“In 2007, when Apple unveiled the iPhone, Samsung was still best known for its flat-panel televisions. Since then, Samsung has rocketed to the top of the smartphone world in terms of sales and units shipped and sparked an epic technological — and legal — rivalry,” Bret Swanson writes for Forbes. “In courtrooms around the world, Apple and Samsung are squaring off over mobile device patents. The skirmishes began in 2011, and today some 40 lawsuits still hang in the balance. The next battlefield is San Jose, where a trial in the Northern District of California begins on March 31.”
“According to Asymco, Apple’s iPhone represents an impressive 15% of all mobile units shipped around the world. But the iPhone enjoys nearly 40% of the revenue and an astounding 60% of industry profits,” Swanson writes. “Samsung, meanwhile, accounts for around 50% of units shipped, 50% of revenue, and 40% of profits. Apple and Samsung, between them, take home 100% of the mobile handset industry profits.”
“In previous trials Samsung was ordered to pay $929 million, and the International Trade Commission issued an import ban on Samsung products. After months of mediation on the current contentions, the two firms have not been able to reach an agreement. And so off to court we go, where a judge and jury will potentially determine the future of mobile device IP,” Swanson writes.
“Apple holds large numbers of legitimate patents for true inventions. But our patent system has also encouraged firms to patent anything and everything, including beveled icons and touch-screen finger-swipes,” Swanson writes. “Apple’s demands in this case are off the charts. Apple insists Samsung pay it $40 per phone or tablet, for a set of just five relatively minor software patents. This is perhaps 10 or 20 times, or more, what experts would expect. In previous litigation, it had suggested $30 per unit for its entire IP portfolio. A fee of that magnitude could upend the mobile marketplace by significantly driving up the prices of Samsung devices, which consumers clearly love. All this against the unsettling backdrop of whether some of these patents should be patents at all.”
Swanson writes, “Apple didn’t become great because of its lawyers. Neither did Samsung. Consumers around the world are hoping they settle their intense competition on the field of innovation, not in the courtroom.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Samsung stole from Apple. Google’s Android is, in Steve Jobs’ words, a “stolen product.” That – blatant theft – is why these interminable court cases and their endless sequels rage.
The iPhone was a revolution. Copying it so closely was the overriding reason why dishwasher-maker Samsung emerged as the leader of the iPhone knockoff peddlers.
Consumers should fervently hope that Samsung is someday finally severely punished [even though Samsung has been slavishly copying Apple’s iPhone for over 6 years, they haven’t paid a cent so far], so that the innovators of the world will see that, yes, it actually is still worth taking the time and spending the money that it takes to innovate. Failure to preserve the innovator’s rights will rapidly lead to crippling stagnation.
Apple’s products came first, then Samsung’s:
Google’s Android before and after Apple’s iPhone:
—
I don’t know which is worse: Samsung’s slavish copying or that there are tens of millions of dullards and/or morally-crippled consumers who would buy such obvious knockoffs. What kind of person rewards thieves, especially such obvious ones? What kind of person hands over their money to make sure that crime pays? What’s wrong with you people, exactly?
It makes me sad that there are outfits like Samsung Electronics on the planet, as I was with Microsoft before them. People who work for Samsung Electronics should be ashamed. It makes me even sadder to see people supporting blatant criminals, whether it be blindly or, worse, knowingly. To those people I say: Get some morals, will you, or how about at least acquiring a modicum of taste?
What you’re doing is supporting criminal activity. It’s like you’re buying knockoff Coach handbags, but you’re paying pretty much the Coach price! Not too smart, eh? Oh, sure, you might have “saved” a bit upfront on your fake iPhone (maybe you got one of those Buy One Get One or More Free deals), but you’re paying the same data rates – after a couple years, you’ve pretty much paid the same anyway! So, in the end, you’re saving little or nothing while:
a) depriving the company who basically inspired your inferior, fragmented product;
b) depriving yourself of the real deal and the real experience, and;
c) rewarding the criminal, encouraging them to steal even more.Not a lot of sense being made in any aspect of your toting around that Android phone, is there? Oh, right it’s “open.” Smirk. And, yes, every one of us with the real thing knows that you’re carrying around a half-assed fake, you tasteless wonder.
Didn’t you people have parents? If so, what did they teach you, if anything? Sheesh. – SteveJack, MacDailyNews, August 6, 2012
Related articles:
Samsung announces plastic Galaxy S4 ‘Gold Edition’ phone – September 25, 2013
Dyson sues Samsung for ripping off its patented vacuum steering mechanism – September 10, 2013
Apple asks U.S. appeals court to halt Samsung’s slavish copying – August 9, 2013
Samsung slavishly copies Apple’s iPad mini with Galaxy Tab 3 (with photo) – July 23, 2013
9 ways Samsung has slavishly copied Apple over the years – July 14, 2013
Samsung’s new ad for Galaxy Gear stupidwatch slavishly copies Apple’s original 2007 iPhone ad (with video) – October 7, 2013
Now Samsung copies Apple product rumors, said to be working on wristwatch device – March 19, 2013
Samsung’s new ‘Wallet’ bears striking resemblance to Apple’s Passbook – February 27, 2013
Korea JoongAng Daily: Samsung must stop slavishly copying Apple – September 3, 2012
South Korea reassesses its great imitator, Samsung – September 2, 2012
Convicted patent infringer Samsung acuses Apple of trying to limit consumer choice – September 1, 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
“innovation, not in the courtroom.”
how do you innovate if people can just steal your stuff moron?
and as Ive as cried over : morons like him think that ‘design’ is easy and the highest level design doesn’t take years to do and thus has no value….
It’s always “obvious” after someone shows you how it’s done isn’t it?
SOME “consumers around the world are hoping they settle their intense competition.” Who did Swanson interview to formulate that opinion? I would suggest that the vast majority of the owners of either device are likely ignorant of the issues all together. Forbes and Journalism may be oxymorons.
Ive copied large sections of iOS 7 from Android and Palm WebOS, and to a lesser extent from WP 8, cheapening in the process the iOS user experience.
While it would hold some water to accuse Samsung of copying the look and feel of iOS, that only applied to iOS 6. Since the major revision to iOS 7 implemented by a software hack known as Ive, any and all lawsuits between the companies should cease owing to mutual copying between the parties.
Hmmm. Obviously has not followed the case very closely.
Nonsense
Someone’s living backwards….
So you got this from Ives directly did you? Ives stays up nights looking at Android phones figuring out what to do next? I think you have it reversed.
Maybe you don’t remember this…
The profits are more like 75% Apple and 25% Samsung.
You’re not helping Apple’s case with that logic.
The other competitors have long been kicking themselves for not copying Apple as closely as samsung has, as with 20/20 they now see the embarrassing extent of infringement that they, too, could have got away with.
$40/unit is indeed rich. However, history has long shown that in the courtroom if you want $15 you need to ask for $40.
Apple does not want to license it’s (non-SEP) IP to pirates, bootleggers, or competitors.
Isn’t most of this (like touch screen swiping), not really the act of swiping your finger across a touch screen, but rather HOW the screen determines that you’re swiping?
Some of the patent infringement is based on Trade Dress (someone trying to imitate your product), but some of it is also based on the actual underlying mechanics involved to, let’s say, determine that two fingers are touching the screen.
The way the iPhone determines there are two fingers instead of one – is an invention, and if Samsung is using that same method – BUSTED.
Apple and Steve Jobs did invent the iPhone, and they did create the model that Samsung is now so blatantly imitating. Samsung’s own internal documents prove that. The real problem is the administrators of the American Patent System and the Judges.
They are not doing their jobs and the American Economy is suffering hundreds of billions of dollars of damage because of their failure to act. None of them understand the risks Steve Jobs took to deviate so sharply from the existing phone model of the time. He could have failed. Samsung did not spend nearly as much money on research and product development inside their company.
American Patent Law clearly gives the patent owner to deny use of their patent if they so choose. The Judges and the administrators need to learn that, or they should be laid off, so they can get paid their true values. Which is zero.
“Samsung was still best known for its flat-panel televisions.”
I know Samsung best for their shady business practices and IP theft.
I hate when people who don’t know me try to speak on my behalf.
Jax1, Apple stole NONE of that. Mouse: licensed from SRI (Stanford Research Institute—where the computer mouse was invented seven years before PARC was founded by Doug Engbart). GUI: concurrently developed with ideas shared from PARC ( Palo Alto Reseach Center), ideas that Apple paid for with 1,000,000 shares of pre-IPO common share stock valued at $7 million for two visits to PARC and THE RIGHTS to use what they learned at those meetings! Drop down notification: As part of the GUI development Apple INVENTED drop down notifications and drop down menus, and holds the copyright and patents on it. . . not XEROX, PARC, Google or Android, although the patent—but not the copyright—has passed into the public domain. Experts have done comparisons between your ‘two year old’ Android version and iOS 7 and find NOTHING comparable, zip, nada, nil. No one can find anything that REMOTELY looks like Android about it — except some logical grouping of standard controls, which were adopted from a Mac design. These are facts. . . Sorry, thanks for playing.
Get your facts straight before making comments.
I think a great deal of the problem is that Apple is arguing in front of judges and juries who are ignoramuses that know nothing about technology. How can you judge a case fairly when you’re an idiot?
I wanted to copy and paste the above pics and rant onto my FB page since some of my friends irritate me by acting like I’m just a fanatical Apple lover and proclaiming how much they love their “Android.” But the tone is so condescending and harsh and obscures the message- too much listening to Rush, perhaps? My friends would find the credibility suspect due to the off-putting lecture.