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Samsung's 'Infringe First and Stall as Long as Possible' Strategies Are Nothing New
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What did Samsung ever invent at the product level?
Now I know Samsung is good at incremental innovation, and when it comes to parts and components, they're actually quite good at it.
But what has this company ever invented - as in, launching a totally new and successful class of consumer product *or* a product that's so different from the competition that it completely changes the market?
Many of the companies mentioned in the article have done that. Actually, almost every big name electronics company has created such products at one time - Philips, Sony, Pioneer, Kodak, Apple.
Personally, I cannot think of any product that Samsung is well-known for that they have created themselves. VCRs, LCD televisions, Plasma televisions, mobile phones, smartphones with a keyboard, smartphones without a keyboard, tablets - none of these categories was started by Samsung.
Does anyone know of such a product?
Now I know Samsung is good at incremental innovation, and when it comes to parts and components, they're actually quite good at it.
But what has this company ever invented - as in, launching a totally new and successful class of consumer product *or* a product that's so different from the competition that it completely changes the market?
Many of the companies mentioned in the article have done that. Actually, almost every big name electronics company has created such products at one time - Philips, Sony, Pioneer, Kodak, Apple.
Personally, I cannot think of any product that Samsung is well-known for that they have created themselves. VCRs, LCD televisions, Plasma televisions, mobile phones, smartphones with a keyboard, smartphones without a keyboard, tablets - none of these categories was started by Samsung.
Does anyone know of such a product?
- Samsung Galaxy Note, first consumer phone/tablet to include a Wacom digitalizer
- Samsung SPH-M2100, first mobile phone with MP3 player
- Samsung SCH-r900, first mobile phone with LTE
Just a few among many.
None of those examples meet his qualifications by any stretch of logic.
LTE and MP3 didn't change the market?
Can you name anything that Apple did by your stretch of logic?
LTE and MP3 didn't change the market?
Neither LTE nor MP3 were invented by Samsung. And Samsung's implementation of those standards did not change the market.
I think that should be obvious to anyone that visits this site. I'm not going to get into the stupid argument where you try and come up with all sorts of reasons that the Mac or the iPod or the iPhone or the iPad weren't really inventions or something equally ridiculous.
So everybody using those features after was not a change?
I'll just assume you cannot defend your point.
None of those things changed the market. #1, competitors don't care about to implement, and #2/#3 were going to happen regardless if Samsung was first or not.
LTE and MP3 didn't change the market?
Can you name anything that Apple did by your stretch of logic?
The iPhone is the single most influential device ever. Samsung wishes it would have came to them in a dream. Kinda explains their love affair with Apple.
Well... it's hard finding 100% innovative products even at Apple. What we call innovation is a company offering a good set of features for an affordable price.
I could say that the Galaxy Note is a good package of interesting features for an affordable price. You can argue that there were stylus pens for smartphones before the GNote, but not pressure-sensitive ones. Also, there weren't smartphones as big (if you call innovation a home screen grid or a rounded-corner rectagular shape, you should also consider bigger or pressure-sensitive screens innovative).
The innovation with Samsung comes from the small parts, since they are capable of developing components. Apple is a hardware aggregator (despite it is really good with software). Apple imagines something and try to find components capable of being integrated to turn such concept a reality. However, if a component doesn't exist, they have to make workarounds. Both companies innovate, each one with its own methods.
Sony is innovative in the imaging area. They develop almost all sensors used by the big players. However, they weren't the first to develop a mirrorless SLR-class camera. This is a revolution attributed to Olympus and perhaps Panasonic. Sony now is the first one to offer consumer mirrorless, interchangeable lens systems in a full-frame sensor size. Is it a copy, since it's just a minor detail? Samsung now also makes mirrorless SLR-like cameras. Is it copying? If you look the enclosure, the camera concept, maybe yes. But they develop their own sensors, that is, they can control and innovate in every minor steps of the supply chain just like or almost like Sony.
The single most influential device?! No no no no no and NO
I would give that reward to the first consumer TV, the first consumer radio, the first mobile phone, the first nuclear bomb but not the iPhone...
I would say that the iPhone is the most influential of the new millenia, but not ever...
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How is that different with Apple?
Was the iPhone the first phone with capacitative screen? No
Was it the first phone with an app store? No
Was it the first phone with apps? No
Was it the first phone capable of full HTML browsing? No
There was nothing new with the iPhone, just a great product with great execution. I'm not undermining its importance in changing the market but come on, Apple is not so different than Samsung, both never invented a completely new product segment.
It wasn't even the first phone with iTunes integration!
iPod invention? What about Diamond Rio? iPhone was aninnovation in terms of overall assembly, but each every part of it was already more or less developed in other products. Mac: not really in-company innovation, since the main concept was developed by Xerox and bought later by Apple.
Since people here love equating IP infringement as theft, lets not forget that Creative sued Apple over the UI in the first gen iPod, and won a $100 million settlement for their trouble.
Though to be fair, I'll say that, much like the patents in this most recent case, it was pretty BS all around.
What about it? I didn't say or imply that Apple invented the MP3 player.
The same can be said about every other invention in the history of man. Maybe you should examine your definition of invention or innovation.
So are you saying that XEROX invented the Mac?
This isn't about copying, it's about copying and threatening to make their life a living hell if they try to get justice.
how many little companies that can't afford to have long legal battles do you think samsung has done this to? do you think it's fair that they get ripped off just because they can't afford to defend themselves?
this practise is bad for everyone involved because who wants to waste their time innovating when your products will just be ripped off and you'll waste your damn time?!
You don't have to make something brand new, never before seen to be granted a patent. It does have to be unique though, or a non-obvious improvement. Something most software patents fail to establish.
lol what?!?!? In all of history?
Pretty sure the world ran just fine before the iPhone came out.
Samsung didn't steal very much technology from the iPhone. Apple isn't much of a technology research company, more like consumer electronics, and they had the IP rights to use the technology they used in the iPhone. Samsung and Google stole the product, user experience, design, and execution.
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They're too busy using something crappy like DuckDuckGo in protest
Anyway, it's Foxconn's job to fix their problems, not Apple's.
I wouldn't say Google stole much of anything. Android is markedly different from iOS in style and execution, and only share superficial similarities. To me, the most you can accuse Google of is playing follow the leader into touch-centric devices.
Its one of the most influential. The way people interact with their smartphones is because of the iPhone.
Where did I say Apple was first at anything? What I said was a device that is market changing. A market changing device doesn't require it to be first.
No it's not. It's the most influential 21st-century consumer product, and it's influential in a very bad way. Just what we need, more useless activities people can waste their time on.
There is no denying that what Samsung does is wrong but all companies do this including Apple.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2409669,00.asp
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/09/24/apple-sues-startup-over-pod-name/