Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal produced a new documentary today showing the evolution of the iPhone as it approached its 15th anniversary in June 2007. The video published also included an interview with Apple's marketing lead, Greg Joswiak, who dubbed Samsung's devices a knockoff.
Apple's Joswiak on Samsung Smartphones: Annoying, Poorly Copying Apple
One portion of the conversation discusses how Android handsets gained bigger screens years before the iPhone. When questioned how much influence Samsung and other Android smartphone makers had on Apple at the time, Joswiak said they were "annoying" and accused them of replicating Apple's technology poorly.
Joswiak said in the interview that Samsung was already becoming annoying. "They were annoying because, as you know, they ripped off our technology. They took the innovations that we had created and created a poor copy of it, and just put a bigger screen around it. So, yeah, we were none too pleased," Joswiak says.
Apple went on a back-to-back patent infringement battle with Samsung, which dates back years ago. One of their biggest primary lawsuits went to proceed through the whole US legal system, culminating in a settlement between the two firms. Either Samsung or Apple did not disclose the specifics of the settlement.
Some of the first Galaxy S and Galaxy Note models were labeled as iPhone knockoffs, and the media was unusually eager to label Samsung as a copycat. It seemed far-fetched to chastise Samsung for allegedly imitating the iPhone's design at the time. Its phones, like practically every other phone on the market at the time, featured a home button on the front and a screen above it, but Samsung received the worst criticism.
Apple, Samsung Battle Dates Back Long Ago
Everything was well until Apple filed a lawsuit against Samsung. Apple claimed that various Android phones and tablets from Samsung, including the Nexus S, Epic 4G, Samsung Galaxy S 4G, and even the Samsung Galaxy Tab, infringed on Apple's intellectual property.
Samsung was at the forefront of several key changes in the smartphone sector. It was among the first to promote bigger displays. When the Galaxy S4 was released in early 2013, it had a 5-inch display, whereas the iPhone 5 had a 4-inch display at the time. Seeing how popular bigger displays had become, and despite Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' open distaste for larger phones, Apple released a 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus the following year.
In early 2013, Samsung released the Galaxy S4 with a 5-inch display, whereas the iPhone 5 featured a 4-inch display. Apple finally released its first bigger smartphones, the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, in 2014, to high demand, and the handsets went on to be among the best-selling iPhone models ever.
Apple filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung in 2011, saying that Samsung duplicated the iPhone's design with its own Galaxy series of handsets. Apple was awarded roughly $1 billion in damages at first, but the sum was reduced in a second retrial. In 2018, Apple reached an agreement with Samsung.
Furthermore, the 2011 complaint included papers that compared the iPhone 3GS to the Samsung i9000 Galaxy S and underlined the similarities. However, the court determined that the photographs were manipulated to make the Samsung phone resemble the iPhone. The lawyer for Samsung then accused Apple of providing false evidence, which resulted in global litigation.
Samsung countersued Apple in 2011 in South Korean, Japanese, and German courts, and then in the United Kingdom and the United States. Samsung accused Apple of infringing on its patents for mobile communication technologies. It all came to a conclusion in 2018 when the patent litigation was settled, and Apple was granted $539 million.
Despite differences and rivalry, Apple continues to rely on Samsung for numerous components. Samsung is the world's largest maker of OLED and other display panels, and Apple relies on them. However, Apple is also exploring LG for its next-generation iPhone 14 screens, albeit this might take some time.
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