Steve Jobs Contacted Samsung in July, 2010 About Patent Infringement

[Trusstopher]

I made a point a month or so ago, and this seems to reaffirm it. It seems like a mjority of what apple is fighting for right now are "temporary blocks" in place while the actual cases are being tired. I think in most cases, apple doesn't even care if they win or lose a lot of these suits, they just don't want these products to be on the shelves for the next 3 months. Eliminate even a fraction of your competition between Thanksgiving and New Years and the change in sales will be substantial.

 

[Tuktanuk]

I think that in cases where someone steals intellectual property, like technology, that is where they should sue. If they make a complete knock-off and don't pay royalties or whatever, then sue.

But the Samsung phones are similar, not the same. Some icons look similar. Is it because they copied? Or is is that they wanted it to stand out from the other 7 Android phones on the shelf at Verizon? Is it because they know that "sleek is in"?

Look at cars. For awhile the trend was square and angular. Then the trend was round and curvy. Not is is more sleek and refined.

Markets go through things like that, and I am sure that whoever put out the first "curvy" car to market could try to claim that they "started it and everyone else is copying them", but I don't really think that it holds a lot of water. If something is very popular from an aesthetic, you will see other products take on a "similar" look.

But I don't think that having a "similar look" is enough to justify spending uncounted millions on lawyers and trying to use the legal system in order to block the competition from sales.

Of course, in light of the fact that there is no iPhone 5 imminent, and that all Apple has going into the Holiday season is a tweaked iPhone 4, perhaps that is why Apple is so desperate. I mean, they know that Android sales are crushing theirs worldwide. They know that most of their sales come from upgrades, and a lot of them happen around the end of the year and the Holidays. And they know that this season, they don't have the latest and greatest to offer. They have a mild update to a 16 month old phone going up against the newest cutting edge devices that the dominant platform has to offer.

Is it any wonder that Apple sees no other recourse than to try to use the courts to stop the competition? They saw the writing on the wall. They saw Android walk in and slap them around and take over the market and see no end in sight, and they know that this season they had nothing to even fight back with other than a rehash of their old phone.

Yesterday's iPhone 4S announcement suddenly makes all this legal crap make a little more sense. They are doing whatever they can to stop the bleeding.

Agree with this 100% +1 for you. Perhaps if Apple spent more time in Development and Design; they might produce a better product in the end which will win them a larger market share again. Simply having a carbon copy of the same design with the only updates being the stuff under the hood is NOT they way to gain market share. Let's face the facts here folks..... Apple needs to broaden it's entire scope if they want to stay current and appeal to consumers in regards to phones. 1-2 releases every couple of years is certainly not going to get them there and neither is a marketplace that they police with an iron fist. Simply taking other companies to court over trivial things is also not the way to gain market share, in fact; I think it may actually damage them further as a result. It's no secret that Apple can't play nice with anyone.... Think back to Vista and iPod support... This is basically the same pissing match all over again but this time; it's with Samsung instead of Microsoft.

 

[SquireSCA]

I made a point a month or so ago, and this seems to reaffirm it. It seems like a mjority of what apple is fighting for right now are "temporary blocks" in place while the actual cases are being tired. I think in most cases, apple doesn't even care if they win or lose a lot of these suits, they just don't want these products to be on the shelves for the next 3 months. Eliminate even a fraction of your competition between Thanksgiving and New Years and the change in sales will be substantial.

Exactly. If you cannot get your latest and greatest out the door to the market, the next best thing is to try and prevent the competition from getting theirs out.

 

[SquireSCA]

Agree with this 100% +1 for you. Perhaps if Apple spent more time in Development and Design; they might produce a better product in the end which will win them a larger market share again. Simply having a carbon copy of the same design with the only updates being the stuff under the hood is NOT they way to gain market share. Let's face the facts here folks..... Apple needs to broaden it's entire scope if they want to stay current and appeal to consumers in regards to phones. 1-2 releases every couple of years is certainly not going to get them there and neither is a marketplace that they police with an iron fist. Simply taking other companies to court over trivial things is also not the way to gain market share, in fact; I think it may actually damage them further as a result. It's no secret that Apple can't play nice with anyone.... Think back to Vista and iPod support... This is basically the same pissing match all over again but this time; it's with Samsung instead of Microsoft.

There are a lot of similarites between this and the computer market in the early 1990's... Seems that Apple didn't learn their lesson and they may be about to repeat their mistakes of the past. They made a buttload of money along the way, granted, but they could be on the path to reducing themselves to a niche player the way they did with computers back in the day...

 

[OneTenderRebel]

Exactly. If you cannot get your latest and greatest out the door to the market, the next best thing is to try and prevent the competition from getting theirs out.

so what will everyone say when this phone sells like hot cakes? I think we in the forums put far too much into specs. The VAST majority of consumers don't care about that. The name Apple sells itself, maybe it shouldn't be that way, but it does. Just like Android has built a loyal following now that there are consumers who will only ever buy something Android. Apple has got their fanbase on lockdown, IMO and this phone is going to be hugely successful regardless if the specs are somewhat outdated, which they are.

 

[SquireSCA]

so what will everyone say when this phone sells like hot cakes? I think we in the forums put far too much into specs. The VAST majority of consumers don't care about that. The name Apple sells itself, maybe it shouldn't be that way, but it does. Just like Android has built a loyal following now that there are consumers who will only ever buy something Android. Apple has got their fanbase on lockdown, IMO and this phone is going to be hugely successful regardless if the specs are somewhat outdated, which they are.

Most of those hotcakes will be sold to the Apple Faithful. It will be sales, yes, but it won't do a lot to increase marketshare because most of the sales will go to people that already had an iPhone.

So it is money, yes. But if you don't gain marketshare, the money is temporary. Why?

Because as more and more of the market shifts to Android, so too will the development of apps, ad revenue, things like that. Those will gravitate to where the largest target audience is, and when that shift occurs, then it will cut into the sales revenue, as there will be more of a market for Android, be it apps, games, new technology, accessories, etc...

You can only thrive on milking your existing customer base for so long. Eventually the other markets that feed your market move to the bigger pool.

Not saying that Apple won't go away, or that they won't be filthy rich, etc... Just saying that at some point, if they don't put out something revolutionary that attracts new buyers and increases their presence in the market, they will start to go backwards.

If you look at Apple, they seem to go in cycles. They come out with something really cool and revolutionize an industry, but because they are so controlling, they dominate for awhile, and then everyone else catches up and surpasses them... Then they will fall behind for a time, realize their mistake and start working on the next revolution.

Not unlike a football team, who is lean and hungry and busts their butts to make it to the top and win the Super Bowl. Then they enjoy their status at the top, but they usually aren't hungry, they enjoy the fruits of their status and stop doing the things that got them there in the first place, and the next hungry team takes them out.

In Android, you have all the competitors competing against each other within the platform, so even if the platform is dominant, the individual players are not and they are constantly pushing the envelope and trying to beat each other, so the platform as a whole continues to benefit and rise.

With Apple, its all them. When they get lazy, or complacent, or cocky, the whole ships starts taking on water because there is nobody else but them to man the buckets and bail them out...

 

[OneTenderRebel]

Most of those hotcakes will be sold to the Apple Faithful. It will be sales, yes, but it won't do a lot to increase marketshare because most of the sales will go to people that already had an iPhone.

So it is money, yes. But if you don't gain marketshare, the money is temporary. Why?

Because as more and more of the market shifts to Android, so too will the development of apps, ad revenue, things like that. Those will gravitate to where the largest target audience is, and when that shift occurs, then it will cut into the sales revenue, as there will be more of a market for Android, be it apps, games, new technology, accessories, etc...

You can only thrive on milking your existing customer base for so long. Eventually the other markets that feed your market move to the bigger pool.

Not saying that Apple won't go away, or that they won't be filthy rich, etc... Just saying that at some point, if they don't put out something revolutionary that attracts new buyers and increases their presence in the market, they will start to go backwards.

If you look at Apple, they seem to go in cycles. They come out with something really cool and revolutionize an industry, but because they are so controlling, they dominate for awhile, and then everyone else catches up and surpasses them... Then they will fall behind for a time, realize their mistake and start working on the next revolution.

Not unlike a football team, who is lean and hungry and busts their butts to make it to the top and win the Super Bowl. Then they enjoy their status at the top, but they usually aren't hungry, they enjoy the fruits of their status and stop doing the things that got them there in the first place, and the next hungry team takes them out.

In Android, you have all the competitors competing against each other within the platform, so even if the platform is dominant, the individual players are not and they are constantly pushing the envelope and trying to beat each other, so the platform as a whole continues to benefit and rise.

With Apple, its all them. When they get lazy, or complacent, or cocky, the whole ships starts taking on water because there is nobody else but them to man the buckets and bail them out...

Well said! It's probably not a secret I like Apple products by now, haha. I have never owned an iOS device, believe it or not, but I wouldn't say I was completely underwhelmed by the 4S but part of me almost wants to see it do poorly so it does force them to get truly innovative again. When the original iPhone came out the "wow" factor was unbelievable but now I think people have come to expect that with each new release of the iPhone, while the new one is a decent upgrade from the previous, there wasn't anything to be truly impressed about.

I will say this, the one nice thing about Android is they can swing and miss on a phone and someone else can come right behind and pick up the slack. Kind of the same thing as your ship taking on water analogy.

 

[Tuktanuk]

Most of those hotcakes will be sold to the Apple Faithful. It will be sales, yes, but it won't do a lot to increase marketshare because most of the sales will go to people that already had an iPhone.

So it is money, yes. But if you don't gain marketshare, the money is temporary. Why?

Because as more and more of the market shifts to Android, so too will the development of apps, ad revenue, things like that. Those will gravitate to where the largest target audience is, and when that shift occurs, then it will cut into the sales revenue, as there will be more of a market for Android, be it apps, games, new technology, accessories, etc...

You can only thrive on milking your existing customer base for so long. Eventually the other markets that feed your market move to the bigger pool.

Not saying that Apple won't go away, or that they won't be filthy rich, etc... Just saying that at some point, if they don't put out something revolutionary that attracts new buyers and increases their presence in the market, they will start to go backwards.

If you look at Apple, they seem to go in cycles. They come out with something really cool and revolutionize an industry, but because they are so controlling, they dominate for awhile, and then everyone else catches up and surpasses them... Then they will fall behind for a time, realize their mistake and start working on the next revolution.

Not unlike a football team, who is lean and hungry and busts their butts to make it to the top and win the Super Bowl. Then they enjoy their status at the top, but they usually aren't hungry, they enjoy the fruits of their status and stop doing the things that got them there in the first place, and the next hungry team takes them out.

In Android, you have all the competitors competing against each other within the platform, so even if the platform is dominant, the individual players are not and they are constantly pushing the envelope and trying to beat each other, so the platform as a whole continues to benefit and rise.

With Apple, its all them. When they get lazy, or complacent, or cocky, the whole ships starts taking on water because there is nobody else but them to man the buckets and bail them out...

Perfectly stated!

 

[SquireSCA]

Well said! It's probably not a secret I like Apple products by now, haha. I have never owned an iOS device, believe it or not, but I wouldn't say I was completely underwhelmed by the 4S but part of me almost wants to see it do poorly so it does force them to get truly innovative again. When the original iPhone came out the "wow" factor was unbelievable but now I think people have come to expect that with each new release of the iPhone, while the new one is a decent upgrade from the previous, there wasn't anything to be truly impressed about.

I will say this, the one nice thing about Android is they can swing and miss on a phone and someone else can come right behind and pick up the slack. Kind of the same thing as your ship taking on water analogy.

And therein lies the true strength of Android. You have many manufacturers all trying to push the envelope, and no matter who wins, the Android platform itself always benefits. If one falls short, there are many others to jump in. Same thing with development. It's shared, it doesn't all fall on one man or company's shoulders, so it is always moving forward as a whole, even if one individual drops the ball.

Apple controlling everything with an iron fist, they have nobody else to back them up. When they make a mistake, there is nobody else to pick up the slack. When they miss a target or a deadline, there is no other manufacturer to run in with an immediate follow up shot and score the basket.

When the Bionic missed their original deadline, there was the TBolt, the Charge, the Atrix and others, so one miss didn't slow the entire ship.

My Apple fanatic friend likes to harp on the "Android fragmentation"... I don't know about you, but I am not a programmer, so I don't see how it effects me or the average consumer. He sees fragmentation as a weakness, I see it as a strength, as when one piece falters it doesn't bring the whole ship to a screeching halt...

 

[ilikemoneygreen]

Maybe this was just a fakeout by apple. Maybe once the prime releases and all the other companies have shown their guns, then the iphone 5 launches and gets in front of them. Haha sudden press conference after the announcement of prime???
Just an idea, everyone all seems to be laughing at apples slight upgrade. Its a conspiracy.

 

[OneTenderRebel]

Maybe this was just a fakeout by apple. Maybe once the prime releases and all the other companies have shown their guns, then the iphone 5 launches and gets in front of them. Haha sudden press conference after the announcement of prime???
Just an idea, everyone all seems to be laughing at apples slight upgrade. Its a conspiracy.

haha that would be funny, like immediately after the Prime announcement Apple has a stage set up outside the even and launches the iPhone5 with a 27"screen, triple double octocore processor, 78 gigs of ram, 1 TB of storage, a mini fridge and your very own laser cat.

 

[OneTenderRebel]

haha that would be funny, like immediately after the Prime announcement Apple has a stage set up outside the even and launches the iPhone5 with a 27"screen, triple double octocore processor, 78 gigs of ram, 1 TB of storage, a mini fridge and your very own laser cat.

even = event, can we get an edit button in news posts please???? haha

 

[ilikemoneygreen]

I want a mini fridge phone.....you'd need two hands to hold it but who cares when it has a laser cat. Lol, I like 78 gigs of ram, so random.

 

[czerdrill]

haha that would be funny, like immediately after the Prime announcement Apple has a stage set up outside the even and launches the iPhone5 with a 27"screen, triple double octocore processor, 78 gigs of ram, 1 TB of storage, a mini fridge and your very own laser cat.

But will it have widgets?

 

[OneTenderRebel]

But will it have widgets?

blasphemy