The thing that I find so amusing is that Apple often has followed Samsung and other manufacturers over the years in very substantial ways. They do not innovate as much as they perfect the external appearance of a product and then add a few bells and whistles. Then you and the other fan boys proclaim that Apple has done something revolutionary.
I can come up with plenty of examples to make my point and you can come up with plenty to make your point. The two of us have gone round and round on this point over the years and there really is no way to win the argument. In human history there are few revolutionary developments and many evolutionary developments and tech companies give us many perfect examples. They all copy from each other and we never typically find out who the true innovators really are because they are treated like cogs in the wheel by the lawyers and executives who run the companies.
I recently reread THE HOME COMPUTER WARS by Michael S. Tomczyk, An Insider’s Account of Commodore and Jack Tramiel. We keep seeing the same things over and over again and it is going to keep going the same way for years to come.
Apple is a highly successful company with many mazing products that have helped shape the technology world as we now know it. But it is more the corporate savagery that has got them to where they are now as opposed to true innovation. Their teams of lawyers and aggressive executives greasing the palms of crony-capitalist politicians here and abroad are the true heart and soul of the company.
Swordmaker has brilliant posts and your comments from rereading Tomczyk’s book are accurate, in my opinion. “Their teams of lawyers... are the true heart and soul of the company.”
Good thieves feel regret when busted and bad thieves blame others when busted. Let’s see how Samsung responds in court. It is clear that Samsung stole from Apple.
I read Gil Amelio’s Firing Line in 1999 and learned how Amelio was blamed for many of Apple’s weaknesses by bad thieves who could not keep up with Jobs or Gates. Of course, Jobs stole from his engineers and blamed others when they asked for credit. Thus, Apple is genius, Samsung is copy cat, and both are not squeaky clean.