“Losses at its flatscreen television division and patent disputes with Apple have bloodied the nose of the world’s biggest technology company by sales. And a further blow landed on Friday after a court in Germany banned sales of Samsung’s latest tablet computer there,” Christian Oliver and Song Jung-a report for The Financial Times.
“The long term worry for Samsung is software, which is crucial to its increased focus on high-end consumer electronics such as smartphones and tablets… In future, Samsung… will need its own software arsenal for the next generation of products,” Oliver and Song report. “Hewlett-Packard has warned that the future of the whole technology industry lies in software, which is Samsung’s Achilles heel.”
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Oliver and Song report, “In the nearer term, Samsung’s cherished strategy of being a ‘fast-follower’ and playing catch-up on other companies’ hardware – but with greater volume – is looking hazardous following Apple’s lawsuits. The US company is suing Samsung for allegedly copying its designs. Samsung rejects the charges and is countersuing Apple, claiming intellectual property infringements. Samsung’s executives, who have traditionally been relaxed about the industry’s ubiquitous patent suits, are surprised by Apple’s recent success in delaying or blocking sales in Germany, the Netherlands and Australia. All eyes are now on the US. Apple will next month seek a preliminary injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy products there. The case is crucial to Samsung because even temporary blocks in such a key market would be painful.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
German court upholds Apple complaint: Bans Samsung Galaxy Tab from sale in Europe’s largest market – September 9, 2011
Android apps much less profitable than iPhone apps – September 9, 2011
Samsung moves to expand tablet business with Microsoft Windows – September 8, 2011
Time to pay the piper. Innovate or die.
Perhaps Samsung will now moves it’s headquarters to Cupertino into a round building. That should help their R & D.
Time for Samsung to either grow up and act like an adult company in the market OR offer itself up for sale. Being yet-another rip-off company that just happens to be in Asia is self-destructive management.
They can no more “reboot” than any of the so-called “iPod killer” companies could. The smart phone and “tablet” markets will one day belong (upwards of 70% at least) to Apple. I can’t blame them for trying, but it’s all basically a huge waste of time, money and energy. Too bad they can’t see that…
S(h)amsung or is it S(h)am(e)sung is nothing but a branded copycat. It should seriously look into serious R&D, not the copy-and-make-thinner-and-larger variety. Yesterday, I checked out one of their new phones at an AT&T kiosk at a Westfield mall. From a distance, it looked like a freaky iPhone with an oversized screen. But the minute you touch it, the spell is broken. It just has “cheap & overpriced” written all over it. Not even the ersatz Apple home screen will make me consider it.
“GE sold their ‘E’ to Samsung. They’re now Samesung.”
Or the “off” switch.
Isn’t the key aspect that they are a ‘fast follower’ ? Followers do not innovate and by following, they will always be behind the curve and will also be in danger of running foul of patent or design law.
There is an additional problem for Samsung. It’s seldom a clever idea to piss off your best customer. Whatever problems Samsung is currently facing, I think there will be worse news to come.
Vertical integration in an industry that takes a minimum of 5-10 years to setup, create and polish with incredible millions of man hours in just the software is a task only a super-cash rich company can afford to implement today.
If a company does create systems nearly from scratch, there is no guarantee they can succeed against a super-determined #1 frontrunner. They might just get 5% of the market for a decade or more.
Tough. I wouldn’t be my money on it.
Make these next BLOCKs stick.
Ban Samsung completely from the North American market.
iTV was totally ripped off by Samsung with its device; in style, size, colour, shape and functionality. iPad likewise.
Android should also be abolished and forbidden.
Apples only competing OS would be WebOS which is up for sale. Good Luck with that. And if Samsung wishes like HTC to run using WebOS or Windows 8 then get going.
Samsung total lives inside its own Korean reality distortion bubble. they won’t say of course, but i bet they’ve already blown a $billion in losses on their “fast follower” tablets.
they’ll never change.
iTV was totally ripped off by Samsung with its device….
iTV doesn’t really exist, its called AppleTV. Good try though, you’re clearly not familiar with either product.
It’s much more simple than all that… Samsung needs to decide to be one of Apple’s key suppliers, or one of Apple’s key competitors.
By buying a huge volume of components from Samsung, Apple is essentially financing its own competition. That has got to stop, and Apple is taking steps to stop it both “in the courts” and by reducing dependence on Samsung as a supplier going forward.
I think Samsung will be more profitable as Apple’s supplier, not Apple’s competition. Samsung can’t have it both ways.
Its not like the streets around Apple aren’t filled with Korean looking spies pretending to be American engineers or students
Samsung can smuggle one onto the Apple board like Google did but they would if they could.
The US court case must be a headache for Lucy H. Koh.
I bet certain Koreans – cough … cough Samsung and the Korean Gov are applying imense pressure to her.
Next up, Japan.
I hope the Galaxy Tab gets blocked there too.
Samsung will crash and burn cause all they do is make Overpriced copies of other companies products.
At least make it better and Cheaper……
But even that is illegal!
Hope they get hit to the full extent of the laws in every country.
the new Galaxy SII is a copy of the iPhone 4. this is getting as bad as counterfeit gucci bags on canal street. Samsung – stop already… you’re like a creepy bunny boiler wanna be apple and it’s not cute anymore.
Strange then that HP are dumping WebOS
Samsung should do what it knows best: make kimchee. It’s Korea’s national brand.
I’m tired of repeating this. Does the whole world suffer from collective dyslexia?
The name is SameSong.
SameSong.
What is so difficult about that?
I like how so many tech companies feel perfectly entitled to help themselves to Apples designs like it was some of basic right. Imagine what would happen if Dell blatently and unashamedly ripped off Cisco Systems or IBM. The fallout from that would be visible from Olympus Mons.