Post 5: Smartphone War -- Apple vs. Samsung

I just read the news that professor Lavian shared to us—“Apple-Samsung judge says she may put second patent case on hold. The first thing I notice in the article is the place the lawsuit is held. San Jose, CA, one of the places professor mentioned in the lecture. I remember the first time I started to pay attention to Apple and Samsung is when I planned to purchase my first smart phone about half a year ago. I hesitated a long time between iphone and galaxy. They are kind of similar at some aspects, but they both have advantages and disadvantages. I did a little bit research on this two products and companies, and realized they have a series of ongoing lawsuit. In fact, Apple and Samsung are the first of a series of ongoing lawsuits with respect to smartphone and tablet computers. Apple first sued Samsung on April 15, 2011 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. In the lawsuit, Apple mentioned that a series of Samsung’s Android phones and tablets infringed on Apple’s intellectual property. The attached graph shows the smartphone product timeline for Apple and Samsung.

One of the studies I read stated that Apple’s iPhone 5 and Samsung’s Galaxy SIII now equals in North American web use.  

When we looks at the data driven by Chitika Insight, we can see that iPhone 5 is only a slightly lead over Galaxy S III However, when we looked back to the timeline, we can see that iPhone was first released in Jan 2007, while galaxy was first released in June 2010. Within 3 years, Samsung got to be the #2 mobile company that leaves other competitors behind.

Apple used to offer Samsung $30~$40 per unit license in 201, but Samsung refused. It seems like it is cheaper to go through the lawsuit rather than encumbered long term with a license fee. Plus, at the same time, apple has to pay some attention on the lawsuit, so why not?

My only concern is how long apple can be the leading smartphone company.  Since Apple only has one kind of smartphone, compare to other smartphone companies, Apple smartphone user are so limited. A lot of my friends have switched from iPhone to Galaxy or some Samsung smartphone.  Honestly, I am thinking about switch to Galaxy as well. Nevertheless, if Apple does some surprisingly changes this summer/fall, am I going to switch? That’s a good question!