Apple vs Samsung: We all lose

For those following technology news (or simply watch the news) Apple won their patent infringement case against Samsung. Apple will receive $1.049 billion for their efforts of hiring lawyers and protecting their right to stifle competition in the phone and tablet market space.

Let’s consider for a second what apple has actually accomplished. $1.049 billion is a small sum of money for Samsung to swallow. Samsung has had great success in 2012. In the first quarter they posted $40 billion in revenue and $5 billion in profit. So needless to say this isn’t putting Samsung in financial distress.

In my opinion what we are seeing is Apple running a little scared of the competition. I have owned an iPhone since the original iPhone 3G was released. I have since upgraded to the iPhone 4 and what I can tell you, very little has changed. Is the screen more clear and crisp, yes. Is the front and rear camera nice, sure. Is there anything that causes me to believe Apple is innovating, heck NO! They are milking an aging product (hello Blackberry) for all that it is worth. We all have seen how that has worked out for RIM.

So, when you’re not innovating what is the best strategy? Kill the competition with patent lawsuits! Were the lawsuits justified, sure. Did Apple invent the pinch screen technology, maybe. One thing that I have come to understand is that innovation breeds more innovation. Apple has stolen a lot of ideas from RIM when designing the iPhone. Was push technology for email, calendar, contacts their idea, NO!
Was remote wipe (which was built into the Blackberry Enterprise Server) Apple’s technology, NO! Could RIM have sued Apple in the same way, honestly I don’t know who owns (if anyone does) the patents on those technologies. The reality is everything that Apple does isn’t their own idea!

With the pending release of the iPhone 5 (which is rumored to have a larger screen, wow!) and the 7 inch iPad (uhm, RIM Playbook, Amazon Kindle and dozens of other Android devices) I am hoping the consumer will look elsewhere. Other companies are pushing to innovate where Apple is just pushing the buttons on the cash register. It’s up to you but I know I won’t be buying Apple anytime soon.