Why Apple is suing Samsung

Galaxy S
Apple reckons Samsung might have seen an iPhone or two

Where there's a hit, there's a writ - especially in the smartphone industry, where firms often seem to spend more time suing one another than they do actually making phones.

So it's not entirely surprising that Samsung has attracted the attention of Apple's legal rottweilers. This is, after all, a firm whose - great - products tend to be reviewed using terms such as "Looks like an iPhone".

There's no doubt in our minds that somebody at Samsung might possibly have seen an iPhone, and maybe an iPad too. The Galaxy S looks awfully like the iPhone, and Samsung's own TouchWiz user interface looks rather like iOS. Apple reckons that's no coincidence, and according to the WSJ it alleges that Samsung "chose to copy Apple's technology, user interface and innovative style".

Samsung has two choices here. It can argue that function dictates form, that there are only so many ways you can operate a phone or tablet with a touch screen and that its technology evolved independently. Or it can shut up and give Apple some cash.

My money's on the latter.

Friends like these

Samsung has an interesting relationship with Apple. On the one hand it's a competitor, a smartphone and tablet firm whose products target the same kinds of customer as Apple's smartphones and tablets.

But on the other hand, as the Wall Street Journal points out, "Samsung makes microchips that are used in some Apple products as well as memory chips used in the MacBook Pro computer line".

Those microchips are the A4 and A5 processors you'll find in the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 respectively, and they represent a pretty big chunk of work for Samsung's manufacturing arm.

I think what Apple's doing here is firing a shot across Samsung's bows, reminding it that what's good for Samsung's mobile devices division isn't necessarily good for the rest of the organisation - and that just because Apple and Samsung are friends in one area doesn't mean Apple will be all sweetness and light in any other area.

It's hard to imagine Samsung execs bellowing "screw you, Steve!" and risking what's presumably a fairly lucrative business - A4 and A5 devices outsell Samsung Galaxy devices by a factor of about eleventy billion, and what those sales lack in margin for Samsung they'll almost certainly make up in volume - so what I suspect will happen is that this case will be settled fairly quickly.

That's certainly what Apple wants. It's inevitable that its market dominance will be eroded - we've seen it happen in smartphones, and we'll see it happen with tablets - but it's not going to let that happen without a fight. Like the earlier suit against HTC, Apple's action against Samsung is part of a bigger picture: it's going after Android, one firm at a time.

TOPICS
Carrie Marshall
Contributor

Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now and her next book, about pop music, is out in 2025. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind.

Latest in Phones
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge on display the January 22, 2025 Galaxy Unpacked event.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge colors seemingly revealed in new video, and there’s another sign of an imminent launch
Apple iPhone 16 Pro REVIEW
The iPhone 17 Air looks impressively slim in this new comparison image, but that just makes me more worried about the specs
Two Android phones on a green and blue background showing Google Messages
Google Messages just added a fun upgrade to one of its best chat features
Samsung Galaxy S25 on a blue deals background
Bored with your iPhone? The ‘incredible’ Samsung Galaxy S25 just hit a record-low price in the Amazon Spring Sale
Samsung Galaxy S25 from the front
The Now Bar on Samsung One UI 7 is about to get a lot more useful – and could soon match Live Activities on iOS
An iPhone running iOS 18 on a purple and blue background
iOS 18.4 could launch soon with a major upgrade to your iPhone’s notifications
Latest in News
Garmin clippd integration
Garmin's golf watches just got a big software integration upgrade to help you improve your game
Robert Downey Jr reveals himself as Doctor Doom to a delighted crowd at San Diego Comic-Con 2024
Marvel is currently making a major announcement about Avengers: Doomsday's cast on YouTube, and I think it's going to be a long-winded reveal
Samsung QN90F on yellow background
Samsung announces US prices for its 2025 mini-LED TV lineup, and it’s good and bad news
Nintendo Switch Lite
Forget the Nintendo Switch 2, the original Switch is getting one last hurrah in a surprise Nintendo Direct tomorrow
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge on display the January 22, 2025 Galaxy Unpacked event.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge colors seemingly revealed in new video, and there’s another sign of an imminent launch
Microsoft Copiot Studio deep reasoning and agent flows
Microsoft reveals OpenAI-powered Copilot AI agents to bosot your work research and data analysis