“When Samsung Electronics rushed its first smartphone to market in a panicky response to the smash-hit debut of the Apple iPhone, some customers burned the product on the streets or hammered it to bits in public displays of disaffection,” Miyoung Kim reports for Reuters.
“Complaints ranged from dropped calls and a clunky touchscreen to frequent auto rebooting and a dearth of applications,” Kim reports. “Samsung Mobile President JK Shin admitted it was a tough time. The company had seen a 1 trillion won ($885 million) profit in its telecom sector in the first quarter of 2010 halved in the following quarter after Apple Inc’s latest iPhone took the market by storm. ‘We were facing a really serious crisis,’ Shin said later.”
“Yet on the 9th floor of Samsung Electronics headquarters in Seoul housing the mobile division’s design center, Lee Minhyouk said he was not feeling the heat. Samsung Mobile’s vice president for design and his team were already working on its next smartphone, the Galaxy,” Kim reports. “Samsung sold 44 million Galaxy units since its launch in June 2010 on its way to displacing Apple last year as the world’s top-selling smartphone maker.”
MacDailyNews Take: Lie #1: Samsung did not displace Apple last year as the world’s top-selling smartphone maker.
See: Gartner: Apple took top smartphone vendor crown in Q411 and for all 2011 – February 15, 2012
Why lie, Reuters?
“Samsung’s checkered entry into the smartphone market is emblematic of the South Korean conglomerate’s strengths and weaknesses,” Kim reports. “Its strategy has always been to be the “fast executioner”, the first in the market with a copycat product when a new opportunity is presented. But it is not known as a great innovator or a company like Apple that can literally create a new market with an iconic product.”
“Samsung and Apple are locked in an escalating global patent battle, as they jostle for top position in the booming smartphone and tablet markets,” Kim reports. “Apple fired the first salvo in April last year, arguing Samsung had ‘slavishly’ copied its iPad and iPhone. Since then both have taken legal action against each other in several countries claiming patent infringements.”
Kim reports that Lee Minhyouk, Samsung Mobile’s vice president for design, “takes personal affront at the copycat charge. ‘I’ve made thousands of sketches and hundreds of prototype products (for the Galaxy). Does that mean I was putting on a mock show for so long, pretending to be designing?'”
MacDailyNews Take: Lie #2: Yes, that’e exactly what it means.
Apple’s products came first, then Samsung’s:
This is not a recent development, either. We’ve been covering this for years now. For example:
Samsung’s ‘Instinct’ is obviously to make Apple iPhone knockoffs – April 1, 2008
Kim reports that Lee continued, “‘As a designer, there’s an issue of dignity. (The Galaxy) is original from the beginning, and I’m the one who made it. It’s a totally different product with a different design language and different technology infused.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Lie #3. As is blatantly obvious, Mr. Originality.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If Samsung is so original, why do courts make them change their designs from mimicking Apple 99% to only mimicking Apple 95% in order to be able to sell their products?
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “krquet” for the heads up.]
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Aftershocks from Android market share dive rumble through mobile market – January 31, 2012
ABI: Apple iPhone tops smartphone market as Android suffers its first decline in share – January 27, 2012
These charts will make the Fandroids want to puke – January 26, 2012
Apple’s iOS passes Google’s Android to take U.S. smartphone market share crown – January 25, 2012
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