I’m never one to always be negative about something I don’t like (he said, casually glancing at his collection of Apple products). Even in the universally despised territory of software patent lawsuits you can find a tiny grain of something positive – if you look hard enough. This time around, it’s karma. Due to Apple’s aggressive patent lawsuits, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has actually gained in popularity – the exact opposite of the anti-competitive intentions Cupertino had. Update: “The tablet Apple tried to stop”. Oh Samsung, you cheeky monkey.
Personally, I honestly don’t care about tablets all that much. I have an iPad 2, and I think it’s a neat device and that the product category has potential, but I only used it as much as I did because I didn’t have a laptop. I bought a new laptop a few months ago (an ASUS Zenbook), and since then, my iPad 2 has been relegated to bathroom duty almost exclusively. Still, the karmatastic story of Apple’s lawsuits actually making the Galaxy Tab more popular is something I can’t pass up.
A few days after the Australian courts definitively lifted the ban on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, Samsung Australia’s vice president of telecommunications, Tyler McGee (related to this personal hero of mine?), stated that Apple’s lawsuits have actually made the device a “household name”.
“At the end of the day the media awareness certainly made the Galaxy Tab 10.1 a household name compared to probably what it would’ve been based on the investment that we would’ve put into it from a marketing perspective,” McGee told The Sydney Morning Herald. McGee didn’t reveal how many sales Samsung missed out on as a result of the temporary ban.
This is, of course, a tasty and delightful serving of karma for Apple. The company clearly set out to use software and design patent lawsuits as an anti-competitive club, but instead of reducing competition, they may have actually made the competition stronger.
In the end, we can only hope all these anti-competitive offensive software and design patent lawsuits turn out like this. Sure, there’s a lot of wasted money here on both sides, but at least the defendant gets rewarded with more sales, and the aggressor punished with lower sales (although I’m fairly sure it’ll barely register as a blip in Apple’s radar, and that the iPad will continue to dominate for at least a while).
So, even insipid patent trolling can have a somewhat positive outcome. Isn’t that something to take home while we slowly but surely creep towards Christmas?
In the US at least (not sure about rest of the world), the Transformer Prime is about to make the Galaxy Tab (and all other current Android tablets on the market) look like last gen tech. It’s very thin and light like the Tab, but has a quad core CPU, and is not infected with the Touchwiz bloatware, and Asus releases OS updates very quickly, unlike Samsung. The Prime will probably be the first tablet to get ice cream sandwich.
Edited 2011-12-14 23:29 UTC
first “good” tablet.
http://www.pdfdevices.com/first-tablet-with-android-ice-cream-sandw…
The Transformer Prime looks pretty meh. Hoping something better will come along or the next gen will be decent.
Got myself the first gen of eee pad transformer ( I have been looking at the prime and the zenbook with envy since). I could say I’m very satisfied. But raw proccessing power is not everything (As Apple has proved). Plus this Tablet processing power race make me think of soundcards, processor, graphic cards, these are time when buying an android tablet make it obsolete already (it’s a good thing they are already running linux, in a way).
i don’t really understand how touchwiz is bloated.
Although this makes great fodder, pretty much impossible to quantitatively say that the two are directly correlated to the extent it is being suggested.
I don’t think many people are aware of the lawsuit stuff and the ones that do already know what’s on the tablet market.
Customers look at advertising, prices and offers. Most won’t even read any reviews and buy a tablet because it looks nice and it was an offer. And as the Tab looks and smells like an iPad those customers probably think they bought a Samsung iPad.
Only 2 weeks ago this guy at work asked me what to buy. I told him to get an iPad. Then he got a call from his wife who was at the store to get an iPad, but she had bought some weird brand tablet. The sales guy had told her it was basically the same as an iPad and they were giving them away at a lower price.
You contradict yourself. Somebody didn’t just “look at advertising, prices and offers”, somebody asked you (with inevitable response, but that’s beside the point), somebody also asked a shop clerk. And at the very least, you and that clerk follow the market a little more closely than “ads, etc.”, probably in part also thanks to the recent court circus.
” Foad Fadaghi, telecommunications analyst with Telsyte, said while the coverage of the case highlighted the plight of iPad competitors, he did not believe that awareness would directly translate to sales.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/tablets/apple-made-galaxy-tab-a-…
WTF? Thom do better. We used to respect you man, but now…
…?
To top it off and I mean it, if I was in charge of Sammy, I’d setup a short exchange program and offer a free Galaxy Tab 10.1 for everyone that’s willing to give up their iPad purchased in the last 6 months while the ban lasted or even give away (literally) free Galaxy Tabs! (It’s been done before with the $2 Galaxy SII deal which is pretty much free). LOL Apple would go nuts
Edited 2011-12-15 09:04 UTC
I’d offer a $50 trade-in for any iPad or iPhone on a new Samsung phone or tablet and call it “cash for clunkers”.
Edited 2011-12-15 12:00 UTC
I have “moderated” you recently so I can’t vote for you today. This will have to do. (;
Much like Mercedes would go mad if Honda offered a free Honda car for every Mercedes handed to them? They would go mad with laughter.
This analogy is not accurate. An Apple product is not like a luxury car (nor like a race car).
An Apple product is more analogous to the current VW Beetle: a cute, retro, oversimplified look that appeals to feminine/fashion leanings; and overpriced for what you are getting under the hood.
Edited 2011-12-16 18:08 UTC
Hey, maybe he meant some beat Mercedes truck, bus or van (the real products of Daimler AG, passenger cars are just a side business) and Honda NSX? (that’s how this car was known to most of the world)
😉
Yes these two companies seem at total war now.
Samsung’s new phone related adds against Apple is reported by yougov to have some effect.
The adds target the coolness factor.
It’s strange seeing this adds where companies is directly attacking the competition.
In my country comparative advertising is not permitted.
Wished it was!
Samsungs campaign
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/is-samsungs-apple-fanboy-bashing…
Nokia’s campaign
http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/12/13/nokia.persuades.self….
is good because it increases awareness is at work here, I suppose.
That aside, Samsung is covering all bases by offering smartphones and tablets in various sizes, while Apple has just two sizes, the iPod Touch/iPhone and the iPad. Shouldn’t Apple be concerned that it doesn’t have direct competitors to tablets that fall in the middle? There’s a group of people who are in Goldilock’s predicament where the iPod is too small and the iPad is too big.
Yes, size matters. I really, really want a Galaxy Note. I wrote to Santa begging to put one under the tree. If not I hope global warming fcks up his palace.
I can’t tell if Apple’s lawsuits will increase marketshare for Samsung but it has increased mindshare. The Galaxy Tab is the only Android tablet many people outside the tech geeks circles will know by name.
Can we just assume that all news articles by this author are actually editorials before wasting our time reading them?
Since it’s been this way for almost three years, and since we announced as such very specifically late December 2008 – yes. Since I write 98% of OSNews’ content, I’m a little surprised you’re, uhm, surprised, but alas.
I have been looking for a new phone recently. I’ve noticed how incredibly dated the iPhone/iPad design now seems. It is just another one of many similar black and chrome minimalist designs.
In fact the only really interesting looking phone IMHO is the (red or blue) Nokia N9.
Edited 2011-12-16 04:36 UTC
Why don’t you buy a children’s slate? You seemed so hyped up about it recently.
I had one when I was five years old. The novelty has gone.
I agree, faced with a corporate choice of iPhone or Blackberry, i went naturally for the newer thing (had been using a Blackberry for 3+ years) but the iPhone does feel dated and also dysfunctional; it’s often slow to respond and certain interface elements are just plain wrong (‘search’ so close to ‘add new contact’ tab in contacts to make it difficult to use; auto-complete being available in some areas but not others; in German getting words with auto-complete that are annoyingly incorrect – try typing the frequent adjective ‘gut’ (good) plus ‘e’ for female nouns without getting ‘Güte’, the noun for ‘Kindness’ repeatedly offered – I am sure there must be numerous other examples). Almost beginning to think it is just the cool factor that you are buying (into).
All the current smartphones are bulky with lousy battery life.
I may even resurrect my old 2007 vintage Nokia candy bar – half the size, half the weight and twice the battery life of a smartphone. It has survived being dropped quite a few times and has even had an accidental trip through the washing machine undamaged.
I was about to post a long reply endorsing your view about the current crop of smartphones when my iPhone battery died on me. Says it all, really.
I’ve thought about the perfect phone:
– <$50 unlocked
– excellent reception
– big raised buttons
– bright colours so you don’t lose it
– non-slip tough case
– shockproof
– powered by rechargeable AAA batteries.
– reasonably waterproof.
– does nothing except make calls and send SMS
– 300 hour standby
– 12 hour talk time
Just like a typical (apart from the batteries) low end Nokia or Samsung from the mid 2000s.
Edited 2011-12-18 08:00 UTC