“The surge in the popularity of inexpensive but cutting-edge smartphones is more than just another marketplace success story,” John Burnett writes for FOX News. “It is one with profound social implications, particularly among low-income Black and Hispanic consumers who have long been on the losing end of the digital divide.”
“If there has been any recent development that has helped to bridge that divide in communities like my own here in Harlem, it has been the advent of low-priced smartphones,” Burnett writes. “Indeed, studies have shown that Black and Hispanics access the Internet on a cellphone, tablets or other mobile handheld devices at demonstrably higher rates than whites. ”
“However, the days of inexpensive smart phones may be coming to an abrupt end, due in large part to an ongoing patent dispute playing out in a federal district court in California,” Burnett writes. “Apple, the maker of high-end devices like the iPhone, is suing Samsung, the maker of more inexpensive devices, claiming that Samsung has copied its technology.”
“Apple must stop waging this legal war on its main competitor, Samsung, because it is anti-competitive and could ultimately decimate the smartphone market that is enabling the digitally disenfranchised go online,” Burnett writes. “Some experts note that the legal remedies sought by Apple, which caters to a relatively affluent clientele, could translate into higher costs being passed on to consumers who have come to depend on the inexpensive products offered by competitors, which cost roughly $370 less on average… For all its standing as a model of American ingenuity and success, Apple serves a relatively narrow segment of the market with a limited number of smartphones – 3 – that fetch premium prices.”
Complete stupidity here.
MacDailyNews Take: You know, because protecting your property is wrong. It should instead be freely given to a corrupt South Korean conglomerate and 500 other crapola outfits around the world in order to help U.S. minorities afford smartphones and because $0 for an iPhone 4S is too expensive.
Imagine the melodic stylings of Burnett’s tune if a black person invented and patented the iPhone in Harlem and then, over in California, a bunch of white guys at Apple immediately decided to blatantly and clearly infringe upon these patents in order to mimic the operating system, offer it to every Tom, Dick and Harry handset assembler on earth, churn out their own knockoffs and, oh by the way, grabbing the bulk of smartphone market share in the process?
Somehow we believe that Burnett’s little ditty would have an entirely different sound.
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Apple’s products came first, then Samsung’s:
Here’s what Google’s Android looked like before and after Apple’s iPhone:
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward W.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple already has its first victory in new $2 billion Samsung patent infringement fight – March 31, 2014
Apple v. Samsung patent infringement trial begins today (link to live blog) – March 31, 2014
How Google reacted when Steve Jobs revealed the revolutionary iPhone – December 19, 2013