Over the past few years, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung have fought each other in court over designs, patents, etc and it seems like there is no end in sight. Apple is now saying that Samsung has repeatedly copied Apple’s designs, making Samsung’s products “copycats”. Apple particularly is upset about Samsung’s new Galaxy S II design which looks rather similar to Apple’s iPhone 4 and 4S.
The Samsung executive who designed the new Galaxy phone responded to the claims by saying that he had made hundreds of sketches of the new phone and that he was not pretending to be a designer as Apple suggests. Lee Minhyouk, the Samsung executive who designed the Galaxy phone, says he is upset and offended as a designer that Apple would essentially just call him a copycat and disregard his hard work. However, Minhyouk says he has respect for Apple and admires their designer team. The executive went on to say that he believes Samsung will one day release as great of products as Apple.
Here is the thing about copycat designs and such of that nature, when you have a dominant player in the market, Apple, other companies will often replicate the designs of their products to appeal to consumers more. Is it a copycat? No, this is just the way of business and marketing. If you have a product that has a somewhat resemblance of the dominate player’s, then you are more likely to achieve higher sales.
Apple is getting bent out of shape because this is the classic response to other companies trying to ride in your wake. The dominant player is obviously going to be firing at its competitors if they even suspect some sort of “copying”.
Apple and Samsung are always in some sort of legal battle it seems like but it doesn’t mean that they are not friends. In fact, the iPad and iPhone contain Samsung chips despite all the fighting in court. Apple chooses to use Samsung parts in its devices.
The bottom line is that Apple is a dominator and they can continue to fight Samsung in court over nitty gritty details but quite frankly Samsung is not on the same level as Apple. Apple has a cult like following that lives and breathes Apple products, Samsung does not. Apple is the largest company in the world and they should not be wasting all of their time trying to win some court case that will do nothing for them or Samsung.
