Apple is suing Samsung for allegedly infringing on some of Apple’s patents — you know, that whole iPhone idea? — and Samsung, in response, is threatening litigation of its own, stating that Apple is allegedly infringing on some of Samsung’s wireless technology patents. This sounds typical, but this one is different.
From the outside looking in, it might be acceptable to call Apple and Samsung close partners in the tech industry. Apple has purchased $5.7 billion worth of electronic parts from Samsung in 2010. That is a serious investment that can’t be overlooked. Both companies seemingly rely on each other to help feed consumers’ interest for new tech products.
But Samsung also competes with Apple in the smart phone and tablet computing arena. Samsung has a slew of Android-powered devices that, indeed, offer similar functionality to what Apple offered with the original iPhone. This awkward situation hasn’t come between the two before, as they have been partnered for a long time. That changed this week.
With the threats of litigation comes more litigation, and eventually both companies are going to sue each other for every little patent they think they can. In the end, though, it is likely that both companies will settle out of court.
We can’t help but wonder if Apple started this whole thing possibly because Samsung wants to raise prices for electronic components or another similar situation.
The tech sector has always been a turbulent place to do business. Technology moves to quickly, and especially now so many different companies are branching out into new areas and all of a sudden they are competing (in one narrow field) with people they had previously been partnered with. Apple is a big player in the field, but Samsung isn’t just going to roll over and abandon its projects just because Apple wants them to.
historically phones have always had a common interface. Apple should not be able to trump that card with on basic design… its square with icons.
I think Apple should be suing them. People say it’s the only possible smartphone UI design but that is because Apple have made it work so well that people just see that as the common interface and its very hard to re-think something which is near perfect for the purpose.