Apple Is Targeting Their End Users

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As the patent battle between Samsung and Apple continues to drag on, Apple claims that they had tried to settle out of court between July and September 2010, before this whole hooplah started. This is important, because it would indicate that Samsung was fully aware of the patents it was infringing upon. The court filing where Apple claims these previous negotiations reads:

On or about August 4, 2010, Apple representatives met with Samsung in Korea and showed a presentation titled 'Samsung's Use of Apple Patents in Smartphones.' This presentation emphasized Samsung's copying of the iPhone and identified two of the patents-in-suit (the '002 and '381 patents), giving Samsung actual notice of at least these patents, and many more.

On or about August 26, 2010, Apple sent Samsung an electronic archive file containing claim charts further illustrating Samsung's infringement of Apple patents. A presentationdocument that accompanied these claim charts identified the '002 and '381 patents as two patents that Samsung products infringed, and it substantiated these allegations with text from the patents and photographs of Samsung devices illustrating infringing functionality. Apple later presented these slides to Samsung at a meeting in Cupertino, California on or about September 9, 2010.

The disagreements between Samsung and Apple span design to 3G, and even the slide to unlock paradigm. Even as some of these complaints are resolved, there's no doubt that these two wireless giants will be grappling for months (if not years) to come.

It's also interesting given the comments made by Steve Jobs in his official biography, where he said he considered Android "grand theft" of iPhone ideas

"I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's billion in the bank, to right this wrong," Jobs said. "I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."

Jobs reportedly told then Google CEO and former Apple board member, Eric Schmidt:

"I don't want your money. If you offer me billion, I won't want it. I've got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that's all I want."

So if Apple tried to negotiate, it likely wasn't for money but for Samsung (and other Android manufacturers) to stop using what he considered "Apple ideas". While Microsoft has been successful in getting Android manufacturers to pay them licensing fees, and they might have been amenable to working out a similar deal with Apple, simply removing functionality from their products could have been a deal-breaker.

Essentially, Microsoft seems content with merely making Android more expensive, while Apple wan't to make it less usable. Both want to make it less attractive, but Microsoft is targeting vendors, Apple is targeting their end users.

It's hard to see the negotiations getting settled if those were the terms.

Source: The Verge

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