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Who Cares If Samsung Copied Apple?

Posted by samzenpus on from the imitation-is-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery dept.

hype7 writes "The Harvard Business Review is running an article that's questioning the very premise of the Apple v Samsung case. From the article: 'It isn't the first time Apple has been involved in a high-stakes "copying" court case. If you go back to the mid-1990s, there was their famous "look and feel" lawsuit against Microsoft. Apple's case there was eerily similar to the one they're running today: "we innovated in creating the graphical user interface; Microsoft copied us; if our competitors simply copy us, it's impossible for us to keep innovating." Apple ended up losing the case. But it's what happened next that's really fascinating. Apple didn't stop innovating at all.'"

5 of 544 comments (clear)

  1. The Chinese... by j35ter · · Score: 5, Funny

    couldn't care less!

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    Delta-Mike November Bravo Tango
    1. Re:The Chinese... by cerberusss · · Score: 3, Funny

      And what kinds of messes do certain Continental European countries create? Germany, France and Switzerland are major arms exporters.

      Hey, don't forget the rest of Europe! I'm from the Netherlands and we're at least as big as, as, I dunno, Idaho! And we make really nasty stuff too, like, errrr, ummm, like target sights! Or at least, we used to make them, let me look that up *returns to computer terminal*

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  2. Re:Turn the argument around. by Rogerborg · · Score: 4, Funny

    I do like the irony that you took the content of an article that says copying is good for innovation, and just copied it.

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    If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
  3. And the next step was even more fascinating... by pubwvj · · Score: 3, Funny

    "it's what happened next that's really fascinating. Apple didn't stop innovating at all.'"

    What followed was even more dramatic. Microsoft, since they could get away with copying, settled for that and stopped innovating. Eventually they imploded and lost their market dominance while Apple has far surpassed them.

    I would never bother buying a Samsung as a replacement for the iPhone, iPad, iPod. Samsung has only a tiny part of the puzzle even if they totally copy Apple's hardware and software. They still lack all of the smooth integration with my laptop / desktop, the iTunes store and the enormous depth of software and other media available on the Macintosh which I use daily to get my work done.

    The point they miss is all of these pieces of hardware are just tools. Tools to let us get our work done or what ever else we're doing. All alone the simple hardware is next to nothing.

    There's another issue too. I don't trust Samsung to continue producing or supporting products. They're too wishy-washy. It is a waste of my time to change every year.

  4. Re:Competative markets: they're pretty neat. by freeze128 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah, competition is a bitch. You have to keep working. Much nicer not to have any competition - no innovation required at all. Ask Comcast about that.

    I tried, but I have been on hold since last Tuesday.