After Verdict, Assessing the Samsung Strategy in South Korea

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Monday, September 03, 2012

After Verdict, Assessing the Samsung Strategy in South Korea

By CHOE SANG-HUN

SEOUL, South Korea — When a jury in San Jose, Calif., ordered Samsung Electronics to pay $1.05 billion in damages for violating Apple’s patents for the iPhone and iPad, it did more than decide who had infringed upon whose intellectual property. To South Koreans, the legal battle highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of both Samsung and their economy in general.

“The ruling makes us reconsider the brand value of Samsung because it depicts Samsung as a copycat,” said James Song, who monitors Samsung for KDB Daewoo Securities in Seoul. “But a copycat or not, what Samsung has done with its smartphones was a brilliant move.”

“Look what has happened to companies like Nokia, Motorola and BlackBerry, which didn’t do as Samsung did,” Mr. Song added, referring to competitors whose failures to adapt quickly to the smartphone boom driven by iPhones have drastically reduced their market shares. “Samsung may lack in innovation, but right now, no one can beat Samsung in playing catch-up.”

For months, the South Korean media have watched avidly as Samsung, the world’s largest technology company by sales, clashes with Apple, the world’s No. 1 company by market value, over patent lawsuits in various countries.

Calling Samsung South Korea’s biggest, most profitable and most globally recognized brand barely explains the intense and often mixed emotions the name evokes among South Koreans.

In Samsung, they see the crown jewel of their country’s transformation from a war-torn agrarian society into a global technology powerhouse.

Once an assembler of clunky transistor radios, Samsung is now the world’s top seller of smartphones and high-resolution television sets, as well as memory chips and flat-panel displays that allow those devices and others to store and display data.

Japanese companies have beaten rivals to the market with hardware innovations like flat-panel televisions and high-end mobile phones. Samsung waited for the others to test the market, and when it determined the time was right, it joined the fray to cash in.

Samsung’s strategy was to build something similar to another company’s product but to make it better, faster and at lower cost. When it pounced, it flooded the market with a wide range of models that were constantly updated with incremental improvements at a speed its rivals found hard to match — a strategy best illustrated by its smartphone business. Heavy investments have not been a problem; it once secured low-cost loans from a government-controlled banking sector friendly to big businesses and now draws on its own coffers, which are sloshing with cash.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

Samsung Wins a Patent Case Over Apple in Japan

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Saturday, September 01, 2012

Samsung Wins a Patent Case Over Apple in Japan

By HIROKO TABUCHI and NICK WINGFIELD

TOKYO — A Japanese court on Friday rejected patent claims made by Apple against Samsung, a victory for the company after its crushing defeat in the United States last week and a reminder of the global scope of the patent war between the two technology giants.

While Apple prevailed over Samsung in the United States, winning an award of $1 billion in damages from a federal jury, the two companies remain neck-and-neck in legal disputes in almost a dozen countries. A judge in South Korea, where Samsung is based, for example, handed down a split decision in a patent case shortly before the jury verdict in the American case.

“Internationally, it’s been a mixed picture” for Apple, said James Bessen, an economist and lecturer at the Boston University School of Law. “Part of that is because most other countries don’t have the same attitude toward software patenting that the U.S. has.”

For both companies, Japan makes up a far smaller proportion of sales than the all-important American market. But the Tokyo ruling suggests that despite Apple’s victory last week, the jostling between the two companies for the upper hand in the fast-growing smartphone and tablet businesses is just beginning.

The Tokyo District Court ruled that Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones and tablets did not violate an Apple patent on technology that synchronizes music and videos between devices and servers.

Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., sued Samsung in Tokyo last year in a case that sought 100 million yen, or $1.3 million, in damages.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

Apple-Samsung Case Muddies the Future of Innovation

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Monday, August 27, 2012

Apple-Samsung Case Muddies the Future of Innovation

By NICK WINGFIELD

Apple’s victory on Friday in a patent lawsuit against Samsung could, if upheld, give its rivals a kick in the pants to create more original products.

Whether consumers respond by buying the more distinctive devices is another question entirely.

Consider the case of Windows Phone, Microsoft’s operating system for smartphones, which looks almost nothing like the Apple software for iPhones and iPads. Reviewers have praised Windows Phone for its fresh, distinctive design, with bold typography and a tile system for using phone functions.

But the phones, including the Lumia 900 from Nokia, have not sold well.

Microsoft’s product has not gained traction for a number of possible reasons, among them the big lead its rivals had in the marketplace and the relatively weak distribution of its main partner, Nokia. But the experience shows that any flourishing of innovative products prompted by the Samsung verdict may not translate into success for Apple’s rivals.

People across the technology industry have expressed concerns about the future of innovation after a nine-person jury ruled in Apple’s favor last week in Federal District Court in San Jose, Calif. The jury said Samsung smartphone and tablet products violated a series of Apple patents protecting a number of designs and functions — including the rectangular shape and rounded edges of the iPhone and the pinch-to-zoom gesture that magnifies an image on Apple devices.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

Disruptions: Apple Patent Fight With Samsung Spills Some iPhone and iPad Secrets

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Monday, August 06, 2012

Disruptions: Apple Patent Fight With Samsung Spills Some iPhone and iPad Secrets

By NICK BILTON

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Back in the early 1930s, a magician by the name of Horace Goldin went to court to defend his signature illusion: sawing a woman in half.

Mr. Goldin filed a lawsuit against the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company for using this magic trick in an advertisement and explaining how it worked. According to an article in The New York Times from March 1933, Mr. Goldin, who had won a patent for the illusion a decade earlier, asserted that the ad had adversely affected his ability to get people to see his shows. He asked for $50,000 in damages. (That's about $865,000 in today's dollars.)

I thought about Mr. Goldin last week as I sat in a federal courtroom here in the capital city of Silicon Valley. I listened to evidence presented in a patent lawsuit that Apple has brought against Samsung Electronics. Apple claims that Samsung copied its designs for the iPhone and the iPad.

You see, even just by filing his patent, and then using it to litigate, Mr. Goldin publicly drew attention to the secrets of his profession. Apple, by going to a jury trial to defend the patents of its most prized products, is also allowing competitors and the public to see inside one of the most secretive companies in the world.

Steven P. Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, was very much in the mold of a magician. People often spoke of being sucked into a "reality distortion field" as he pitched his new products. Anyone who closely watched those dramatic announcements may recall how he repeatedly used the word "magical" to describe his latest devices.

News Release from Symantec - GALAXY

Norton Mobile Security Protects Samsung GALAXY Smartphone Users Worldwide

 

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – March 6, 2012 – Norton by Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced that Samsung Electronics will provide Norton Mobile Security, an application for Android OS, to select smartphone users worldwide. Samsung will offer a full-featured, complimentary 90-day subscription of Norton Mobile Security in multiple languages to Samsung GALAXY users through Samsung Apps.

“We are pleased to extend our valued relationship with Samsung by helping to protect more of its customers’ devices and data from theft, loss and mobile threats,” said Janice Chaffin, group president, Consumer Business Unit, Symantec. “With smartphone sales now outpacing PC sales, cybercriminals are devising new threats everyday to steal from mobile users. Consumers need to be protected more than ever.”

Norton Mobile Security combines anti-theft features with powerful antimalware to protect user’s important data from loss, theft, viruses and other threats through the following features:

• Remote Locate — Shows you the location of your smartphone so you can find if it’s lost or stolen.
• Remote Lock — Lets you remotely lock your lost or stolen phone via the Internet or SMS to keep critical data safe and block unauthorized access.
• Remote Wipe — Lets you remotely erase the data on your phone via SMS, blocking access to your private information. In addition, your phone is instantly locked if its SIM card is removed or replaced, so it can’t be used with another SIM card.
• Anti-malware — Scans all files and application updates downloaded to your mobile phone and automatically detects and removes threats without slowing you down.
• SD Card Scanning — Gives you the option of automatically scanning SD (Secure Digital) memory cards for threats when you plug them into mobile phone.
• Automatic LiveUpdate — Automatically downloads and installs security updates keeping you a step ahead of cybercriminals.

Norton Mobile Security can be downloaded from the ‘Utility’ category in Samsung Apps or by entering ‘Norton Mobile Security’ into the search query at the Samsung Apps. Norton Mobile Security supports all Samsung Galaxy Android smartphones, including Galaxy S2 LTE, Galaxy S2, Galaxy Neo, Galaxy S Hoppin and Galaxy A. It is available in nine languages, including Korean, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, and Traditional Chinese languages. A one-year license costs $29.99USD.