Brownlee reports. “Unbelievable.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Maybe Samsung doesn’t understand what copying means? Something’s getting lost in the translation, that’s for sure.
You want to know what’s really unbelievable? That, after half a decade, at least, of Samsung’s slavish copying, Apple continues to do billions of dollars of business with Samsung. Apple, which has enough money to build or bankroll anything they want, like a chip fab, or a touch screen display factory, or anything they could ever need.
“Oh, you copied our iPhone, our iPod touch, our iOS home screen, our icons, and our Mac mini? Here’s another three endless German lawsuits and, oh yeah, by the way, a $10 billion contract for touch screens.”
Something just does not compute here. If you get mugged, do you buy the leather for a new wallet from your mugger while pressing charges? If you’re Tim Cook, you do.
Apple could have – and should have – dropped Samsung like a bad habit years ago. Not one red cent should be going from Apple to Samsung today. It’s a travesty. It’s poor planning. And it’s bad business. The only conclusion we can draw is that Tim Cook, operations genius, boxed Apple in and is now stuck; beholden to a den of thieves. That sort of “decision making” doesn’t bode well for Apple’s future. It really doesn’t.
Here’s the question Walt Mossberg should have asked Cook onstage at D10: “Excuse me, Tim, but WTF are you still doing any business at all with Samsung?”
Wouldn’t you love to hear the answer to that one? Walt could use Keynote to flash all of Samsung’s knockoffs of Apple’s designs on the big screen behind Tim while he sputtered and stammered.
Next shareholders’ meeting or conference call, somebody might want to ask Mr. Cook that one.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
I think it is time to coin a new expression in the hope that it passes into common usage.
A new verb: To samsung.
Which means to slavishly copy others due to the lack of any native wit or class, or creative intelligence.
samsung = the scumbag of tech. only bastards using sammy products.
Apple is a design company not a hardware manufacturer. The basically are at the wim of these companies.
MDN, et al: Samsung is NOT AT ALL copying the Mac mini! Can’t you read the specs?
Mac mini: 7.7″ x 7.7″ x 1.4″ @ 2.7lbs
Chrome: 7.5″ x 7.5″ X 1.28″ @ 2.64 lbs
The Chromebox has 6 USB ports. Which is good because with only 16GB SSD you’ll be plugging in lots of USB thumb drives!
Sorry MDN,
But it’s never about the money. Apple does not want Samsung to copy Apple’s products because copying is not right. Apple buys Samsung’s products because that’s the right decision. That’s about it. It’s never about the money.
It’s the OS stupid.
You run them side by side and you will see the difference.
– but I agree there seems to be no logic to using SAMSUNG when Apple could partner with someone else to build a Fab plant and every other component.
Pulling the plug instantly on SAMSUNG would be catastrophic to their bottom line as their cash flow would evaporate. SAMSUNG may get so dependent upon Apple revenues that they get burnt to a crisp
there is a new iPhone game: Angry
Ive! Sr. Jony Ive must be shocke! (again!)
There is no “Samsung”. The “Samsung” that makes parts for Apple and the “Samsung” that produces home electronics are separate companies. Once a year they report to the same corporate HQ, and that’s it. Killing the one will have zero effect on the other.
Asthey say in all the Mob movies, “It ain’t personal, it’s just business.”
I suggest to MDN that it stop advertising Google products. What’s the first Ad we see, Chrome, then Nexus Phone. Walk the Walk.
I hate Google so much that I am going to switch default search engines, do the other engines suck, yeah, but I hate Google that much. Next, I am going to try to change my Apple ID from a Google related email, I think I learned how, but U hate Google that much. Lastly, I have a hand-me-down Samsung feature phone, hate them so much I use a cracked Garminfone, hate Google so much, I am going to switch to a terrible LG hand-me-down feature phone.
So put up or shut up, rid Google Ads from your site!
It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Apple was keeping everything running ‘normally’ while secretly planning their systems to replace Samsung. When they’re ready they’ll drop Samsung and create their own components.
I will never again buy another Samsung product.
Having said that: Apple is mainly a software company. Hardware is only a fraction of the user experience.
I agree with MCD that Apple should move away from Samsung as a components supplier … unless Samsung offers Apple deals that no other vendor can get close to matching. Even if Samsung sales to Apple are $10 billion annually, that doesn’t mean that Samsung is earning a significant profit on those sales.
I believe Apple is using some of its cash hoard to help some of its vendors acquire capital equipment, and over the long run they will become more effective competitors to Samsung.
The purported photo of a Mac Mini is not a Mac Mini at all. Never have I seen an apple product that looks like that. What gives? Is this some sort of test, and everyone is failing?
To be honest, this is sad. Sad to see Samsung do this again and again. Either they have no shame or it’s a real strategy to copy everything Apple does to profit and piss Apple off. Why would you wanna work for a company that does like this?
Oh come on, this is getting ridiculous. I own an apple product, so I’m not some apple-hater, but you are basically saying apple can now have a monopoly on a square. A computer in a little square box is ‘ripping off’ apple. No it isn’t.