Samsung: injunction for Apple makes no sense, infringed products are outdated

By Christian Zibreg on May 3, 2013

Although a jury in August 2012 awarded the California firm $1 billion in damages after finding Samsung guilty of violating utility Apple patents related to the iPhone and iPad, Judge Lucy Koh is still unimpressed. Having determined in January that the Galaxy maker did not “willfully” infringe on Apple’s patents, two months later she announced a decrease of the $1.05 billion verdict by $450 million.

Friday came word that Samsung argued in court documents that any permanent injunction in the United States against the infringing products “would not stop any ongoing infringement.” And why’s that? Because the Galaxy maker has either “discontinued the accused products or designed around any infringing features in the ones it still sells”… Read More

 

Samsung celebrity tweets Galaxy S4 love… from his iPhone

By Cody Lee on Apr 30, 2013

So this would be kind of embarrassing. All-star Spanish tennis player and Samsung spokesman David Ferrer served up a fault this afternoon during his attempt to send out what looks like a sponsored tweet expressing his love for his new Galaxy S4.

The problem? Shortly after Ferrer sent out the tweet, several of his 350,000+ Twitter followers noticed something peculiar about his Samsung shout out—it featured the infamous ‘Twitter for iPhone’ notation, effectively killing all of its credibility… Read More

 

Are Samsung drones trolling Apple?

By Ed Sutherland on Apr 24, 2013

We don’t usually go in for conspiracy theories, but one is drawing quiet a bit of attention – and factual basis. Has corporate giant Samsung, stung by its more than $1 billion patent lawsuit loss to Apple in 2012, waging war on the iPhone maker? A number of signs point to the affirmative, including an apparent tactic to swamp any critics with pro-Samsung comments.

Along with blatant examples of the business press spinning news against Apple and for Samsung, there has been reports of fake Samsung product reviews. Additionally, we’ve seen up-close attempts by pro-Samsung ‘trolls’ to dominate comments… Read More

 

Apple vs Samsung price war in India

By Ed Sutherland on Apr 17, 2013

In another era, Apple and Samsung would be competing gasoline retailers, locked in a war to entice more automobiles to the pump. Update the picture to the 21st century, replace gas with smartphones and you have the modern-day equivalent of a price war playing out in India, according to a Wednesday report.

Android-based Samsung smartphones initially had the majority of the India market to itself. However, now Apple is shaking things up by offering discounts on its iPhone 4 – a move fueling the company’s challenge of rival Samsung.

The South Korean company has responded with discounts on its Galaxy family of products – on top of the current payment plan. Both companies are jockeying to control a market full of potential smartphone buyers… Read More

 

How Samsung changed the game on Apple by focusing on advertising and distribution

By Ed Sutherland on Apr 11, 2013

Diagnosing Apple’s Wall Street woes has become a bit of a cottage industry, prompting some to crown the consumer tech giant a has-been, while other observers point to a resurgent future. Earlier this month, a Forbes business contributor took a shot, claiming South Korea’s Samsung has overtaken Apple using the iPhone maker’s own weapon: promotion.

After knocking out music giant Sony with the iPod, using the iPhone to drive BlackBerry to the fringes and destroying the PC market with the iPad, Apple is “milking” its hard-won gains. Meanwhile, Samsung has plowed revenue back into promotion, outspending Apple by more than four-to-one. Ad attack coupled with Samsung’s much wider footprint helped the Galaxy maker to change the game on Apple… Read More

 

Samsung worried second damages trial could see Apple extract north of $1 billion

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 30, 2013

As you know, United States District Judge Lucy Koh shaved $450 million off the $1.05 billion verdict the jury handed to Apple in the high-stake Apple v. Samsung patent trial last August, citing “an impermissible legal theory.” She ordered a new trial for the remaining fourteen Samsung products and Nokia – of all companies – filed a brief with the appeals court on behalf of Apple, claiming Judge Koh got it all wrong. And in the latest twist to the ongoing legal saga, the South Korean conglomerate in court documents expresses worries that the second damages trial could see Apple win even more than before… Read More

 

Apple exploring iPhones with wrap-around display

By Ed Sutherland on Mar 28, 2013

Cue the ‘Jetsons’ theme song as we talk about Apple’s latest patent: a wraparound display for your iPhone. The smartphone maker has filed a patent for an all-glass design taking the iPhone’s already sleek contours to the ultimate degree. Although outlining breath-taking technology, such as heads-up displays and the ability to connect devices like some technologically whacked-out tinker toy, the futuristic patent would likely come with some very current limitations… Read More

 

Samsung unveils new Galaxy S4 handset

By Cody Lee on Mar 14, 2013

Say what you will about Samsung, but the company has managed to distance itself from the other Android device makers to become Apple’s greatest competitor in the smartphone space. The two of them, in fact, account for a majority of all handset profits.

So you can understand why we’ve been so interested in seeing Samsung’s new flagship handset, the Galaxy S4, which it just unveiled onstage at its New York-based Unpacked event. And as usual, we’ve put together a handy roundup of all of the highlights… Read More

 

Gartner: more than half of all handsets sold in 2012 were Apple, Samsung

By Ed Sutherland on Feb 13, 2013

The battle between Apple and Samsung for smartphone supremacy rages on. While the two rivals accounted for more than half of smartphones sold during 2012, demand for the South Korean firm’s phones rose nearly 86 percent while iPhone sales rose by around 22 percent last year. According to Gartner, the two companies took No. 1 and No. 3 spots in overall while ranking first and second in the growing market for smartphones, respectively.

This as the cell phone industry saw its first dip in sales since 2009. Other vendors, of course, were left fighting each other for scraps… Read More

 

Apple, Samsung took 103% of 2012 handset profits

By Ed Sutherland on Feb 7, 2013

We have often written how the handset market is essentially a duopoly of operating systems – iOS and Android – as well as brands: Apple and Samsung. Yesterday came even another way the two are dominating the mobile world – profits. Apple and Samsung accounted for 103 percent of handset profits in 2013, a figure made possible by the zero or negative growth by six of the eight leading handset makers. Apple held 69 percent of handset profits earned in all of 2012, more than double that of the South Korean Samsung, which hauled in 34 percent of phone profits last year, according to Canaccord Genuity… Read More

 

Apple specialist Sam Sung gets a mention in Samsung’s Super Bowl commercial

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 3, 2013

If you live outside the United States, you could be wondering why all the fuss about Super Bowl. But to many of our U.S. readers, Super Bowl is America’s favorite national pastime. Regardless of the camp you belong to, pretty much all of us love big-budget Super Bowl commercials, that much is a given. And speaking of advertising, Samsung ahead of Sunday’s Big Game has “leaked” its anticipated commercial.

Conceptualized by the Los Angeles-based creative shop 72andSunny and directed by Jon Favreau, it features Knocked Up stars Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd who are called in to pitch their concepts for Samsung’s Next Big Thing.

But despite their best effort to bat around crazy ideas with Bob Odenkirk (example: “crowdsourcing… we won’t have to think of ideas!”), Miami Heat star LeBron James makes a tablet cameo and lands the gig instead. Though it takes jabs at both the NFL and ad industry and mocks Psy and his Gangnam Style, interestingly enough the commercial isn’t about Apple at all, sans a subtle reference that almost escaped my attention… Read More

 

Samsung’s iPad mini contender caught naked in the wild

By Christian Zibreg on Jan 24, 2013

As expected, Apple’s $329 iPad mini has taken off in a big way and is now arguably the company’s best-selling iPad. Apple experienced supply constraints of the device throughout the holiday quarter and it immediately sold out upon its arrival to China last week. Cook in a conference call following earnings report attributed the 22 percent year-over-year iPad growth to strong sales of the lower-margin tablet.

Samsung, on the other hand, has been swarming the market with mobile devices of all shapes and sizes. The strategy has earned the South Korean company a distant #2 spot in tablet sales as it tries to keep pace with Apple. The firm is apparently working on an eight-inch Note device designed to challenge the iPad mini and now an image has leaked revealing a sleek form factor encased in a plastic enclosure… Read More

 

New Samsung ad says iPhones are not for work, blasts BlackBerry

By Christian Zibreg on Jan 20, 2013

You can’t blame Samsung for amping up its anti-everyone advertising as it’s worked out so well for them thus far. In this new commercial aired during tonight’s NFC championship game and subsequently published on Samsung’s YouTube channel, a bunch of hipsters working for a mobile games developer are depicted using Galaxy smartphones and tablets. In one instance, the clip highlights multitasking capabilities of these gadgets where you can set the video to play while continuing to browse the web or sort through your email.

Then the focus turns (mark 0:40) to one of the old guards who tells a young office chick that she won’t “consolidate” her phones because she has “a system”: her BlackBerry with its clickety-clack keyboard is for work and an iPhone with an ugly case is for home. The lady abruptly cuts off the younger colleague after her attempt to explain the benefits of the Galaxy S III: “Allie, please respect my system”.

The commercial is a bit weird and primarily targets the struggling BlackBerry (talk about beating the dead horse). There are more jabs at RIM and Apple in an apparent shift of strategy as Samsung takes aim at enterprise market. Oh, and what’s up with the unicorns and that guy from 30 Rock? Read More

 

Samsung passes Nokia as the world’s top phone brand in 2012

By Ed Sutherland on Dec 18, 2012

The cellphone industry has a new king. South Korea’s Samsung is #1 in the market, unseating the Finnish-based Nokia after fourteen years. As 2012 wraps up, Samsung is responsible for 29 percent of all cell phone shipments, up from last year’s 24 percent.

Conversely, Nokia slips to #2, dropping to 24 percent of the market, a fall from 30 percent posted in 2011. Nokia’s departure from a top spot it held since 1998 is largely due to the predominance of smartphones, an area where Samsung thrived and Nokia faltered, according to the hardware research firm iSuppli… Read More

 

The next Galaxy smartphone may come with a bendable display

By Christian Zibreg on Dec 6, 2012

Samsung is on track to launch its next flagship handset, the Galaxy S IV, in April 2013 and reportedly the device will come with a “breakthrough unbreakable screen”, as Reuters put it in today’s report. You’d be forgiven for dismissing this news nugget as a pipedream of sorts, but bear with me for a moment.

We’ve been hearing that Samsung’s been looking to incorporate flexible display into next-generation smartphones and tablets for over a year now. Plus, the South Korean conglomerate certainly has demonstrated its willingness to explore uncharted territories. At CES 2011, Samsung’s mobile displays arm showed off a cool 4.5-inch flexible AMOLED display prototype based on electro activity polymer, seen above… Read More

 

Apple abandons 2013 Super Bowl, risking more ridicule

By Christian Zibreg on Dec 3, 2012

Will Samsung once more take advantage of the looming Super Bowl opportunity to ridicule Apple, like it did last year launching a campaign which poked fun of the folks who’d wait in line for the iPhone? Given the fifty different lawsuits spread across four continents, it’s difficult to imagine otherwise. Samsung has already secured a spot in the big game, but Apple, unfortunately, has again passed on the opportunity to convey its message to Super Bowl’s huge audience.

Ad prices have increased every year, with advertisers paying as much as $3.5 million for a thirty-second spot during Super Bowl XLVI in 2012. But ad rates don’t concern Apple and Samsung, both big spenders when it comes to advertising. SVP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller revealed during the Apple v. Samsung trial that Apple in fiscal 2010 spent to the tune of $346.6 million advertising the iPhone and iPad in the United States.

That’s peanuts compared to what Samsung spends advertising its gadgets. The Galaxy maker, according to independent analyst Horace Dediu, has an annual budget of nearly $12 billion for advertising, commissions and sales promotions… Read More

 

Apple’s tablet lead over Android could be shrinking faster than earlier thought

By Ed Sutherland on Nov 28, 2012

Remember the days when analysts and Wall Street observers believed the iPad would continue to lead tablet sales for years, and Android competitors still needed work? Funny how time flies. Although Apple isn’t laughing, there is talk Google could overtake Apple in 2013. The problem is the iPad’s lead over a pack of Android alternatives is shrinking to that when the Apple tablet was introduced in 2010.

Also, remember all those non-Android slates from HP and RIM? Yeah, neither does anyone else. That’s the other problem… Read More

 

Apple on Black Friday added six Galaxy devices to its Samsung suit

By Christian Zibreg on Nov 24, 2012

Following Samsung’s motion asking Judge Paul S. Grewal for permission to amend its infringement contentions against Apple with the iPad mini, iPhone 5 and the latest iPod touch, Apple on Black Friday conveniently brought a motion seeking to add latest Galaxy devices to its California suit, including the Galaxy S III running Android Jelly Bean and the four-inch Galaxy S III Mini. The filing adds a total of six recently-released Galaxy gadgets to Apple’s ongoing patent lawsuit against Samsung… Read More

 

Samsung dazzles with record Q3 earnings, profits rising faster than Apple’s

By Christian Zibreg on Oct 26, 2012

Samsung Electronics, the flagship subsidiary of the Samsung Group and the world’s largest technology company by revenues since 2009, reported earnings for the September quarter and the results are staggering. Year-on-year profit rose 91 percent as the company brought home $5.9 billion in net profit on $47.6 billion in sales, a 26 percent increase.

Operating profit margin also climbed to 18.8 percent. Much of the spoils came from Galaxy devices, especially smartphones where Samsung in the third quarter reigned supreme, grabbing twice Apple’s market share. Apple yesterday reported $8.2 billion in net profit on $36 billion revenues.

While Samsung has a long way to go to match Apple’s profitability, it’s been growing at a faster clip: Apple’s net profit in the September quarter grew 25 percent versus 91 percent for Samsung. No matter how you look at it, Samsung Electronics, which has headquarters in Suwon, South Korea, is evidently on fire. Does it stand a shot at beating Apple on profitability down the road? Read More

 

More iPhone bashing in two new Galaxy ads

By Christian Zibreg on Sep 26, 2012

You’ve seen Samsung marketing department’s response to the massive iPhone 5 launch. Here’s more of the same. Another one right after the break… Read More

 
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