Engineering News

Saw this post by Enrique Gutierrez on Google+ a couple of days ago. It's worth a read...

-----

I can't make this stuff up

I'm sitting in a Starbucks doing random whatever over an iced americano. While I was waiting for my drink, I watched a guy with his friend pick up a newspaper and remark on the Samsung Apple verdict.

Guy: "Wait, so what they're saying is, Samsung is the same as Apple?"

Friend: "I know, right? Makes me think twice about how much I paid for my Mac Book"

Guy: "Seriously."

Not 10 minutes later, a husband and wife, same newspaper:

Husband: "... Samsung's iPad is the same as Apple's iPad, and I paid how much for the Apple one? Honey, I told you they were a ripoff", after looking up the Samsung tablet on his iPhone.

Wife: "Oh wow," looking at the screen, "... that's a lot cheaper. Think we can return it?"

I put my Samsung QX410 on my table, and started to plug in, when he leans over to me,

"Sorry, you don't mind if I ask, how much did you pay for your Samsung laptop?"

"Oh, no worries, it was $700." I replied. I watched shock overcome his face, like actual shock. He looked at me, blankly, for an awkward amount of time, "Mind if I have a look?" he asked. So, I obliged and showed him a few things. He commented on Windows 7, so I opened up my virtual machine of OS/X... By the time the conversation was over, he was ready to kick Cupertino in the nuts, I think....

Now, the punchline: I'm writing this post after the FOURTH group of Starbucks patrons have made the connection that Samsung is now the same as Apple. They don't know the details, they don't really care, what they know is Apple is saying that Samsung is the same as Apple ... and with one simple Google Search, you get prices that are basically half for what seems to be the same products -- for nearly everything.

Two of these groups (including the husband/wife) asked me about my Samsung laptop, the second group noticed my Galaxy phone (also by Samsung)...

Best billion dollar ad-campaign Samsung ever had.

-----

I forwarded a link to Enrique Gutierrez' post to Samsung Global's PR contact. This would make one helluva TV advert reenacted just as he describes.

Sure, it's a lot cheaper to reverse engineer than to engineer in the first place. Just take the intellectual property in those patents Apple did all the work for, make a few mods, and voila, you've got a cheaper copy of the Apple product.

That's what Microsoft did to Apple. Once they saw Apple had a winning design, they copied it for Windows. Only, in that case, a lot of the intellectual property was developed by Xerox PARC, so Apple didn't own it.

And no, I'm no fanboy of Apple. I've never owned an Apple product until about 6 weeks ago, when I bought an iPhone.

That's what Microsoft did to Apple. Once they saw Apple had a winning design, they copied it for Windows. Only, in that case, a lot of the intellectual property was developed by Xerox PARC, so Apple didn't own it.

Microsoft and Apple Partnered. And afterwhich 'Dollar Bill' Gates saw the advancement and stole the technology.

"Dollar Bill's" Microsoft, must feel really proud that its apprentice 'Apple' past the mentor

You consider me the young apprentice

Caught between the Scylla and Charybdis

Hypnotized by you if I should linger

Staring at the ring around your finger

.

I have only come here seeking knowledge

Things they would not teach me of in college

I can see the destiny you sold

Turned into a shining band of gold

.

I'll be wrapped around your finger

I'll be wrapped around your finger

.

Mephistopheles is not your name

I know what you're up to just the same

I will listen hard to your 'tuition

You will see it come to its fruition

.

I'll be wrapped around your finger

I'll be wrapped around your finger

.

Devil and the deep blue sea behind me

Vanish in the air you'll never find me

I will turn your flesh to alabaster

When you will find your servant is your master

.

Ohhh, you'll be wrapped around my finger

You'll be wrapped around my finger

You'll be wrapped around my finger

-----

Wrapped Around Your Finger

The Police

another irony of

Life imitates art.

One choice we have is to vote with our pocketbooks. I've been doing that for some time now, and this latest legal horsesh!t has done nothing but make me dig in my heels all the more so. Apple is quickly epitomising all that I utterly loathe about Corporate America.

I also feel that Apple has won the battle, but because of the precedents they're setting as the world's foremost patent trolls, they're ultimately going to lose the war for everyone: to China. China doesn't give a crap about these corporate courtroom shenanigans and has the muscle to prove it.

Too right. People like choice, regardless of what manufacturer they stand behind. Competition is being squashed by a company that plans the obsolecence of their products. Next company on their radar? Microsoft. Steve Jobs may be dead, but his hatred lives on.

This win is an outgrowth of the paten law (hidden in a labor bill) signed last September. Ever since, Apple and Samsung have been on a buying spree of other companies who owned patens so they could gear up for this war.

The law stated that it didn't matter who invented something, it only mattered who wrote the paten first. So the real winners are the clever paten attorneys who can write patens on obscure components of software and sue you out of making whatever clever device you invented.

This was a giant stride down the road to the evil dystopian corporate ruled future of science fiction nightmares. If we have ceased to evolve physically, and the only hope for a continuation of the species is technology, this is an extinction event.

-A-

http://www.ip-watch.org/2011/09/16/us-patent-reform-signed-into-law/

I've never been willing to pay Apple prices for Apple products because the cost versus benefit has never been there for any of my requirements. I will sit on the sidelines until this pissing contest is over and the dust finally settles. My wife bought an iPad because it was the right tool for the job she has to do as an independent insurance adjuster, not because she was enamoured with Apple's mystique.

Patent law is definitely a double-edged sword when it comes to innovation.