Okay Geek Farm
Samsung demands to see the iPhone 5 and iPad 3
Brandon Davenport
So, this is a pretty messy subject and it’s all part of a long heated battle between Samsung and Apple. Apple’s argument is “Samsung copies our devices, and consumers get confused and we lose sales”. Samsung’s argument is “it was an accident and we didn’t know we were copying… now can we see your new devices?” It sort of seems crazy that one company can blatently copy another companies devices, deny it, and at the same time ask for advanced previews of the other companies devices so they can copy them faster than last time.
Nilay Patel has a lengthy report over at This is my next, and if you want some detailed info about the situation, we urge you to read that piece.
Apple asks for copies of Samsung’s available devices
Recently, Apple asked the court to force Samsung to fork over models of the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the Galaxy S II, Galaxy Tab 8.9, the Infuse 4G, and the Droid Charge so people in comunication with Apple could determine if they should be part of a lawsuit about Samsung copying Apple’s devices. The court sided with Apple and allowed Apple’s outside lawyers to take a look at those Samsung devices.
Here’s the kicker, these products were already available for sale, and Samsung had already released review units, photos and given thousands to people at Google I/O. This seems completely fair for Apple to ask for copies of the product, especially if it’s simply for the purpose of determining if it’s truly relivent to the lawsuit.
From what we can see, Apple has much more skin in the game. Anyone can see that Samsung has copied the core fundamentals of the iPhone and iPad and duplicated OS functionaliaty and asthetics. We’re not siding with Apple in any way, it’s just so hard to believe Samsung would go this far to copy a compeditor’s products… and now they want access to Apple’s un-released iPad 3 and iPhone 5.
Samsung asks to see Apple’s un-released devices
Samsung wants Apple to hand over “the final, commercial versions” of the iPhone 5 and the iPad 3. If those aren’t available, Samsung wants “the most current version of each to be produced instead.”. The reason they want to have a copy of the products is so they “can evaluate whether there’ll be confusion between Samsung and Apple’s future products”. That’s a little hard to swallow.
To us, it’s pretty obvious that Samsung wants to blatently cheat the market, and get an un-fair leg up against the competition. It’s sort of humorous that Samsung actually has no proof that Apple is even releasing an iPhone 5 or iPad 3, and their basing the entire statement on “internet reports” and “Apple’s past practice.”
Lastly, Samsung complains “fundamental fairness” requires Apple to fork over its future products, since Samsung had to do the same. That seems like it came from the mouth of a 5 year old, and Samsung has no precedent or law to back up this argument. They’re basically asking the court to feel sorry for them.
Who do you think? — Leave a comment with your thoughts about Samsung and Apple…
