“Samsung’s U.S. mobile executives debated using Google as a proxy to attack Apple in a marketing campaign because it felt constrained in going directly after the iPhone maker, a large customer of its components businesses,” Daisuke Wakabayashi reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“Under the subject heading ‘Use Google to attack Apple?’ Samsung executives exchanged emails a week before Apple’s introduction of the iPhone 4S in Oct. 2011. Apple introduced the emails as evidence to dispute Samsung’s claim that successful marketing and superior hardware helped drive its market share gains,” Wakabayashi reports. “The two companies are squaring off in U.S. district court in San Jose, Calif., in the latest round of their long-running patent feud.”
“The emails reflect a reality of the global technology landscape where the distinction between ally and enemy can change quickly,” Wakabayashi reports. “Apple is a major customer for Samsung’s chip and display businesses, but a bitter rival in smartphones. Google and Apple were once close with Google’s former CEO Eric Schmidt sitting on Apple’s board.”
Read more in the full article here.
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