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Tim Cook Never Wanted To Sue Samsung

colinneagle writes "While Steve Jobs' ire in regards to Android is well known, a recent report from Reuters relays that current Apple CEO Tim Cook never wanted to sue Samsung in the first place. 'Tim Cook, Jobs' successor as Apple chief executive, was opposed to suing Samsung in the first place, according to people with knowledge of the matter, largely because of that company's critical role as a supplier of components for the iPhone and the iPad. Apple bought some $8 billion worth of parts from Samsung last year, analysts estimate.' In various earnings conference calls, Tim Cook has repeated that he hates litigation, but has still toed the party line by exclaiming that Apple welcomes innovators but doesn't like when other companies rip off their intellectual property."

197 comments

  1. LOL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yea right!

  2. Unable to control your company, or complicit. by Kenja · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sorry, this excuse just doesn't fly with me. If the company he's supposed to be in charge of is doing things like suing competitors without his permission or knowledge, then he's a failure as a CEO.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    1. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Exactly. Even if the lawsuit went ahead due to momentum, as leader in charge of the company, wouldn't you be willing to work to end the lawsuit through settlements and get back to business? Why would you continue to press ahead, or even allow it to continue?

      This is just a BS blurb for public relations.

    2. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by niftydude · · Score: 2

      Yep. Judge people by their actions not their words.

      To quote Stephen Donaldson: "It's easy to say things like that. If you have the voice for it, it's easy to say them with conviction."

      --
      You can never know everything, and part of what you do know will always be wrong. Perhaps even the most important part.
    3. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by JonathanF · · Score: 4, Informative

      These lawsuits were started before Cook was CEO -- the point is that he basically inherited lawsuits that Jobs started.

      And while it's tempting to follow up with "he should just drop all the lawsuits," it's not that easy -- aside from spooking the public and investors, an exit from legal action wouldn't guarantee that others would do the same. Samsung has at least made some grandstanding that it will never, ever settle. That could just be talk, but Samsung isn't exactly known for its humility or compassion toward competitors.

    4. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by the_B0fh · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Do you people ever get out of the basement? In internal discussions, Steve Jobs said sue. Tim Cook said no. Steve Jobs overruled, and Apple sued.

      Why didn't Tim Cook want to sue? For fear of damaging supplier relationship with Samsung. Not because he thought Samsung didn't copy them.

      Keep that in mind. *THE LAWSUIT ALREADY HAPPENED.*

      Steve Jobs died. Tim Cook is now CEO.

      He has to decide - continue to sue, or kill the lawsuit. *THE LAWSUIT IS ALREADY ONGOING*.

      To kill the lawsuit means:
      1) Admit Apple was wrong.
      2) Gives more power to Samsung and others to copy Apple's look and feel.
      3) Supplier relationship with Samsung is still screwed
      4) Future negotiations with Samsung will be with a weaker hand.

      Which part of that equates to him not knowing Apple is suing Samsung?

      I cannot even comprehend how the hell you came by the idea that Tim Cook is not aware of any lawsuits (if nothing else, it's headlines all over the place).

    5. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by RazorSharp · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Sorry, this excuse just doesn't fly with me. If the company he's supposed to be in charge of is doing things like suing competitors without his permission or knowledge, then he's a failure as a CEO.

      Jobs was still alive when the litigation started. . . if you had even read the first paragraph of the article you would know that (or if you had better reading comprehension skills, as your UID indicates you had a /. account when the lawsuit started and it was covered almost daily here for months).

      Cook may not have agreed with initiating the lawsuit, but once it was started it's likely he saw going through with it as the best strategic option. The damage had already been done, the best he could hope for was to win. Kind of like the Iraq war. It was a stupid idea, but once we toppled their government there was no turning back.

      --
      "From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
    6. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by kllrnohj · · Score: 1

      I think the claim is that the lawsuits were started by Steve Jobs, and now Cook is stuck running with it. It would be bad for him to abort a lawsuit that's in flight.

    7. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Samsung is well known for cross-licensing intellectual property, and it's pragmatic attitude towards litigation. Apple not so much. Apple is, has been, and always will be the problem.

    8. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by gnasher719 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yep. Judge people by their actions not their words.

      Sometimes that happens. Sometimes it doesn't. As a result, Samsung is supposed to pay $1bn for violating Apple's patents, but a huge leak of hydrofluoric acid at Samsung's plant that killed one worker, injured four and according to police reports may have affected thousands, got them a one thousand dollar fine.

      http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2244389/police-contradict-samsungs-acid-discharge-claims

    9. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by whisper_jeff · · Score: 1

      Sorry, this excuse just doesn't fly with me. If the company he's supposed to be in charge of is doing things like suing competitors without his permission or knowledge, then he's a failure as a CEO.

      Crap like this being modded "Insightful" highlights just how far /. has fallen over the years as a source for actually insightful discussion of geek topics...

    10. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by F.Ultra · · Score: 3, Insightful

      He has no right to do with the company as he pleases, his job as a CEO is to run the company in the direction mandated by the board. And the board in turn is supposed to manage the company according to the will of the share holders.

    11. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And while it's tempting to follow up with "he should just drop all the lawsuits," it's not that easy -- aside from spooking the public and investors, an exit from legal action wouldn't guarantee that others would do the same.

      Oh, I don't personally believe that it is ever too late to end an armed conflict by peaceful measures. Cook could take the lead and arrange a closed doors settlement that would be acceptable to both parties. Apple could come out still with a "don't even think about messing with us" look. Samsung could partially maintain their innocence, although with an extremely contrite demur and admission they won't get into such a mess again.

      When the conflict gets to litigation, everyone except the lawyers lose.

      It doesn't take much courage to enter a conflict. It takes much character and leadership to end one peacefully.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    12. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      That story says the investigation is ongoing. The $1000 fine was for a delay in reporting.
      This is far from over.

    13. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      My god, slashdot has really become a haven to trolls and fanboys. You completely ignore the fact that as soon as the iPhone came out, they got sued by a number of phone manufacturers. They're defendants in far more patent suits than they are plaintiffs, but you don't want to admit that, do you?

      You're just all butthurt because they're fucking with a company you like.

    14. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The usual solution is to agree an "out of court settlement" where neither party admits fault.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    15. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Samsung is well known for cross-licensing intellectual property, and it's pragmatic attitude towards litigation...

      No they are not! Look up their corruption charges in Singapore and South Korea. Lee Kun-hee is no better than a mafia boss. They don't litigate either but if you go against it you will be taken care of.

      The author of Steve Jobs biography mentions a call to Samsung from Steve asking them to settle out of court and not to go down the path of litigation but I guess they turned him down.

    16. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      > Jobs was still alive when the litigation started. . . if you had even read the first paragraph of the article you would know that

      Doesnt %$*&!@ matter.

      Jobs died. Cook could call up Samsung and say: "hey, there's new leadership here. Let's find a way to put this business behind us and make sure that it doesnt come back." But he chose to continue the lawsuit. Sunk costs are sunk.

    17. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      These lawsuits were one of the worst mistakes Apple has ever made. It turned the Apple-Samsung brand comparison from "Coke vs RC Cola" to "Coke vs Pepsi" nearly overnight.

      Apple has always been a company defined by finding a niche and focusing on being #1 in that particular niche. They have no capacity (or institutional culture) to compete directly with a peer. Samsung does. Samsung's entire history has been fighting in markets flooded with nearly indistinguishable products from dozens of manufacturers.

      Apple fucked themselves hard...and are going to implode like as IBM in the 1980s. Their very foundation of their business has been eroded.

    18. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by hairyfeet · · Score: 0

      Bimbo Newton Crosby, if Cook has so little control as CEO that the desires of the dead former CEO trumps his wishes? Then frankly he doesn't deserve to be in the big chair. Sadly too often we have seen "upward failure' let people that never should have had the big chair sit in it, take Ballmer who would have been a fine VP of marketing or something but just doesn't have what it takes to truly run the company.

      But Jobs has been gone for awhile now, if he can't even wrest control from the guy when he is cold and gone then he really needs to step down and give the reins to somebody who can. I have to wonder how much of this is CYA to give Wall street excuses for when the iWatch fails though. After all he can say "Hey it was Steve's idea, we were honoring the man by following his final wishes even though I didn't agree, yada yada yada" and deflect some of the blame when it goes tits up.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    19. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by infinitelink · · Score: 3, Insightful

      When the conflict gets to litigation, everyone except the lawyers lose.

      In a rare moment of defending lawyers, I have known lawyers that seek to settle disputes outside of court. One a family law lawyer who I would speak to, and who said, "I focus on the other side's attorneys, because most drag-out these disputes to rake-in fees at their client's expense, but all that does is impoverish both sides, work more animosity, and harm any children involved."

      Another is an insurance lawyer I know, who always seeks to avoid court, because people just get boned there. Otherwise though...yes, lawyers tend to equal self-serving, cynical scum.

      --
      Intelligent idiots are we. | Evil men do not understand justice.
    20. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by smash · · Score: 1

      What's to say this hasn't been tred already?

      --
      I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
    21. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by smash · · Score: 1

      Again, Samsung were told to sort shit out by the judge and tried and failed.

      --
      I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
    22. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      but a huge leak of hydrofluoric acid at Samsung's plant that killed one worker, injured four and according to police reports may have affected thousands, got them a one thousand dollar fine.

      I didn't realize that Slashdot was that far gone. Would have thought there would be a big story about this. No big headline about the Samsung leak but everyone will rail about any minor transgress from Apple. Has Slashdot become that big of an echo chamber?

    23. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly. Even if the lawsuit went ahead due to momentum, as leader in charge of the company, wouldn't you be willing to work to end the lawsuit through settlements and get back to business?

      Would the shareholders want you to give up on the lawsuits after Samsung and others have counter-sued, you've already won at least one $Billion dollar ruling, and already spent Billions more moving your business away from Samsung?

      The damage has already been done, the first hands gave been played, and you would have to give up a massive pot you've already won to get out if the game.

    24. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by servognome · · Score: 1

      The problem is once the first bullet is fired, you've got both sides litigating multiple issues accross multiple jurisdictions. Each side then has to consider the effect of any single case on the outcome of the others.
      Beyond that if Apple settles with Samsung, HTC will want to know the details for their defense against Apple and/or Samsung. Maybe Apple wants to play nice with Samsung because they are a supplier, but can't because it will hurt them in their case against another competitor.
      It's the corporate equivalent of a bar fight.

      --
      D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
    25. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds a lot like government. Hopefully the board is more reasonable than congress.

    26. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also, isn't it true that in order to hold your claim on copyright, you are required to sue people who infringe on it ( if you don't, you lose your right to sue ) ?

    27. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by AJWM · · Score: 1

      Also, isn't it true that in order to hold your claim on copyright, you are required to sue people who infringe on it

      No, that's not true at all. Not that these cases have anything to do with copyright.

      You're thinking of trademark law, something which also has nothing to do with a patent lawsuit ... although one might argue that a design patent (vs a utility patent, that which most people think of as a patent for an invention) is not too far from a trademark. The whole rectangle-with-rounded-corners thing was about a design patent (which IMHO should never have got past Etch-A-Sketch).

      --
      -- Alastair
    28. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      Exactly. Even if the lawsuit went ahead due to momentum, as leader in charge of the company, wouldn't you be willing to work to end the lawsuit through settlements and get back to business?

      Yeah, if only Samsung didn't refuse to settle. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57549512-37/samsung-we-dont-intend-to-negotiate-with-apple/

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    29. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 0

      Samsung is well known for cross-licensing intellectual property, and it's pragmatic attitude towards litigation.

      Yeah, that's why Samsung has sued LG (repeatedly) as well as just about any other LCD maker, Sansdisk, Ericsson, various journalists - not to mention various phone makers for copying their design in 2006. Because they hate litigation, just not as much as they love money.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    30. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is just a BS blurb for public relations.

      Yeah, I just watched a documentary on Henry Kissinger, where they the old Henry Kissinger denied responsibility of the coup in Chile, the conquest of East Timor, expanding the Vietnam War etc etc.

    31. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      [Citation needed] Ericsson has sued samsung a couple of times for example, not the other way around.

    32. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by Xest · · Score: 1

      Actually, for the most part, they didn't.

      I recall very clearly at the time pointing out that since Cook took over day to day running of Apple from Jobs it's strategy changed from innovation and competition to litigation and stagnation.

      It's not mere coincidence that it all changed when Cook got greater influence, and escalated after Jobs passed away altogether. I've never liked Steve Jobs, I thought he was a sociopathic, selfish twat in all honesty, but this sounds to be very much a case of Tim Cook trying to pass the buck for his failed strategy and for all Job's rhetoric against Android, I don't think he was that stupid as to attack his very suppliers to the extent Cook has.

      This is all on Cook, period.

    33. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by mabhatter654 · · Score: 1

      The ball was rolling years before Cook was CEO. At the point he became CEO, the trial was mostly through, the money spent... You just lose face with the Court to back out now.

      For the most part, court proved Steve was right. There were written Samsung developer logs where they reviewed iPhone features and clearly choose to use the "iPhone way" versus the method in their previous devices... Samsung INTENDED to copy, as close as they could, while leaving room for lawyers. Toss in that they were using Android, which was developed while the CEO of Google was on the Apple Board. And that was the last straw for Steve.. Board member AND leading supplier developing against you?? I'm surprised Steve didn't put some assassinations in his will.

      Apple was EXTREMELY good in bringing Google and Samsung into iPod/iPhone early and putting lots of money on the table. iPhone users are the top users of Googles mobile search and maps... Yet Google cut Apple off from using features. Samsung was practically the sole supplier of Flash parts from the iPod nano days till now... Apple paid CASH UPFRONT for R&D when Wall Street was tanking. Apple was Samsung's #2 customer behind Sony.

      His shows how deficient in Ethics the whole tech industry is. An Ethical CEO of Samsung would have stamped out the mobile unit's behavior with a phone call, not gambling if Apple was going to pull its business or not.

      Taking your business away shouldn't be the only way to promote ethical behavior.. When it comes to the point you have to reengineer your supply chain to get an ethics discussion out of another CEO, why not "go nuclear". It's gonna cost Apple way more than $1 billion to move all their contracts away from Samsung and get other suppliers up to speed... Why shouldn't Apple get damages for that?

      This is where Steve was really "going Nuclear". Making Tim Cook's life hell by costing Apple BILLIONS of dollars to yank all the smooth running contracts Cook engineered. Cook has to understand its not a "free market" if you can't take your business away. Bonus points if you can stick Samsung with product they cannot move or pay for!

      Steve's main fault was being on the wrong side of the "need". Apple prepaid for parts, and had more production lined up than any other memory maker could supply. To punish Samsung with stopped sales would punish Apple's customers more than Samsung. In the future Tim has to let that not happen.

      In the real world if MY company pulls crap like Samsung did, the Automakers pull the contract in WEEKS... And My company just doesn't get paid for the REST of it, no matter how many workers get fired, or how many parts are waiting to be sold.

    34. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by mabhatter654 · · Score: 1

      Because STEVE wants Samsung to admit FAULT. One hand of Samsung was DELIBERATELY attacking Apple while the other was happily taking BILLIONS of their money. Steve appealed to the head of the company to fix that and the head of Samsung CHOSE not to work for his $6 Billion customer's interest.

    35. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by sjames · · Score: 1

      Like most things, it's not a matter of ALL lawyers, but most. As your first example shows, even lawyers think MOST lawyers are scum.

    36. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by mabhatter654 · · Score: 1

      To be fair, lawsuit is done Apple won $1 billion. Why would Tim give that up now? He wouldn't be a good CEO LOSING a billion easy dollars?

    37. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by WGFCrafty · · Score: 1

      Sorry, this excuse just doesn't fly with me. If the company he's supposed to be in charge of is doing things like suing competitors without his permission or knowledge, then he's a failure as a CEO.

      Jobs was still alive when the litigation started. . . if you had even read the first paragraph of the article you would know that (or if you had better reading comprehension skills, as your UID indicates you had a /. account when the lawsuit started and it was covered almost daily here for months).

      Cook may not have agreed with initiating the lawsuit, but once it was started it's likely he saw going through with it as the best strategic option. The damage had already been done, the best he could hope for was to win. Kind of like the Iraq war. It was a stupid idea, but once we toppled their government there was no turning back.

      I consider the war analogy bad. There is always a way to end a conflict quickly. Admitting being wrong makes you look bad but is morally correct. But when we do bad we can't "look bad" (American Exceptionalism), so when we do bad, we do bad good. B-)

    38. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Every lawyer i know is great, but otherwise though...yes, lawyers tend to equal self-serving, cynical scum."

    39. Re:Unable to control your company, or complicit. by RazorSharp · · Score: 1

      There is always a way to end a conflict quickly.

      Tell that to the Israelis and Palestinians, the British and Irish. . .

      Once we toppled the Iraqi government we became morally responsible for maintaining the rule of law until the Iraqi government was fit to do so.

      --
      "From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
  3. I'm not the bad guy here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's what they all say.

    1. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spoken like a true Apple boot licker.

    2. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd say that he isn't the bad guy, and nor was Steve Jobs.
      Samsung's behaviour and that of Google's Eric Schmidt is disgusting and has left me with absolutely no respect for either.

      Weirdo

    3. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by theRunicBard · · Score: 0

      What behavior is that? I'm genuinely curious. You have apple making devices more closed, patenting shit like rounded corners, and suing everyone around. If you read up on Jobs, he had a very nasty side to him too. Look at his biography (the one by Walter Isaacson). He wouldn't give one of the initial employees of Apple any stock despite Wozniac insisting on it. He cheated Wozniac on multiple occasions (I won't look this up - Google). There are stories of him having horrible relations with his wife (in the biography). It seems from a glance that his "innovation" was just good salesmanship. Supposedly (again, in the biography) there were times when an employee would bring up an idea, he would hate it, and then claim it as his own a few days later. I can't think of any instance of him donating money like Bill Gates, who although not a saint is certainly helping the world at this point. Not much of what I'm saying here is hard evidence but it paints a pretty poor picture of someone so idolized. What did Google and Schmidt do that left you more disgusted than that?

    4. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by Coolhand2120 · · Score: 0

      And pray tell what behavior is that? Apple didn't invent a damn thing that Android uses. For every "invention" that Apple has sued over there's at least a half dozen devices prior to the iPhone that implement that functionality or design.

    5. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by gnasher719 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Can I just say that repeating the nonsense of "patenting shit like rounded corners" marks you as either a troll or an imbecile.

      Apple didn't patent rounded corners. Apple has a _design patent_ for a design consisting of many items, one of them rounded corners. To infringe on this _design patent_, you have to copy the complete design, every single item listed in the design patent. You can have as many rounded corners as you like. As long as your design is in some way different from Apple's design patent.

      Here's for your enjoyment an example of Samsung patenting rounded corners:

      http://www.patentbolt.com/2012/12/samsung-wins-a-design-patent-for-one-of-their-galaxy-phones.html

    6. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by the_B0fh · · Score: 3, Insightful

      See, when people say silly things like "patenting shit like rounded corners", we know you never actually looked into what was patented, nor understood it, but instead, just like repeating talking points you were given.

      Luckily, in the court of law, people actually examine evidence.

    7. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by ganjadude · · Score: 0

      I think his point was more to the fact that jobs was a dbag. Something that is really well known to people in the industry. Woz even has said that jobs screwed him over in the early years.

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    8. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by Coolhand2120 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Isn't that one of the many Samsung phones Apple sought an injunction for claiming that it infringed on their iPhone design patent because among other ambiguous design concepts it had rounded corners and was therefor indistinguishable from an iPhone? (yes)

      No I didn't get that from the Android talking points, if such a thing exists, I closely followed the court cases on Groklaw as they happened.

      theRunicBard was correct, and you're just parsing words like an Apple lawyer.

    9. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by jbolden · · Score: 2

      That's a rather biased view.

      Lets just take this list of NeXT's GUI innovations: 3D "chiseled" widgets, large full-color icons, system-wide drag and drop of a wide range of objects beyond file icons, system-wide piped services, real-time scrolling and window dragging, properties dialog boxes ("inspectors"), window modification notices (such as the saved status of a file), etc. The system was among the first general-purpose user interfaces to handle publishing color standards, transparency, sophisticated sound and music processing, advanced graphics primitives, internationalization, and modern typography, in a consistent manner across all applications. I can do a similar thing for many of his innovation. No he is not just rounded corners. Jobs was often an asshole no question. Jobs was also a genius who helped to make people think they were part of changing the world, and many of the people who were abused by Jobs are the ones who say how important he was in moving them from doing pretty good work to doing outstanding work.

    10. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by jbolden · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Really. Show me a web browser prior to Safari that bounced on overscroll. That was one of the patents that Samsung lost on. So show me the 2006 browser.

    11. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Woz even has said that jobs screwed him over in the early years.

      aaaaand what else? He also said they reconciled. But yeah, what a monster. He sounds like he was almost as bad as the miserable douche bags who find it necessary to endlessly campaign against the irrellivant things they hate.

    12. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      if I stab you in the face, and 10 years later we reconcile. Im still a dbag.

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    13. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by smash · · Score: 1

      Apple isn't suing over simply rounded corners. They are suing over devices that copy many, many things in a single device. Things that didn't have to be the same and that in apples opinion (to be decided b a jury) were copied to ride the iPhone's success by confusing the market.

      --
      I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
    14. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by smash · · Score: 1

      Yes rounded corners was one of the items. But it wasn't the single item as some seem to like to suggest. To be sued you don't need to merely use rounded corners. You need to copy the entire design wholesale. Not a single element. This is why HTC and Nokia (amongst others) haven't been sued.

      --
      I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
    15. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It just tells me Woz is a far better person than Jobs ever was.

      I think even Bill Gates might be a better person than Jobs ever was. He's not half the asshole Jobs was.

    16. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by TrancePhreak · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You mean the one that got invalidated as a patent?
      http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/76470.html

      --

      -]Phreak Out[-
    17. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by jbolden · · Score: 1

      Read the article. That's more of a technical rejection.

      In any case your claim was you could find me a 2006 browser that had it.

    18. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by TrancePhreak · · Score: 1

      There may not be a real example, but if you would read on the subject you would know that AOL patented the idea first. For a web browser, even.

      --

      -]Phreak Out[-
    19. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by jbolden · · Score: 1

      That's Samsung's claim. No such product existed, which is what we were talking about. But even if we were just talking about this weird patent I'd still say Samsung has the much tougher argument:

      a) The scrolling mechanism is equivalent to a finger
      b) The inner document scrolling (frame) is the same as the entire thing
      c) This patent means what Samsung claims it means.

      For example AOL's people will get called and if they dispute Samsung's interpretation game over. Samsung can't claim it is AOL's patent if AOL denies it.

    20. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      Isn't that one of the many Samsung phones Apple sought an injunction for claiming that it infringed on their iPhone design patent because among other ambiguous design concepts it had rounded corners and was therefor indistinguishable from an iPhone? (yes)

      Well, you had a 50% chance and blew it. The answer is no.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    21. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by Coolhand2120 · · Score: 1
    22. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 3, Informative

      You mean the one that got invalidated as a patent?

      http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/76470.html

      Well, not only is that decision not final - look at why it was "invalidated: because they counted a previous patent as prior art - a patent by Apple. IOW even if the "new" patent gets invalidated, the old one still remains valid.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    23. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by zyzko · · Score: 1

      HTC has been sued. The suit was about patents and it was settled out of court in 2012. Nokia has sued Apple and that also was settled out of court, and I believe Apple won't bother again because currently Nokia is irrelevant and they have an agreement on much more fundamental pieces than design patents.

    24. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      ...Apple sought an injunction for claiming that it infringed on their iPhone design patent

      Apple looking to add Samsung's Galaxy S3 to their injunction

      Added back the part of the quote not supported by your link. So, let's sum up: you ask a question, answer it yourself - wrong of course, and then try to pretend you were right by pretending you were asking something else. Did I miss something?

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    25. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The court of law that awarded damages to Apple for infringements they decided Samsung didn't commit? Yes, lucky us.

    26. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      There may not be a real example, but if you would read on the subject you would know that AOL patented the idea first. For a web browser, even.

      And which idea would that be? Do tell us what AOL has patented, and how it relates to Apple's patent.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    27. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by mabhatter654 · · Score: 1

      It was clear from engineering testimony that Samsung copied petty stuff like color schemes for icons and how users used gestures directly from iPhone. PRIOR to iPhone, Samsung had its own touch screen phone, true. Icons were totally different, touch commands totally different. Things like "pinch to zoom" and "swiping" didn't EXIST in pre-iPhone Samsung phones. Samsung even added things to their Android that GOOGLE left out because Apple had publicly bought the companies with patents.

      Samsung was OPENLY playing "Price is Right" ... Getting as close as possible without going over... And Apple's lawyers busted them.

      Blame the CEO of Samsung who ALLOWED the phone division to fuck with the #2 parts customer. Talk about not controlling your company.

    28. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by WGFCrafty · · Score: 1

      See, when people say silly things like "patenting shit like rounded corners", we know you never actually looked into what was patented, nor understood it, but instead, just like repeating talking points you were given.

      Luckily, in the court of law, people actually examine evidence.

      I tried to find that place once, but there was a dude who wouldn't let me in the door and kept mumbling stuff about bigger people guarding bigger doors. Years later I trip, he thinks I'm dead, says some shit and shuts the door. Prick.

    29. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by TrancePhreak · · Score: 1

      The re-examination communication (here) only discusses the first anticipatory reference explicitly (the AOL "Lira" patent). That patent describes an overscroll bounce in the context of web page elements, where defined elements that are misaligned with the edge of a particular window are "snapped" back into alignment if the user attempts to move the selected content outside of the of the "snap point."

      bonus link: http://www.scribd.com/doc/110860729/12-10-22-doc2079-1-cv1846-ExhA-FOA-381-rej-19-et-al

      --

      -]Phreak Out[-
    30. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by TrancePhreak · · Score: 1

      Check out the AOL Lira patents and the discussion around them. They cover scroll bounce in some methods and it is believe that Apple's patent is merely natural evolution of them, ie not patent worthy.

      http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/originalDocument?FT=D&date=20031002&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_EP&CC=WO&NR=03081458A1&KC=A1&ND=4

      --

      -]Phreak Out[-
    31. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      Check out the AOL Lira patents and the discussion around them. They cover scroll bounce in some methods and it is believe that Apple's patent is merely natural evolution of them, ie not patent worthy.

      Cite the page, or admit you are wrong. If all you have is belief, you are part of a religion.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    32. Re:I'm not the bad guy here by Shagg · · Score: 1

      Please list the "many items" covered by this patent...

      http://www.google.com/patents/USD504889?printsec=abstract#v=onepage&q&f=false

      --
      Unix is user friendly, it's just selective about who its friends are.
  4. Money where your mouth is by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Apple welcomes innovators but doesn't like when other companies rip off their intellectual property"

    Okay, put your money where your mouth is. Remove the notification shade from iOS. You ripped it off wholesale from Android.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    1. Re:Money where your mouth is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Apple welcomes innovators but doesn't like when other companies rip off their intellectual property"

      Okay, put your money where your mouth is. Remove the notification shade from iOS. You ripped it off wholesale from Android.

      No, no, you don't iUnderstand it. They innovated that from Android.

    2. Re:Money where your mouth is by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Modded troll already huh? I am making a serious point. In computing everyone copies everyone else. In the world nothing is created in isolation. Apple has been shameless (the actual word Jobs used) when copying other people in the past. It's a good thing, progress is faster, we get better products.

      Can't have it both ways.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re:Money where your mouth is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And that "3D dock" thing at the bottom of the screen, lifted straight off Project Looking Glass - that's got to go too.

    4. Re:Money where your mouth is by the_B0fh · · Score: 1

      Really? The Macs have had a dock for like, a damned long time...

    5. Re:Money where your mouth is by spire3661 · · Score: 1

      Mankind's

      --
      Good-bye
    6. Re:Money where your mouth is by Coolhand2120 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      You don't understand. They don't like it when people rip them off . It's perfectly fine if they rip other people off. Their entire existence is based on ripping off other people's ideas and improving upon them, then trying to convince an ignorant public that they invented the concept in the first place.

      Take the smart phone for example. The educated people here on slashdot know that smart phones were around for more than a decade before the first iPhone, but if you ask the average man-on-the-street you'll find they think the first smart phone was an iPhone. Same goes for iPod, same goes for iPad, same goes for just about every popular product Apple makes. There's no accident there. It's aggressive, manipulative and deceptive marketing that makes that happen. So much so that they have many times been successfully sued and or banned over their deceptive marketing tactics.

      IMO, and I'll probably be modded down for this, there can be no greater irony than having the words "OS" in "OSX" when it's just a modified version of FreeBSD and unrelated to the previous versions of their OS line. If Apple had any intellectual honesty they would have called is MacBSD or something similar. Every time I see a Mac boot I feel sorry for The Regents of the University of California. Credit needs to go to the people who made the OS, not the people who shamelessly threw their window handler on top of it and re-branded it.

    7. Re:Money where your mouth is by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      bu..bu..but not on a cell phone!

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    8. Re:Money where your mouth is by MrYingster · · Score: 1

      Well, shoot. I came to tell you that you were correct.... However, although Mac OS X 10.0 was introduced in 2001 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X and Project Looking Glass wasn't displayed publicly till 2003 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Looking_Glass , one must point out that Mac OS X didn't adopt the 3D "shelf" look until 10.5 which came out in 2007... It was a flat rectangle before that, which i had completely forgotten....

    9. Re:Money where your mouth is by bug1 · · Score: 1

      Troll (-1) = Insightful (+1) * CounterIntuitive (0).

      Clearly moderation is broken.

    10. Re:Money where your mouth is by jbolden · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The educated people here on slashdot know that smart phones were around for more than a decade before the first iPhone, but if you ask the average man-on-the-street you'll find they think the first smart phone was an iPhone.

      The 2007 rollout for the iPhone includes a rather lengthy comparison to other smartphones. So if this is true, it certainly isn't the result of Steve Jobs. Job's claimed that Apple invented the first multitouch smartphone using an animated interface. He never claimed to have invented the smartphone.

      there can be no greater irony than having the words "OS" in "OSX" when it's just a modified version of FreeBSD and unrelated to the previous versions of their OS line. If Apple had any intellectual honesty they would have called is MacBSD or something similar.

      FreeBSD started in 1993. The first version of NeXTStep shipped in 1988. I think both projects developed independently from Berkley. But if you want to assert copying at the core NeXTStep came first. As for the regents of California, boot an OSX machine in verbose mode.

    11. Re:Money where your mouth is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, shoot. I came to tell you that you were correct.... However, although Mac OS X 10.0 was introduced in 2001 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X and Project Looking Glass wasn't displayed publicly till 2003 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Looking_Glass , one must point out that Mac OS X didn't adopt the 3D "shelf" look until 10.5 which came out in 2007... It was a flat rectangle before that, which i had completely forgotten....

      And Next had a dock well before Project Looking glass ripped that idea wholesale in 3D. I vividly remember using a Next like dock Window Maker on a Red hat box Back in the late 90s.

    12. Re:Money where your mouth is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Project Looking Glass was started in the mid-late 90s (before OS-X dock was around)

      The fact is any 'look' to anything has been ripped off/borrowed by/from every tech company in existence (including apple)

      Design patent are worthless and and should be treated as such, Compete on your 'product' not how it looks. If someone can create a different product that looks the same to the point where you claim people are confused just by the outside looks than you either need to stop complaining and change the look or emphasize the parts that aren't (if you can't then you are not innovative.)

    13. Re:Money where your mouth is by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      FreeBSD started in 1993. The first version of NeXTStep shipped in 1988. I think both projects developed independently from Berkley.

      Both FreeBSD and NeXTStep are BSD 4.3-lite-based. NeXTStep got some code from BSD 4.3-lite and 4.4-lite at minimum, I'd have to look up to see all the times they got code from BSD. FreeBSD is part of the legacy of 4.4-lite. OSX is BSD atop Mach, using it as a HAL. Today, FreeBSD and OSX contain code from one another.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    14. Re:Money where your mouth is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's how you say it in iNewspeak.

    15. Re:Money where your mouth is by theVarangian · · Score: 1

      Project Looking Glass was started in the mid-late 90s (before OS-X dock was around)

      The fact is any 'look' to anything has been ripped off/borrowed by/from every tech company in existence (including apple)

      Design patent are worthless and and should be treated as such, Compete on your 'product' not how it looks. If someone can create a different product that looks the same to the point where you claim people are confused just by the outside looks than you either need to stop complaining and change the look or emphasize the parts that aren't (if you can't then you are not innovative.)

      NeXT computers started development on their desktop environment in the late 1980s, the debut was in 1988. NeXT was OS Xs daddy and yes, it's desktop had a dock. Risc OS beat NeXT to it by about a year but their implementation wasn't as close to the OS X dock as the one by NeXT which Looking Glass then remade in 3D.

    16. Re:Money where your mouth is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's true that OSX is based on BSD, and maybe Apple could publicize more of its BSD roots, but it's a laughable exaggeration to say OSX is really just a window handler on top of a modified FreeBSD. In fact, you're committing the same "crime" as Apple when you only talk about BSD and fail to mention how OSX is based on Mach as well (so maybe you should fell sorry for the people at Carnegie Mellon University, too).

      So, to set the record straight: the actual OSX kernel is XNU; it's a based on Mach (the same kernel GNU Hurd is based on) with a lot of BSD code on top of it (to provide a POSIX interface). Most of the very low-level hardware access (disk, network, graphics, USB, etc.) is built on top of something they call "I/O Kit", which also has nothing to do with BSD code.

    17. Re:Money where your mouth is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You should be modded troll for responding to yourself bitching about how you were modded.

    18. Re:Money where your mouth is by jbolden · · Score: 1

      I agree with summation. That's very different from GP's claim about OSX ripping off FreeBSD.

      Looking at the Family Tree
      BDS 4.3 begot NeXTStep, Tahoe and System VR4
      Tahoe begot Reno
      Reno befot BSD Net
      BSD Net begot 386BSD
      386BSD begot FreeBSD 1.0

      NeXTStep and FreeBSD 2.2 begot OSX Server
      OSX Server begot and FreeBSD 3.0 OSX Desktop.

    19. Re:Money where your mouth is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Apple welcomes innovators but doesn't like when other companies rip off their intellectual property"

      Okay, put your money where your mouth is. Remove the notification shade from iOS. You ripped it off wholesale from Android.

      If Google has a patent on that IP, hasn't licensed it, and wants it exclusively, they could threaten a lawsuit. If not (and no one else has a claim on that IP), you and Apple are free to use it.

    20. Re:Money where your mouth is by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      OS/2 2.0 had a dock on it ages earlier.

    21. Re:Money where your mouth is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Good artists copy. Great artists steal. And at Apple, we have always been shameless about stealing good ideas."

      -Steven P. Jobs

    22. Re:Money where your mouth is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OS X is just a modified version of FreeBSD

      +1000finity Insightful!1

      I have seen some real dumb shit on Slashdot over the years. Very dumb shit, but you win the dumbass crown guy.

    23. Re:Money where your mouth is by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      "Good artists copy. Great artists steal. And at Apple, we have always been shameless about stealing good ideas."

      -Steven P. Jobs

      And Google and Samsung copied.

      "One of the surest tests [of the superiority or inferiority of a poet] is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different than that from which it is torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest." - T.S. Eliot

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    24. Re:Money where your mouth is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Android is open source.

      Tough fucking luck.

    25. Re:Money where your mouth is by coinreturn · · Score: 1

      You should be modded troll for responding to yourself bitching about how you were modded.

      My kingdom for mod points, sir. You are awarded one internets.

  5. pfft by arbiter1 · · Score: 2

    Yet he is at the helm of the ship when mostly all the lawsuits from apple against Samsung started. He is just trying to save face in all the Bad PR apple has gotten over last couple years.

    1. Re:pfft by arbiter1 · · Score: 2

      "Tim Cook has repeated that he hates litigation, but has still toed the party line by exclaiming that Apple welcomes innovators but doesn't like when other companies rip off their intellectual property" ^ Yet apple has done everything to kill off innovation of others that compete with them and ripped off a lot more intellectual property then anyone even knows.

    2. Re:pfft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not everyone lives in their parents' basement pal. If you stop and actually _think_ about it for two seconds, the lawsuits started under Steve Jobs. Any subsequent legal actions filed are more likely to be a legal tactic (to force a settlement, apply more pressure, or whatever), which you can see by the fact that both Samsung and Apple have initiated a dizzying number of lawsuits in countries all over the planet after the initial claims. If you honestly think Tim Cook is sitting in a legal situation room with monitors showing him the whole world, launching legal attacks like the President would a military attack while rubbing his hands together like Montgomery Burns, you are a silly person.

      I disagree with the lawsuits, I thought they were a mistake, but get real.

  6. Allow me to join in here by erroneus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just gonna repeat what everyone else is saying. This is ridiculous.

    Apple is getting a lot of negative press on their current legal activities. Their pattents are being eroded. Details of their cases are being foiled in courts around the globe. That billion-dollar judgement will not stand and it is simply unimaginable that the jury verdict will stand in light of the jury misconduct which definitely happened. The numerous cases brought and initially won using doctored/edited visuals for evidence is simply dirty.

    And the idea that the CEO didn't want to do this? Explain to me what a CEO does again?

    Apple is losing a lot more than cases and patent claims. They are losing their customers. I know, people will cite last years figures and reports to claim they are a reflection of today's and tomorrow's popularity figures. I just don't see it. Everywhere I look, the use of iPhone is decreasing. That's not to say people using Android are excited fans or anything. They're not. The excitement over touchscreen smartphones and fart-apps is over. Now it's about practical matters which matter to people; Cost, Apps, Usability, Restrictions and other considerations.

    Brand recognition is important to consumers for some reason. Apple's brand is being diminished. It is having an affect.

    1. Re:Allow me to join in here by the_B0fh · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Oct 2011 - Dec 2011, sold 37 mil iphones.
      Oct 2012 - Dec 2012, sold 48 mil iphones.

      Help me understand how is that "losing their customers"?

      Wait wait, are you one of those, "sure, we lose money on each sale, but we'll make it up on volume" kinda guy?

    2. Re:Allow me to join in here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly, they are winning the battles but loosing a war.

    3. Re:Allow me to join in here by Coolhand2120 · · Score: 5, Informative

      I think he means, losing market share. And they're bleeding market share like a stuck pig.

    4. Re:Allow me to join in here by blindbat · · Score: 1

      It takes time for your customers to show up as lost. I have many macs in my household--they will not be replaced with more macs. I have an iPhone; my next phone will run android.

    5. Re:Allow me to join in here by jbolden · · Score: 0

      Their margins remain the highest in the industry.
      The smartphone industry has been growing 16% per year globally and Apple has been growing faster.
      In the United States Apple has crushed Android and now is approaching the point of establishing a monopoly.

      How exactly is their brand being diminished?

    6. Re:Allow me to join in here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They had peaked on the share of the market that they could get with $500~$600 phones + the ATT tariff. So, just like with the Mac back in the 80s, they lost market share to multiple makers of clones running a better OS. Remember, the Mac was designed to retail for around $500 at a time when IBM computers were selling for well over $2300. Jobs axed the low price point and the first Macs sold for ~$2500. You know the rest, Apple computers now sell at a premium, appealing only to those who think the value is in higher price, and Apple's market share in personal computers is low. The same thing is happening with tablets and phones now.

      (capcha: "unclean"...guess speaking the truth about APPL is un/.)

    7. Re:Allow me to join in here by theVarangian · · Score: 1

      I think he means, losing market share. And they're bleeding market share like a stuck pig.

      No, Android is gaining market share faster than iOS which is not surprising when every mobile vendor from high end device makers to the lowest shitphone peddlers are pushing Android devices onto the market and Android has pretty much exterminated every competitor except Apple. This was kind of inevitable when Apple refused to compromise, release budget iPhone versions and compete with the lower end Android device makers in a race to the bottom. Considering the fact that Apple makes decidedly high end devices it's remarkable how well they have kept up with the growing legion Android device makers. The ones bleeding market share like stuck pigs over the last couple of years are pretty much everybody except Apple with the biggest losers being Blackberry and Nokia. We are heading into a Mobile OS monoculture dominated by Google/Android to thundering applause from half the people on this forum.

    8. Re:Allow me to join in here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Explain to me what a CEO does again?

      Ok, if I even take Tim Cook at his word, then I still can't help but think that Steve Jobs is still ruling this Apple company from beyond the grave. Yes, it must be hard to overrule a 'Dying Man's Last Wish (for Thermonuclear War)' but yeah... what does the CEO title mean again?

    9. Re:Allow me to join in here by Coolhand2120 · · Score: 2

      No, Android is gaining market share faster than iOS

      Yeah, that's another way of saying that Apple is losing market share. Those are customers that could have been Apple customers but for whatever reason they chose Android.

      I don't like OS monoculture, but when the goal of one of the players is to make an OS monoculture I would like to see them fail or at the very least become marginalized out of significance.

    10. Re:Allow me to join in here by swillden · · Score: 2

      We are heading into a Mobile OS monoculture dominated by Google/Android to thundering applause from half the people on this forum.

      That's far better than a mobile OS monoculture dominated by the likes of Apple or Microsoft. Not because of anything about Google, but because Android is open. Should Google become too controlling, others can simply fork the OS, like Amazon has done.. For that matter the Ubuntu phone OS is arguably a fork of Android, since it's using the Android kernel.

      I argue that the world would be much better off if some flavor of Linux were the dominant desktop/laptop OS as well. An open monoculture is easy to diversify. A closed monoculture, not so much. Indeed, the biggest common complaint about the Android ecosystem is fragmentation -- i.e. that it's already not a very homogeneous monoculture.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    11. Re:Allow me to join in here by the_B0fh · · Score: 1

      and what would you replace your macs with?

    12. Re:Allow me to join in here by erroneus · · Score: 1

      They are losing their customers due to the continual conversion from Apple to Android. With every new iPhone device and tablet, customers are asked to buy something new. Increasingly, customers are choosing not to buy a new thing. This is true especially as Apple switched to a new interface for peripheral devices. The adapter isn't quite enough of an adaptation to keep their accessories viable. Also (http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/12/03/top-selling-iphone-5-flanked-by-strong-sales-of-legacy-iphone-4s-4) customers are not always leaving to new Apple devices, but to old ones. That's a kind of problem too. (Think about how consumers and businesses have scratched and clawed to stay with Windows XP over Windows 7) It is a rejection of Apple's newest changes and of its high pricing. Additionally, there is a lot of attention on Android. And when deciding to move to something else, they are finding more standards observed with Android devices so chargers and all that become a much more simple matter.

      The loss of customers isn't quite as easy to see as a loss in market share. The loss of customers is important though. I find it fascinating that you could see the whole source of data but you focus in on a piece which you take out of context. Was that intentional? Apple's standing is changing... it's losing.

      In any case, I hold there is more to understanding what is going on than watching numbers. There are questions of "why" and of consumer behaviors to be explored. A replacement phone is not a new customer, for example, though it could be counted as a sale.

      I am not a fan or proponent of any given side. I am a fairly unbiased person in that reguard. I am not "loyal" to anything but myself and my interests. I would choose a Windows phone if it served my interests the best. It doesn't, so I don't. And it's hard to choose Apple when I know what I can't do with it... and there's a lot. So what else is there?

    13. Re:Allow me to join in here by Graymalkin · · Score: 1

      Equating market share to success is short-sighted and ultimately foolish. The Android segment of the market is dominated by low power phones and tablets that have out of date OS versions and no upgrade path. The people buying them don't buy much in the way of third party apps. To the Android platform these buyers are a black hole.

      The iPhone may have a smaller share of the quarter-over-quarter market but the platform is far healthier. People that buy iPhones and iPads buy apps and actually use their devices every day.

      Apple doesn't need to sell a billion iPhones to be successful in the market. There's no need to dominate in raw numbers if that domination is doesn't bring with it platform health.

      --
      I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
    14. Re:Allow me to join in here by BasilBrush · · Score: 0

      Everywhere I look, the use of iPhone is decreasing.

      Which country is it that you are looking in? Because in the US, iOS market share has never been higher, and is in fact >50%.

      And of course unit sales are always up YOY.

    15. Re:Allow me to join in here by the_B0fh · · Score: 1

      Seriously, how does your brain work?

      They are losing their customers due to the continual conversion from Apple to Android. With every new iPhone device and tablet, customers are asked to buy something new. Increasingly, customers are choosing not to buy a new thing.

      You say the customers are asked to buy something new, but they are not buying the new thing. And this is conversion from Apple to Android? This doesn't even make sense, especially in face of the fact that 80% to 90% of iPhone owners say when they upgrade, they will upgrade to the next iPhone, but only 60% of Android owners say the same.

      This is true especially as Apple switched to a new interface for peripheral devices. The adapter isn't quite enough of an adaptation to keep their accessories viable.

      Evidence? Anyone who can pay $650 for a phone or $500 for an iPad can pay $20 for an additional cable or $10 for an adapter. Also, you do realize the phone does come with a lightning-> USB connector right? You *don't* have to buy a new cable just to use the phone - you realize that right?

      Also (http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/12/03/top-selling-iphone-5-flanked-by-strong-sales-of-legacy-iphone-4s-4) customers are not always leaving to new Apple devices, but to old ones.

      Are you on drugs or something? Are you actually saying people are leaving iPhone 5 to go to iPhone 4S? Because that's what leaving new devices to go to iPhone 4 and 4S means. Are you really that stupid?

      I find it fascinating that you could see the whole source of data but you focus in on a piece which you take out of context. Was that intentional?

      You should really stop whatever drugs you are taking, it's making you crazy.

    16. Re:Allow me to join in here by mabhatter654 · · Score: 2

      So complain about Google giving away Android. THAT is creating monoculture of old, buggy, unpatched devices. The Android story mirrors the rise of MS Windows far more than iPhone does.

      There is plenty of room for Apple at 25%-35% of the market. That's probably the way for them to remain at their high profit point as well. That is still a STAGGERINGLY HUGE amount of sales.

      If you want to complain about monoculture, complain about the piss poor offerings from Microsoft/Nokia and RIM/Blackberry... One of them has to balls-up and compete BETWEEN between and Android... And they aren't.

    17. Re:Allow me to join in here by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 2

      We are heading into a Mobile OS monoculture dominated by Google/Android to thundering applause from half the people on this forum.

      That's far better than a mobile OS monoculture dominated by the likes of Apple or Microsoft.

      Nice try, but Android is a Samsung monoculture.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    18. Re:Allow me to join in here by swillden · · Score: 1

      We are heading into a Mobile OS monoculture dominated by Google/Android to thundering applause from half the people on this forum.

      That's far better than a mobile OS monoculture dominated by the likes of Apple or Microsoft.

      Nice try, but Android is a Samsung monoculture.

      Funny, my phone was made by Motorola.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    19. Re:Allow me to join in here by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 2

      Funny, my phone was made by Motorola.

      Yeah, that really is funny. Thanks for the laugh.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    20. Re:Allow me to join in here by ahabswhale · · Score: 1

      Jesus dude, you don't fucking pay attention do you? Cook WAS NOT THE FUCKING CEO WHEN THE SUIT STARTED. Jobs wanted the suits, Cook is on record for being against them. But please continue living in your fandroid dreamland.

      --
      Are agnostics skeptical of unicorns too?
  7. he always wanted... by hguorbray · · Score: 2

    to be a Lumberjack!

    In the Forests of British Columbia, Leaping from tree to tree amongst the Larch, the Pine and the mighty Sequoia!

    -I'm just sayin'

    1. Re:he always wanted... by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

      Y'know, earlier today I read that headline and thought the same thing. But I decided it would be silly to post such a thing and I'm not having things getting silly.

      Nobody likes a good laugh more than I do...except perhaps my wife and some of her friends...oh yes and Captain Johnston. Come to think of it most people likes a good laugh more than I do. But that's beside the point. Now let's have a good clean story about Russian Meteors.

    2. Re:he always wanted... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The meteor wasn't Russian, it was just visiting.

    3. Re:he always wanted... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The BBC would like to apologize for the previous commentary. The authors have been sacked...

  8. Moral Coward by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Ray Noorda was willing to say "bad idea" when Novell bought out the UNIX rights from AT&T and stopped/settled the BSD/AT&T lawsuit once he became "in charge" over it.

    Thusly Mr. Cook is trying to BS ya all.

  9. my thoughts by TitusGroan8856 · · Score: 1

    I think anyone with a modicum of insight into the history of apple and the tech world in general is fully aware that Herr Jobs was nothing but a capitalist CAUC. My friend's post on G+ sums it up nicely... https://plus.google.com/110294227533168060832/posts/hwQWSWkNLYT

  10. Re:Everyone will have to build circular phones. by Coolhand2120 · · Score: 1

    The Sabre Pyramid. By this time next year, everyone will have one.

  11. Apostrophes by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 0

    "Jobs's" is perfectly (if not more) valid.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  12. Re:Everyone will have to build circular phones. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Looks more like a triangle. Of course, taking occlusion into account, it may well be a tetrahedron.

  13. So basically what you are saying is... by tlambert · · Score: 1, Troll

    These lawsuits were started before Cook was CEO -- the point is that he basically inherited lawsuits that Jobs started.

    And while it's tempting to follow up with "he should just drop all the lawsuits," it's not that easy -- aside from spooking the public and investors, an exit from legal action wouldn't guarantee that others would do the same. Samsung has at least made some grandstanding that it will never, ever settle. That could just be talk, but Samsung isn't exactly known for its humility or compassion toward competitors.

    So basically what you are saying is that they are in the same position SCO was in, and so they have no choice but to keep up at it until someone sets up another Groklaw.com and they spend all their money and go out of business?

    1. Re:So basically what you are saying is... by jbolden · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How were they in the same position SCO was in? SCO was suing IBM for copyright infringement, and then later breach of contract for stuff that IBM had nothing to do with and where there was possible infringement they themselves (i.e. Caldera) was mostly responsible. SCO got rid of their entire technology team and made themselves a copyright troll.

      Apple was suing Samsung for Samsung products that Apple played no part in. Apple continues to be a major technology provider and innovator.

      One can agree or disagree with Apple's infringement claims, but the analogy with SCO is unfounded.

    2. Re:So basically what you are saying is... by jbolden · · Score: 1

      I don't agree with "legal trickery", "flimsy excuse" or "extort"... But the definition of troll is someone who didn't invent the technology but just buys the rights to sue. So neither was really a troll.

      Samsung is raising prices on Apple considerably. As for the iPhone 5 screens they are made by Sharp and Panasonic is bidding on that work, Samsung isn't in contention.

    3. Re:So basically what you are saying is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple is only getting displays from Sharp and Panasonic because they've soured business relationships with Samsung.

    4. Re:So basically what you are saying is... by jbolden · · Score: 1

      The iPhone 5 contracts all came before Samsung's move to start raising prices on Apple in retaliation for the suits. At the time those contracts were signed Samsung's parts division was pissed at the handset division because selling parts to Apple was far more profitable than making Galaxy phones. These contracts already being in place is why for example Samsung is doing the fabrication on the iPhone 5 CPU. There clearly was some migration away but it is the iPhone 5S, iPhone 6... where we are really going to start seeing iPhones with light dependencies on Samsung.

    5. Re:So basically what you are saying is... by tlambert · · Score: 1

      How were they in the same position SCO was in? SCO was suing IBM for copyright infringement, and then later breach of contract for stuff that IBM had nothing to do with and where there was possible infringement they themselves (i.e. Caldera) was mostly responsible. SCO got rid of their entire technology team and made themselves a copyright troll.

      Apple was suing Samsung for Samsung products that Apple played no part in. Apple continues to be a major technology provider and innovator.

      One can agree or disagree with Apple's infringement claims, but the analogy with SCO is unfounded.

      They are both cases of intellectual property law out of control. They are both using the courts and intellectual property law to try to compete in their respective markets, rather than reaching an agreement and then going back and competing by building better product.

    6. Re:So basically what you are saying is... by jbolden · · Score: 1

      SCO wasn't trying to compete when they launched the lawsuit. Their entire basis for the suit was that Linux had effectively rendered the IP of SCO worthless.

    7. Re:So basically what you are saying is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, the definition of a patent troll is one who holds patents for the sole reason of suing others, and does so in an aggressive manner. It has nothing to do with where the tech was invented (unless you want to consider any company that has ever bought patents a patent troll)

    8. Re:So basically what you are saying is... by jbolden · · Score: 1

      I think we disagree:

      Create technology X and sue = not a troll (Apple, IBM, Microsoft)
      Buy technology X, make technology X and sue = not a troll (example CA or HP)
      Buy patents for technology X don't make it and still sue = troll

    9. Re:So basically what you are saying is... by mabhatter654 · · Score: 1

      This is the REAL problem... Apple does something like $6 billion in parts business with Samsung. Apple should have stopped accepting shipments overnight. But unfortunately the parts market is so tight there is no room for an Apple-sized customer to "talk with its feet" and Samsung's CEO Is counting on that not to get sued. Apple's mistake was being too generous with Samsung... You have to Make sure YOU OWE suppliers money... So they do when you say jump.

      Once Apple has all the parts business moved, they have no other business with Samsung EXCEPT to spend decades suing them.. Even a $1billion in lawyer fees goes a long way!!! Apple is just getting warmed up. Wait till they start on Google!

    10. Re:So basically what you are saying is... by jbolden · · Score: 1

      Apple isn't going to default on payments. They are far far too big for that. And frankly they wouldn't want to damage their reputation.

      As for suing Samsung more, I think it is going to get harder. Android and iOS are forking,

      As far as suing Google... I'm not sure they would want to do that. Remember Google bought Motorola for the patents. Motorola invented a lot lot of phone technology that Apple uses. They have already lost several lawsuits regarding violations and the dispute is over price.

    11. Re:So basically what you are saying is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple is only getting displays from Sharp and Panasonic because they've soured business relationships with Samsung.

      Really? You don't think it has to do with the fact that AMOLED screens still have significant issues compared to LCD, and that Apple placed itself firmly in the hi-res LCD camp, where Samsung is getting crushed, long before any lawsuits started?

      I could understand your argument if Samsung were a highly respected LCD manufacturer with the latest technology, but Samsung have both feet firmly in the pentile AMOLED camp when it comes to hi-res displays, something which a lot of people have been rightly critical of because of color tinting and clarity issues.

      It might help if you did some research before weighing in with unfounded crap.

    12. Re:So basically what you are saying is... by Shagg · · Score: 1

      How about...

      File patents for technology you didn't create, and sue before they're invalidated. That sounds relatively trollish to me.

      --
      Unix is user friendly, it's just selective about who its friends are.
    13. Re:So basically what you are saying is... by jbolden · · Score: 1

      That's not a troll, if you do that knowingly that's criminal fraud.

  14. Litigation Failed - Lets have some Samsung News by tuppe666 · · Score: 0

    I'm getting a little tired of these non-Apple articles when daily I see great technology come out of other electronics companies...Which is after all what Apple is now. Timmy has a major problem, Apple is not prepared for the new norm. Apples biggest profit machine the iPhone had Jobs give away the whole smartphone market to Android [for a few years of amazing profits], an OS that is packed though a range of compelling devices, in different shapes; price ranges, specifications [ranging from joypads; e-ink displays; giant displays; waterproof; projectors;....]; Apple does have 4S and 4 [lower margins] as a product range...which cannibalised the iphone 5 [killing their profit margins] as people wanted the brand more than the device, Steve Jobs wanted to have the market to himself and his...not Little Timmy's response to this was litigation, but lets be fair its not like Timmy has another solution. For completeness the ipod is vanishing [being replace by android phones], they have pretty much walked away from OS X [20% drop is sales], and the iPads dominance has already come to an end [its market share dropped last quarter below 20%]...and will never be as profitable as the iphone.

    Apple shares are in freefall falling from $705 a share to $450 and deservedly so. It is no longer the largest company in the world by market cap. Innovation in the form of an iWatch or an iTv is not going to save Apple we are already seeing Smart devices in both these categories. Apple needed to do the boring things like have a phone that people could buy [In China and Brazil]...an iPhone nano [and mini]*years ago*, the same way it needed an iPad mini years ago. It needs do interesting things on its current platforms...Apple could have reinvented the PC market...Microsoft have made a mess with Surface, and its Chromebooks getting all the good press. Hell the needed to spend that cash pile before buying hell Dell would have been fun or twitter or Nintendo, Hell I was thinking Attack Microsoft with an Office suite and hell License their OS [oooh Google did that already]...buy steam Anything.

    There has been *NO* real news from Apple. Lets talk about companies that are relevant; and innovate with new exciting devices...not iterations of old ones.

    1. Re:Litigation Failed - Lets have some Samsung News by gnasher719 · · Score: 1

      Apple shares are in freefall falling from $705 a share to $450 and deservedly so. It is no longer the largest company in the world by market cap.

      Actually, it is. For some strange reason, it was heavily reported when Apple fell behind Exxon, but nobody reported when Apple overtook Exxon again.

      If you subtract cash from market caps, the enterprise value of Apple right now is only about 6 1/2 years of profits. That means the company is right now ridiculously undervalued.

  15. Lets be fair.... by tuppe666 · · Score: 1

    Even the styling of their signature products has been directly copied from other company's work from the 70s.

    ....they copied Sony http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2012/07/27/apple-prototypes-show-iphone-inspired-by-sony-and-kickstand-ipad/index.html

    1. Re:Lets be fair.... by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      Even the styling of their signature products has been directly copied from other company's work from the 70s.

      ....they copied Sony http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2012/07/27/apple-prototypes-show-iphone-inspired-by-sony-and-kickstand-ipad/index.html

      Bwahhahaha. That's a good one. Reality check: no iPhone looked like any Sony product ever. The near final design for the first iPhone predates the Jony phone by quite some time - which is actually the result of an article about Sony's latest Walkman whose design was inspired by Apple design according to it's designer.

      http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/08/01/the-sony-device-samsung-claims-inspired-apples-iphone/?source=yahoo_quote

      What next, "the iPad is a copy of that thing in 2001"?

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  16. Would you like me to explain :) by tuppe666 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Oct 2011 - Dec 2011, sold 37 mil iphones.
    Oct 2012 - Dec 2012, sold 48 mil iphones.

    http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130214005415/en/Android-iOS-Combinid

    Compared to Androids

    Oct 2011 - Dec 2011, sold 85 mil smartphones.
    Oct 2012 - Dec 2012, sold 160 mil smartphones.

    Thats ignoring Apple are now selling more lower marking 4* Phones Apples market share.

    From the statement "iOS posted yet another quarter and year of double-digit growth with strong demand for the iPhone. But what also stands out is how iOS's year-over-year growth has slowed compared to the overall market." your right its better than losing all there customers...not good though.

  17. I'm pro Anonymous comments but... by tuppe666 · · Score: 1

    are you LITERALLY retarded?

    ...I think anyone you uses the words *retarded* [or adds tard to the end of a real world like Gonadtard] should be instantly blocked.

    Anyone who used the literally in fucking capitals no less, should be traced and their computer smashed into little tiny pieces and then fed to them.

    Someone who combines these atrocities...I can only assume they are going to build another ring of hell.

    1. Re:I'm pro Anonymous comments but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So that's an yes, then.

    2. Re:I'm pro Anonymous comments but... by BlueBlade · · Score: 1

      ...I think anyone you uses the words *retarded* [or adds tard to the end of a real world like Gonadtard] should be instantly blocked.

      Oh yeah? You're just being a unitard.

      --
      Religion is the best example of mass psychosis
    3. Re:I'm pro Anonymous comments but... by Ambassador+Kosh · · Score: 1

      Except in an engineering sense. It is actually funny but I ran into someone that was offended about things like retard valves or retardant devices. They thought that all of those devices should be renamed to be more culturally sensitive.

      --
      Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD! :)
    4. Re:I'm pro Anonymous comments but... by quacking+duck · · Score: 1

      That person must get really incensed by Airbus, then, whose planes love to say "retard!" at the pilots several times moments before they land...

    5. Re:I'm pro Anonymous comments but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What ever happened to 'sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" .

  18. Shrinking Margins by tuppe666 · · Score: 1

    Their margins remain the highest in the industry.
    The smartphone industry has been growing 16% per year globally and Apple has been growing faster.
    In the United States Apple has crushed Android and now is approaching the point of establishing a monopoly.

    How exactly is their brand being diminished?

    No Apple has been growing slower than the industry...in fact its shrinking compared to the market. In fact even in the US Android phones are more common than iPhones. I personally would argue that their brand is diminished because its getting harder to justify the massive mark-ups on re-badged foxconn phones.

    1. Re:Shrinking Margins by jbolden · · Score: 1

      In fact even in the US Android phones are more common than iPhones.

      According to Comscore: this quarter
      Android went from 52.5% to 53.4%
      While Apple went from 34.3% to 36.3% of the installed base.
      In terms of sales, Verizon reported over 60% Apple for Postpay and AT&T it went over 80%. That's been a steady trend of growth for a long time.

      ____

      In terms of worldwide share Apple has been steadily over 20% of smartphones. They never held that prior to 2012.

    2. Re:Shrinking Margins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wrong - read the businessweek article posted earlier. apple has only 18.8% global share and has for last 2 years. you have been hearing/reading too much apple propaganda

    3. Re:Shrinking Margins by jbolden · · Score: 1

      That article has iOS (Apple Inc.'s iPhone) — 26.9 million units, 14.9 percent share (13.8 percent a year earlier). Which means they are gaining share and growing faster than the industry.

    4. Re:Shrinking Margins by gnasher719 · · Score: 1

      No Apple has been growing slower than the industry...in fact its shrinking compared to the market.

      Absolutely not. The percentage of iPhones in the phone market is growing. Actually, the phone market has been slightly shrinking in the last year. However, apparently it makes some people on Slashdot happy to declare "smartphones" to be _the_ market. Since $80 feature phones are being replaced with $80 "smartphones", the percentage of smartphones in the total phone market is growing. That doesn't help the sellers, when for every $80 smartphone they are selling they lose the sale of a $80 feature phone.

      Apple on the other hand has been growing its phone market share and iPhone unit sales steadily year after year, and there is no reason why that should change in the future.

  19. Sure I believe him by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just like I believe Oscar Pistorius "accidentally" shot his wife four times!

  20. Percentages by Firethorn · · Score: 1

    For those unwilling/too lazy to do the math:

    Not counting alternate smartphone OS's like blackberry, windows, symbian, etc...

    The last quarter of 2011 Apple had 30% of the market
    last quarter of 2012 it had slipped to 23%.

    This is despite selling 30% more phones. Androids jumped 88%.

    That sort of growth in a year is insane. I don't think even the computer revolution ever matched those numbers.

    --
    I don't read AC A human right
    1. Re:Percentages by the_B0fh · · Score: 1

      Surely you mean this:

      https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/news/press-releases/us-consumer-technology-retail-sales-decline-2-percent-in-2012-according-to-the-npd-group/

      where Apple owns 20% of consumer electronics and Samsung has 9% by revenue?

  21. Except that is not even remotely true by tuppe666 · · Score: 1

    When the conflict gets to litigation, everyone except the lawyers lose.

    No! No! No! there is often a winner, sometimes a very lucrative winner, the lawyers only get a small portion of the spoils, I'm don't care if lawyers are good or bad people, but pretending mega-corperation are victims to this occupation is a not credible. The truth is Apple won big against Samsung to the tune of 1 Billion Dollars [that goes to Apple], unfortunately *money* even if its a Billion Dollars is useless to Apple ...it doesn't know what to do with its $140Billion in cash it has doesn't know what to do with. It wanted a ban on Samsung products, so it products could continue without competition.

  22. No No No. by tuppe666 · · Score: 2

    http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS23946013#.UR7MG5G3PGg

    You figures are not even close to being right. The link is the same as the other one I provided only its direct from IDC, but it includes a nice graph showing the various OS and how big their market share. Apple is a little confusing as its market share is feast/fast as their product launches have a huge effect on their sales. Next quarter Apple are not going to sell anything close to 48Million Phones, and their market share in that quarter will dive. Averaging out the peaks and troughs. Its not gaining market share because it is growing *the same* as the market.

    The figures your looking for is the market grew 46% in 2012. Apples market share was 18.8% in 2011...and is still 18.8% in 2012 because it sold only 46% more phones...the same as what the market grew.

    Its easier to see what is happing when averaging over a year. The reality is the big launch was the turning point, and everyone knew it. Its why its market share have dropped 35% since then. :)

  23. Do you even understand your figures? by tuppe666 · · Score: 1

    http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2013/2/comScore_Reports_December_2012_U.S._Smartphone_Subscriber_Market_Share I'm sorry why are you posting figures tha agree with me, as though they don't its a little eerie. From the article "Google Android ranked as the top smartphone platform with 53.4 percent market share (up 0.9 percentage points)"

    1. Re:Do you even understand your figures? by jbolden · · Score: 1

      Your claim was that Apple was growing more slowly than the industry in the USA. Apple is gaining share, ergo it is growing faster. Not only is it growing faster it is growing much faster than Android. Those numbers don't agree with you.

  24. Sue Samsung? I went to school with her! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have fond memories of sweet Susie Samsung.

  25. Nonsense Apple is aggressively pushing this scam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Read the tech news.

    Since Job died, Apple has been aggressively pushing this lawsuit, other scam lawsuits, and filing more, and more, junk patents.

    This is a PR piece that is so lame that only an Apple zealot would buy it. Of course, and Apple zealot will buy anything from Apple, even this nonsense.

  26. Hi sorry you seem a little confused. by tuppe666 · · Score: 1

    Your claim was that Apple was growing more slowly than the industry in the USA.

    No it wasn't to quote myself. "No Apple has been growing slower than the industry...in fact its shrinking compared to the market. In fact even in the US Android phones are more common than iPhones."

    The market is a *worldwide* market...notice the little *even* that is because I'm talking about something different :). That is the magic of English. For your benefit.

    The US[and to a lesser extent the UK] is slightly different from the rest of the world which is why I separated it out, because customers pay for their phones by it being bundled into a long contract. Like a hire purchase agreement...only with the real value of the phone hidden from you. The bottom line is as you quoted "in the US Android phones are more common than iPhones" is still an empirical fact, that is because Android performs every quarter not just launch quarters :)...Do you know Android has grown faster than Apple, because it was launched later while having a larger market share. Do I have to go through all ComScore figures and do a time series analysis...or do you understand that fairly simple conclusion. If it hurts your brain think of it like cutting a pie, With Android being the big piece...and Apple being the teeny tiny piece.

    1. Re:Hi sorry you seem a little confused. by jbolden · · Score: 1

      I addressed worldwide as well, "In terms of worldwide share Apple has been steadily over 20% of smartphones. They never held that prior to 2012.". It is very simply if Apple is gaining share in group X than Apple's sales are growing faster than the industry as a whole in group X.So for example in the Europe Apple going from 20.3% Dec 2011 to 21.2% Dec 2012 is growing faster. Similarly in Brazil going from 0.4% to 1% is gaining.

      As far as Android having a larger share in the USA... There is no question that Android was growing much faster than Apple through late 2009, 2010, 2011 and early 2012. That process has stopped and reversed, Android is losing share in the USA. As far as Comscore go ahead and look at the series. Remember that Comscore measure installed base not sales so it is a lagging indicator. But what you'll see is that Android started to peak and is slowly gaining share while Apple's share started to skyrocket. That's the effect of the iPhone 4 on Verizon and then the huge surge in 4S sales. The 5 has repeated that process.

      Android had a huge surge in the USA, it stopped. The quarter to quarter fluctuations don't end up mattering that much on things like installed base. They don't even matter that much on sales.

      You can see that by looking at Postpay on the 3 carriers that have iPhone:
      http://static.squarespace.com/static/50363cf324ac8e905e7df861/t/50fefbf1e4b097710589158f/1358887923230/Screen%20Shot%202013-01-22%20at%208.43.43%20PM.png?format=1500w

  27. iPhone nano? by tuppe666 · · Score: 1

    Every $80 smartphone they are selling they lose the sale of a $80 feature phone.

    Ok sorry for ignoring your post. It was better when I reread it. The reality is if you argue that the smartphone market is simply the *phone* market as dumbphones are replaced by smartphones. The your right Apple are still growing market share of that pie. Its a weird way of looking at it.

    So lets have a look at some current figures for that. http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2335616 Now here is the thing..conversion rate Android grew 20% to 70% while iOS lost 2% to 20%. It shows how Apples expansion is slowing, While Android is exploding.

    Now your saying they don't matter because they are $80 phones...the average selling price is $150, are you really saying Apple cannot produce a profitable phone at $150...or even one at $80. The reality is Apple have priced themselves out of the world market...and its hurting them, and market share matters.

  28. ObGodwin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And Hitler said that he never meant to draw the United States into the war, too.

  29. fuckin' cynical politicians by Thud457 · · Score: 2

    "Come on Charlie Brown, kick the football, I'll hold it this time..."

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  30. Envelope #1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Blame your predecessor

  31. You're the one who doesn't understand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > Apple didn't patent rounded corners. Apple has a _design patent_ for a design consisting of many items, one of them rounded corners.

    The reason people say that is because that patent, as applied in the Samsung litigation, was asserted against designs that bore no similarity to their design patent *except for rounded corners.* Thus, people use that slur because Apple threw everything against the wall to see what would stick, even though the rounded corners were all that was copied.

    They got their finding of infringement because this was the same jury that awarded damages for something they had listed as non-infringing. Yes, that was one of the few jury mistakes the judge corrected, I know. That doesn't make me feel any better about the absurd verdict, but I see little chance of it being changed until the appeals play out.

  32. I read those transcripts, did you? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Actually, no, we know that you never compared the phones claimed to infringe against the design patents. Otherwise, you'd know how Samsung went through the list of design features (and there weren't many in those minimalist designs), pointing out several cases where the registered design bore so little resemblance to the allegedly infringing phone as to be absurd. Because they accused several phones of infringing on those designs when the *only* similarities were things like beveled edges and rounded rectangle shapes.

    I would have thought this obvious to anyone who actually read the trial transcripts instead of trotting out that tired Apple mantra in response. There's not much to "look into" with those design patents. They're little more than pictures of the claimed design and the lawyers had to go through each feature of each design (rounded corners, beveled edges, etc.) and compare each thing to each allegedly infringing phone at trial.

    You did know that... right?

  33. Apple are scum by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is all Bullshit.

    Apple has a *long* history of litigation against companies that imitate Apple's products but also those that develop patents which tenuously infringe on Apple's own patents. They are a pack of ravenous dogs who can't stand one bit of competition.

    I really hope Samsung continues to screw Apple into the ground. The arrogance and false superiority of Apple and its products is sickening.

  34. Jobs was a pig - not an inventor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Jobs was an arrogant prick and a fascist pig. He was so off his head he would throw temper tantrums in board meetings during the early days of Apple's existence. It got so bad that John Sculley asked Jobs to leave Apple for good in 1985 because his presence was so disruptive.

    When he returned back in 1997 nothing changed - he was still the same arrogant prick he was years before only this time he could throw his entire weight around.

    I have to laugh when the ass-licking media claimed that Jobs should be put in the same class as Da Vinci. Give me a fucking break! The man was an arrogant businessman who screwed people over and didn't design a damn thing! His Nazi-style management and sadistic leadership has lead to an explosion in frivolous technology and the dumbing down of common sense.

  35. And just be glad you didn't patent the sharp ones by dsmithhfx · · Score: 0

    Shove that rounded rectangle where the sun don't shine.

  36. Apple is an abusive company. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Next we'll be hearing that Bill Gates is a nice guy? He didn't really mean to do all those abuses? Besides, now that he is giving money away, he should be forgiven for his abusiveness?