Apple vs Samsung: Apple Executive Opens Samsungs Old Wounds

It has been exactly 15 years since the first iPhone was launched on June 29, 2007. On this occasion, the Wall Street Journal (hereafter referred to as WSJ) today released a documentary portraying the progress of Apple in these years.

The documentary features interviews with current and former Apple executives by Joanna Stern, in which the current Apple marketing chief Greg Joswiak called out Samsung and implied that the Smartphones from Samsung were just a “Poor Copy” of the iPhones.

He further explained that Samsung just copied the iPhone design overall and made the display larger.

The credit is certainly due to Apple for introducing the innovation and starting a new era of smartphones that were capable of doing tasks while in a reduced capacity, like computers, with also introducing a dedicated app store.

However, such is the norm in the field of technology, everybody innovates & somebody takes it even further. To allege a corporation such as Samsung of copying, which was founded 53 years ago, probably would be stretching it too far.

Especially when Samsung is a major core components supplier to current giants like Tesla and a manufacturer of electronic components such as lithium-ion batteries, semiconductors, image sensors, camera modules, and displays for clients such as Sony, HTC, Nokia, and Apple itself.

On January 4, 2007, 4 days before the iPhone was introduced to the world, and Apple filed a suit for 4 design patents covering the basic shape of the iPhone.

Apple sued its component supplier Samsung, alleging in a 38-page federal complaint on April 15, 2011, in the United States for using its tech in Samsung’s Android phones and tablets. 

The claim was for infringing Apple’s intellectual property: its patents, trademarks, user interface, and style.

Samsung also counter-sued Apple on April 22, 2011, filing federal complaints in courts in South Korea, Japan, and Germany. Samsung alleged that Apple infringed on Samsung’s patents for mobile-communications technologies. 

By then, it became a suing game, and Samsung sued Apple in the British as well as American courts.

Ultimately the total score was settled through an undisclosed exact money bill understanding between the two, which has not been publicized yet by both.

Apple’s Jobs hinted once that the bigger phones were a hassle, and the sales went down for Apple around 2013 when Samsung Galaxy Note and other phones were garnering sales. Samsung criticized apple for eating its words and releasing a bigger iPhone 6.

Furthermore, Apple had a bitter taste when the sales of the iPhone 12 mini-series failed in comparison.

Even today, Samsung still beats Apple in the tablet game. Read here. And not to mention Samsung is currently a flagbearer in the foldable and flexible display division with its Z series dominating the market, while Apple and others are still trying to even enter this field.

Apple certainly seeks to stand high ground, and a sense of ego seems to be pouring from it. Who knows what would have happened if Samsung didn’t innovate the larger phones, which were more affordable and independent in terms of the OS and third-party ecosystem.

In that sense, it seems that Samsung ruined Apple’s monopoly celebrating party with its marketing and innovations. 

Apple doesn’t seem to accept that a free world of innovation that enables people to be more productive and make their lives easier will always be accepted by the world and that technology is not its monopoly or exclusive right because apple was also accused of the same.

It would be better if this old age animosity could end now, and both companies should try to work better in their field, especially when Apple is seeking the help of Samsung in display solutions.

To watch the documentary visit the links in the description, and we leave you with the Apple executive’s statement.

Here referring to Samsung– “And they were annoying because, as you know, they ripped off our technology. They took the innovations that we had created and created a poor copy of it, and just put a bigger screen around it. So, yeah, we were none too pleased.”

-Apple marketing chief Greg Joswiak

Sources & References:

• WSJ