Apple Wins Europe-Wide Blockade Of Samsung Tablets; Guess Which Tablet Apple Is Scared Of Most?
from the best-advertising-ever dept
Man, is Apple ever freaked out by the Samsung Galaxy Tablet. We already pointed out that Apple succeeded in getting it banned in Australia, and now it's got an injunction blocking it in most of Europe as well. And, of course, the lawsuit in the US continues.It's really sad that Apple simply doesn't want to compete in the marketplace. The thing is, I've used both the iPad and the Galaxy Tab, and the iPad is nicer. The Galaxy Tab is definitely the best Android tablet I've seen so far, but Apple has the ability to compete and win in the marketplace. So why is it going ballistic all over the world about the Galaxy? While it may be causing some pain for Samsung now, all it's really doing is screaming out to the world: "hey, if you want a more open tablet that we think is as good, if not better than, the iPad, check out what Samsung is working on!" In the past, Apple mostly let its own products stand on their own, and they clearly dominated in the marketplace. The fact that Apple is switching from that stance to aggressive litigation should be a warning sign for Apple's future.
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Filed Under: europe, ipad, patents, tablets
Companies: apple, samsung
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Bad News for European Retailers
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If you can't compete, litegate
Well, that's just Apple.
What's really upsetting is that there's no cost to Apple for this - if Samsung is later cleared of wrongdoing, the months of lost sales? The'll get no settlement for that. Knocking out a quarter of your competitors sales with bogus patent claims?
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Re: If you can't compete, litegate
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Re: Re: If you can't compete, litegate
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Re: Re: Re: If you can't compete, litegate
http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/09/6820706-android-market-share-to-surpass-40-percent- this-year
Depends of what you mean by lions share.
According to other people Android have surpassed Apple's market share already. Deja vu?(Apple II vs PC)
Apple is the biggest single producer, but it is not the market leader as a whole, they were supplanted by Android some time ago, the Android market is more vibrant and churning out more devices in total then Apple ever could, Android also has the biggest variety of models, accessories and prices.
The Android eco-system will not create any one company to big to fail and so it is healthier than the Apple thing.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: If you can't compete, litegate
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Re: Re: Re: If you can't compete, litegate
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Re: Re: Re: Re: If you can't compete, litegate
Hahahaha!! Price competition will cause Apple to slide!? Seriously? Does no one think before they seek to slam? It's Apple that no one else can compete with on price, with the pads man.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: If you can't compete, litegate
I understand you are probably an apple fanboi, with an iPhone and iPad, that doesn't change the fact that history will repeat itself. Price competition, a inconsistent maniacal control freak attitude over the app store, and a better product in the form of android, will destroy apple.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: If you can't compete, litegate
Apple offers a competitive tablet at prices other brands are struggling to meet. They have a commanding share of the tablet market share (28mil iPads vs. ~1.2 mil Android tablets across all brands).
If you want to talk about Android phones, then you need to actually look at the profit share:
http://www.asymco.com/2011/01/31/fourth-quarter-mobile-phone-industry-overview/
Having the lions share of a market doesn't mean much if you're not making huge profits off of it. Google is essentially using its profits from search to spread Android as hard as possible, but Apple's the one making money hand over fist here, and the profits keep on growing. If that's a sign of failure, I'll take that any day of the week.
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Blindered fanboy
Android has already caught up with Apple in the phone market. It is now set to do that in the tablet space. Except Apple has decided to sabotage it's rivals through bogus patent lawsuits.
I really like SMS features that don't suck, better video decoders, a means to side load apps, being able to treat my android device as a simple storage device when connected to a PC, and to connect another storage device to my Android.
Android vendors are more than willing to distinguish themselves from Apple. That's a good thing. That's a handy thing. The free market should not be sabotaged just because the current state of the law allow you to.
It's simply contrary to the cultural mythology surrounding the founding of Apple.
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Re: Blindered fanboy
Did I say that I agreed with Apple's decision to sabotage the free market? Did I position myself such that I didn't like any sort of competition in the mobile phone market?
No. I only pointed out that Apple currently holds the marketshare (in terms of tablets anyways), and commands the entire market in terms of profits. This is to disprove the myth that Apple's suddenly headed towards another repeat just because they don't have the command of the market share in phones.
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Re: Re: Re: If you can't compete, litegate
I'm sure that Motorola and Nokia thought the same thing too in the cellphone sector or Sandisk in the mp3 player sector. Being the initial leader doesn't mean perpetual success.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: If you can't compete, litegate
There's no sign of that happening with iPhones because the common folk know nothing BUT iPhones.
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Re: Re: Re: If you can't compete, litegate
Most of my friends have iPhones. I have family with iPhones, and I was genuinely interested in one. But two things kept me away from it...closed architecture which Apple vigorously defends, and no sideloading of applications, even though the SDK is "open", getting the application on the phone requires Apple and their whim is notorious. Sure, you can root an iPhone, until Apple comes up with the next patch and kills you off. I've had friends who have rooted their phone only to have the rugs pulled out from under them and have heard the sob stories.
After the discussion of Samsung here, and that Samsung sent the developers of an unofficial mod of Android (cyanogenmod) free phones to allow them to provide more support for their phones, I ditched my old phone and bought a Samsung Captivate, rooted it and installed cyanogenmod. Downloaded the SDK and started playing, and after having so much fun with the phone, I found out that Nooks ran android and went out and bought one of those too (I like reading books and was looking at a kindle to begin with.)
At this point, a Samsung 10.1 tablet is a little too expensive to justify, but I suspect sooner or later I'll have one of those too.
So, at least for me, I can understand why people are heading to Android in droves. 5 people I know personally have gone out and bought new android phones...I cannot think of anyone off-hand who has bought an iphone recently.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: If you can't compete, litegate
How many of those people use non-market apps?
How many of those people have rooted their phone?
How many of those people have loaded a custom ROM?
How many of those people have touched a single line of code in the Android codebase?
The reason why I ask these things is because although these issues may be relevant to techies like you and me and your friends, the unwashed masses hardly know a thing. They only know one thing: iPhones are the sweetest thing out there. They don't even know what Android is.
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Re: Re: If you can't compete, litegate
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Bye Bye Apple..........
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Dusseldorf==East Texas
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Really?
Sounds like y'all got a case of sour grapes. Apple isn't saying they're afraid of the Galaxy, they're saying Samsung violated Apples patents to make a competing product. So far the courts agree.
Everyone loves to hate a winner.
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Re: Really?
Is like patenting clothes.
More Samsung is the one who build the iPad in the first place and they do have better video quality than the iPad, what they don't have yet is a better OS.
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Re: Really?
Yes.
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Re: Re: Really?
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Re: Really?
Based on what I've read here:
http://www.osnews.com/story/25048/Apple_Blocks_Sales_of_Samsung_Galaxy_Tab_10_1_in_EU
It sounds like a local German court is attempting to speak on behalf of "All of Europe" even though they don't very likely have jurisdiction to do so.
I guess we'll see.
As for your assertion that an entire country might side with Apple over Patent abuse and other such ilk? Sure! Apple isn't exactly a small corporation these days - they probably have a *lot* of sway.
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Re: Re: Really?
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Re: Re: Re: Really?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Really?
Guess you missed that story.
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Re: Re: Re: Really?
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110801/10562015345/apple-does-not-have-more-cash-than- us-govt-stop-saying-that-it-does.shtml
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Really?
Have a nice day
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Re: Really?
Who said they are siding with them Legally???
All Apple Inc has obtained is a temporary injuction until such time as a court hears the full case.
And with the prior art problems that are now appearing with regards to the actual patents and the iPad itself it is absolutely not guaranteed that Apple will win at all. Even if they do win some or all of what they are asking, they have alreeady lost with other manufactures (acer etc) and even samsung innovating and designing better tablets that are not a part of this injunction.
As for your statement that Apple is Not afraid, ask yourself, if they were not afraid, why would they be so insistent to the court that this is damaging their profitability, market share, etc etc. That is the business definition of Afraid.
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Re: Really?
Apple are in the right? That's rich. Because they patented rounded corners and menus in a grid.
They'll probably go after Adobe now, since Photoshop also allows drawing squares with rounded corners.
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Re: Really?
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Re: Really?
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Not really
Apple took an enormous risk in bringing the iPad to market, investing large R&D costs. Samsung is not innovating by bringing the Galaxy Tab to market, it is copying � essentially attempting to clean up based on risks taken by Apple.
The true innovator here was clearly Apple, and the purpose of patents is to give innovators a limited period of protection from copyists. This gives them an opportunity to recoup their R&D costs, and also to cover them for all of the other innovations which failed to return a profit (the Cube, the Newton, and so on).
This is a very different situation from patents which Apple and Microsoft have allegedly bought from Novell and may (or may not) assert against Android.
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Re: Not really
And to make matters even worse, we're not even talking about patents. If you read the linked article, you'll find that this is really about community designs. So Apple is blocking the Galaxy Tab merely because they think it looks similar to an iPad. This is rich considering Apple sued Microsoft and lost in a very similar case.
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Re: Not really
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Re: Re: Not really
*pun intended*
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Re: Not really
Guess you missed all the others that were doing things before them.
MP3 players?
Was already being done. Just because they brought the best quality does not mean they are first.
Smart phones?
Guess you missed RIM in all the years before the iPhone came to market.
Touch input devices?
Do you really want me to point out all the other examples that came before Apple went into this industry?
Tablets?
You realise that tablets have been around much longer then iPad, right? I seem to remember Microsoft doing it way before Apple. Just because MS could not create the same quality experience on it again does not mean that Apple was first.
We can even go back to the first computers.
While Apple was probably the leader in bringing it to the masses and starting the whole PC revolution, you realise they purchased the idea from IBM who believed that PCs would never go anywhere.
While there is a common theme here, that Apple did execute the concepts in a way that brought a superior user experience, in no instance can you say they created something unique or even new. They merely took poorly implemented concepts and sold them based on good design.
Please do not mistake quality and enhanced experience for brand new "innovations". Their strategy is more based on quality then anything else.
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Re: Re: Not really
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Re: Not really
Did apple developed any of the hardware systems? nope
What R&D?
For design?
Who the frak spend billions in design research that doesn't target improving the hardware but just the appearance of something?
LG Prada means something to you?
Quote:
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Prada_(KE850)
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Re: Re: Not really
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Re: Not really ? ? ?
It has been all over the mainstream news in Europe.
now the patent argument.
Apple did NOT invent the touch screen.
Apple did NOT invent the handheld computer.
Apple did NOT invent the tablet.
Apple did NOT invent ARM cpu's.
Apple ARE PC system builders.
Components from desperate sources , combined is what an iPad is.
********
This case is about the overall LOOK of a device.
Community Design http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_design
A registered Community design lasts for up to 25 years
Let's look at some of these ""designs"". (Shapes)
The apple tablet (actual Certificate of Registration )
http://www.scribd.com/doc/61944044/Community-Design-000181607-0001
some pics of other APPLE registered ""designs""
http://oami.europa.eu/bulletin/rcd/2006/2006_030/000465109_0009/images/000465109_0009 _1_source.jpg
http://oami.europa.eu/bulletin/rcd/2008/2008_041/000839469_0019/images/000839469_0019 _1_source.jpg
http://oami.europa.eu/bulletin/rcd/2007/2007_098/000748314_0001/images/000748314_0001 _1_source.jpg
http://oami.europa.eu/bulletin/rcd/2006/2006_030/000465109_0006/images/000465109_0006 _1_source.jpg
http://oami.europa.eu/bulletin/rcd/2007/2007_115/000748280_0005/images/000748280_0005 _1_source.jpg
best ever ( a rectangle )
http://oami.europa.eu/bulletin/rcd/2009/2009_091/000672332_0009/images/000672332_0009_4_source.jpg
and a FOLDER icon
http://oami.europa.eu/bulletin/rcd/2008/2008_041/000839469_0019/images/000839469_0019_1_source .jpg
thanks to Thom Holwerda for the info.... @ http://www.osnews.com/
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Re: Not really
Wait a minute. You said it took "large R&D costs" and "enormous risk" on Apple's part to bring the iPad, which would imply that developing a tablet is a long and expensive process. Then you said Samsung is copying it, which implies that developing a tablet is not a long and expensive process. Which is it?
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there's no cost to Apple for this?
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Re: there's no cost to Apple for this?
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Re: there's no cost to Apple for this?
For decades, the only thing that made Apple less obnoxious than Microsoft was that Apple had a relatively insignificant market share. In philosophy and actions, they are of the same school.
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Re: Re: there's no cost to Apple for this?
^^This^^
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Re: So does anyone see a new black market of "banned" Android tablets becoming like prohibition in the US?
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Apple owns rounded corners?
There's hardly anything original about any of that, and even if it were it's not the sort of thing any company should ever own. This only serves to highlight how ridiculous IP law has become around the world.
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Now......... it's a completely different story. My brand new (3 months old) Macbook Pro has been repaired twice already. It still shows signs of problems. In those 3 months, I was a full month without it. Then the iPad 2... more hype than anything; a complete mockery of tablets. The thing plain sucks. Tons of problems, and Apple are not addressing any of them.
Now go on the Apple forums, and see how many 50+ page threads have been opened in the last year; then look how many were officially addressed by Apple. None. Whatsoever. Nada. Niet. Nothing.
Their products are CLEARLY going downhill (yeah yeah, so-called production problems etc) and they're sucking majorly in the support department. What does that leave them?
- Shitty overpriced product
- Shitty and almost non-existent online support
- Bad in-store support (we don't know so we'll ship it and call you eventually to pick it back up)
- Competitors getting better
So.. in conclusion... I would be scared too if my products/company that used to be synonymous with "great" were now attributed to "fail" more often then not.
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Re:
I crossed over on a fluke. OSX was UNIX with an UI that was polished, useful and intuitive. It's been downhill since 10.4.11 where +features == -polish. It's about as tight as.. well, imagine something loose.
Then the lock down began.
Apple... is now Ass.
That's my opinion and I don't give a fuck.
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Re: Re:
Pads are a pathetic excuse for innovation to begin with much less fucking suing because it's almost but not quite as entirely pathetic as mine.
I do like my suspension though, very much.
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Re:
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Samsung - coming to ontario canada
IF apple don't like it put 17000 jobs in Ontario see how it works mister corporation?
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Good news
Yes, given as how they are so completely innocent of ever, ever asserting rights to any sort of intellectual property, all their patents have been released to public domain, and they've renounced and paid back every court judgment that was ever found in their favor, those people at Samsung are true angels. How dare those evil parasites at Apple pick on such morally upright and kind-hearted people!
You just wait! The next thing we know, someone's going to find out that fewer than 100% of their products are perfect - again, evidently, unlike Samsung - and THEN where will we be? Someone needs to stop them now before it's too late. If we get much more of this, they might win out on a bid for patents over companies like Google, who will then suddenly discover that they don't like patents and copyrights as much as they used to (when they were bidding on them).
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Can of worms
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Re: Can of worms
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Re: Re: Can of worms
Regardless, they both own so many its crazy, but if you boil it down, they arent non-obvious to anyone who understands... they just patented them when only a dozen people understood.
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Re: Re: Re: Can of worms
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Re: Can of worms
Hahahahahahaha. Take a look at Microsoft extracting money from Samsung and other companies over Android for unspecified patents. How ridiculous is that?
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Re: Re: Can of worms
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Darn it, I can't boycott Apple any more than I've been doing.
ANYWAY, fact is that similar gadgets can be made by almost anyone, so that when Asians compete on price (if ever do, as I'm sure that they like Apple setting the entry point high), then Apple's gadgetry game can quickly drop back down to their 90's barely getting by until Microsoft rescued them level.
Apple makes nothing /essential/; the business world wouldn't miss them except for ridiculously overpriced stock to speculate on.
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All EU?
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they're just admitting
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WTF?!
A rectangle is covered by Community Design?
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Apple Wins Europe-Wide Blockade Of Samsung Tablets; Guess Which Tablet Apple Is Scared Of Most?
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Re: Apple Wins Europe-Wide Blockade Of Samsung Tablets; Guess Which Tablet Apple Is Scared Of Most?
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Re: Re: Apple Wins Europe-Wide Blockade Of Samsung Tablets; Guess Which Tablet Apple Is Scared Of Most?
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Re: Re: Re: Apple Wins Europe-Wide Blockade Of Samsung Tablets; Guess Which Tablet Apple Is Scared Of Most?
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Re: Re: Re: Apple Wins Europe-Wide Blockade Of Samsung Tablets; Guess Which Tablet Apple Is Scared Of Most?
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Re: Apple Wins Europe-Wide Blockade Of Samsung Tablets; Guess Which Tablet Apple Is Scared Of Most?
TAG your a troll wannabee!
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Apple Wins Europe-Wide Blockade Of Samsung Tablets; Guess Which Tablet Apple Is Scared Of Most?
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Re: Apple Wins Europe-Wide Blockade Of Samsung Tablets; Guess Which Tablet Apple Is Scared Of Most?
MIKE WHY DO YOU HATE FREEDUMB???????
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Apple Wins Europe-Wide Blockade Of Samsung Tablets; Guess Which Tablet Apple Is Scared Of Most?
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Re: Apple Wins Europe-Wide Blockade Of Samsung Tablets; Guess Which Tablet Apple Is Scared Of Most?
Why?
I hate being stuck with draconian, controlling applications that lock me into a single eco system (looking at you iTunes).
I hate companies that dictate what I want instead of letting me pick what I want (your tablet comes in every color you want, as long as you want silver).
I hate any company telling me what I can't have (or did you already forget about the Apple vs. Adobe issues)?
I hate it when a company decides to try to take away my right to choose by trying to kill competition through questionable means (not saying I have not used other companies products who do this, but if they did, they weren't so blatant it called my attention to it like this).
So if that makes me a Google-ite, then I will proudly be so until they fuck up too.
Just John, Google-ite out.
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Re: Re: Apple Wins Europe-Wide Blockade Of Samsung Tablets; Guess Which Tablet Apple Is Scared Of Most?
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Respect the Rectangle
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Re: Respect the Rectangle
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Re: Re: Respect the Rectangle
I'm thinking parallelogram's ;P
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Re: Respect the Rectangle
Speaking of which, I seem to recall there is something called an apple in nature. I think mother nature should get a lawyer.
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SJITD
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Software Patents
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(posted from a Samsung, too)
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Why Buy An Ipad?...
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Free Enterprise
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A shame.
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^^This^^"
Um yeah except MS makes products most people use because it's either their only choice or they HAVE no choice (corporate) or don't know any better. Apple makes products that people CHOOSE over other products. And if you think MS and Apple have the same philosophy... Then brother you know even less than it appears. Seriously, think deeply on it for a minute.
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Re:
I have, over decades. Have you?
I've been in this business from back before the Apple II existed, back when Microsoft was a tiny nobody player in the business of selling BASIC interpreters to OEMs.
Both of them strive to lock users into their proprietary systems. Both of them unfairly leverage monopoly positions. Both of them "embrace and extend" as a way of gaining more locked-in users. I could go on at length.
They even started the same way: scrappy startups going toe-to-toe with established "evil" behemoths and overtly promising to free us from them, and both of them ended up the same way: behaving exactly like the behemoths they displaced.
There is a more recent difference -- Microsoft has been behaving a bit better over the last few years, and Apple has been behaving worse.
The nature and quality of their products is not relevant to this discussion. I'm talking about business ethics, and both are heavily challenged in that department.
But if we're comparing products, there is another similarity: both are used either by people who have no other choice, don't know any better, or are unwilling/unable to use an actually powerful system.
That last bit is the entire goal of all Apple products, according to Apple itself: they are aimed at people who don't want to/don't understand how to use computers. Which means the training wheels can never come off.
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Way to go Mike...
http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/08/apple-is-also-suing-motorola-in-europe.html
Sure ly they're doing this because you called them out for picking on the Galaxy specifically.
How's it feel to be such a mover and shaker?
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What I don't get...
Oh and for the no-mind that decided rather than share valid opinions he'd just call me a "fanboi" (what are you, 12?), I use whatever meets my needs with the best combination of features, quality, and price. I don't care what brand label it carries. I think it's as mindless and simple to blindly consume products because of their label as it is to bash products for the same reason. Only simpletons lionize or demonize in such broad swaths.
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And btw...
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Apple didn't invent the tablet. There was a touchscreen tablet device around in 1997 running some strange OS. The device never took off, but if Apple claim anyone that makes a device with no keyboard and a touchscreen infringes the iPad, then the iPad infringes on the 14 year old device.
Anyway good times ahead. There's already one company that is suing Apple for preventing the release of the Galaxy Tab. They developed an App and signed a 6-month exclusivity deal with the Galaxy Tab. The lack of the device will cost them a significant amount on money in advertising revenue during the month of September.
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BUT....
1. I seem to be able to order the Galaxy tab 10.1 from both UK and European suppliers as of 14 August, although it does seem a bit expensive for a gadget.
and
2. It's not banned in Holland and in the free market we have I can always order from there and have it delivered to the UK. I do that with my contact lens to avoid UK laws.
Who cares how much fuss Apple make. It's free advertising for Samsung and if I want a product I can always get it some how.
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