Apple suing Samsung and winning a patent case over form, factor and design, rectangles with rounded corners and icons with text in a grid, may well be detrimental in the long term because people’s impression of the company has forever been tarnished. Many are now thinking that Apple are about innovation through litigation, even ardent Apple users/fans are turning their back on the company. Other Apple users have been made more aware of Samsung’s products, now thinking that Samsung has copied Apple, therefore Samsung products are as good for half the cost. Apple’s polished image is forever tarnished by the company’s litigate not innovate business practice.
Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously said “We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.” in an interview on PBS documentary “Triumph of the Nerds” in 1996, now in 2012, current CEO Tim Cook said in a memo to Apple employees “The jury has now spoken, we applaud them for finding Samsung’s behavior willful and for sending a loud and clear message that stealing isn’t right.” Talk about hypocrisy, nothing in the iPhone is new or innovative; all the iPhone technologies were already in existence previously, Apple simply packaged it nicely and called it innovation.
Despite all this bullshit talk of “stealing isn’t right”, Apple are stealing right now from Google’s Motorola Mobility by using patented, albeit FRAND (technology patents that are considered essential to the operation of a device) technology without a licence. I’ve never been a fan of litigation to solve problems but I really hope that Google win their patent case against Apple for using it’s technology without permission or licence. In a “civilised” World, cross-licencing deals would be done and competition would be allowed, but it’s innovation through litigation! It’s time for patent reform to promote competition and avoid this type of litigation to stifle competition!
I heard a couple of brilliant anti-Apple quotes “I don’t buy Android because it looks like an iPhone; I buy Android because it is NOT an iPhone” and “All Android users should take their phones into an Apple Store and advise a “Genius” that their iPhones aren’t working.” And when the employee says “But that’s not an iPhone” you just say “That’s funny, the rest of your company couldn’t tell the difference.” And Finally, “Samsung Pays Apple $1 Billion, Sending 30 Trucks Full of 5 Cent Coins” – this is clearly a hoaxed news story but it would be an absolutely brilliant publicity stunt if true.