“Samsung, which uses Google’s Android mobile operating system and offers several different models, has emerged as Apple’s biggest competitor in smartphones. Samsung, also one of Apple’s biggest suppliers of components, accounted for 19.1 percent of global smartphone shipments last year, compared with Apple’s 18.8 percent, according to Bloomberg Industries data,” Bonnie Cao and Adam Satariano report for Bloomberg News.
“The two companies also are battling in court, with Apple being awarded more than $1 billion last month by a California jury that said Samsung copied the iPhone’s design. Samsung said it will appeal,” Cao and Satariano report. “‘I hate it,’ Wozniak said when asked about the patent fights between Apple and Samsung. ‘I don’t think the decision of California will hold. And I don’t agree with it — very small things I don’t really call that innovative. I wish everybody would just agree to exchange all the patents and everybody can build the best forms they want to use everybody’s technologies.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s very “Woz” of Woz to say such things. After all, Steve Jobs had to persuade him to sell the Apple I instead of giving it away.
Woz lives in a utopian fantasyland; a likely result of being made fabulously rich at a young age and then losing touch with how the real world works. Banging his head really hard in a plane crash probably didn’t help matters, either. He likely still doesn’t realize that if he gave away the Apple I, some Bill Gates-type would be selling it the very next week.
Samsung has very clearly (to most people) dedicated themselves to knocking off Apple products for many years now (see related articles below).
Woz is a legendary engineer. He obviously does not fully comprehend Apple’s levels of innovation when it comes to operating system user interfaces and how the end user intrinsically interacts with devices like iPhones. Once you experience something or use an innovative product, familiarity tends to make invention seem obvious. Apple makes the very difficult seem easy, but their ideas – their patented ideas – are really the result of a lot of expense and hard work. Just look at the pre-iPhone phones. Look at the pre-iPad tablets. What Apple did and does is very, very, very valuable. It’s simply not free for all to take and profit from. Kumbaya.
Despite it all, we’ll always love Woz!
Reportedly Woz still gets a paycheck of approximately $120,000/year from Apple Inc. Before AAPL shareholders begin to question the wisdom of that, we wish somebody from Apple would sit him down and carefully explain things to him, like how much effort went into the patented ideas, why they deserve protection, and that he’ll always be Apple’s co-founder, so he should try to think before he speaks.
Related articles:
Welcome to South Korea, the ‘Republic of Forgery’ – September 11, 2012
Is Samsung copying Apple’s patented earphones? It sure looks like it – September 8, 2012
Samsung mimics Apple product videos in Galaxy S III promo (with video) – August 24, 2012
Now slavish copycat Samsung attempts to knockoff Apple’s retail stores (with video) – August 23, 2012
Samsung: Shameless slavish copiers – August 13, 2012
Apple attorney: Instead of innovating, Samsung chose to copy iPhone and iPad – July 31, 2012
Apple: Google warned Samsung against slavishly copying our products – July 25, 2012
Now Samsung slavishly copies Apple’s Mac mini – June 1, 2012
Samsung Mobile chief ‘designer’ denies that Samsung’s instinct is to slavishly copy Apple – March 23, 2012
Slavish copier Samsung shamelessly steals Apple’s iPhone 3G design – again – January 3, 2012
Slavish copier Samsung uses girl actress from iPhone 4S ad for Galaxy Tab 8.9 spot (with video) – January 2, 2012
Now Samsung’s slavishly copying Apple’s iPad television ads (with videos) – December 30, 2011
Judge: Can you tell me which is iPad and which is yours? Samsung lawyer: ‘Not at this distance your honor’ – October 14, 2011
Why are Apple’s icons on the wall of Samsung’s store? – September 24, 2011
Apple to Samsung: ‘Blatant copying is wrong’ – April 18, 2011
Apple sues Samsung for attempting to copy look and feel of iPhone, iPad – April 18, 2011
Samsung’s ‘Instinct’ is obviously to make Apple iPhone knockoffs – April 1, 2008
