All reports indicate that the recent bad blood between Apple and Samsung shows no signs of abatement. Over the past year, the two companies have each filed lawsuits against the other, driven by allegations of patent infringement, and Samsung has already announced plans to take Apple to court again as soon as the iPhone 5 arrives in Korea - and the battles only seem to have just begun.
In recent weeks, though, the battles between the two has left the courts and entered the PR realm. The contention started with Samsung’s release of the Galaxy S II, and it was only further heightened with Apple’s recent announcement of the iPhone 4S.
When Samsung introduced the Galaxy S II, it touted the phone as the slimmest smartphone in the world. This was based on a technicality: at its narrowest point, the Samsung galaxy s2 is 8.71 mm, thinner than the iPhone 4’s depth of 9.3 mm. But Apple was quick to dispute these claims, noting that the Galaxy has a bulge at one end that is 9.91 mm wide. Even though the Galaxy is still thinner on average, consumers care more about fitting the widest part of a phone into their pockets than the narrowest, as Apple pointed out. The issue was contentiously debated before the United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which ruled in Apple’s favor.
The feud then quieted for several weeks, but flared up again with Apple’s announcement of the iPhone 4S. Within a day of the phone’s unveiling, Samsung sent out a string of emails that favorably compared the Galaxy II to the new iPhone. The emails noted the Galaxy’s superior network speed, display, internal memory, and price.
With some early reports backing up Samsung’s claim that it offers a better product, and in light of the lackluster public reception to the iPhone 4S, it would seem that the Korean manufacturer has a slight edge in the current feud. But, considering how these two companies have battled over the past year, it is hard to imagine that a clear victor will emerge anytime soon. In fact, this seems to be only the beginning to what will soon emerge as the Smart Phone wars - not only amongst Apple and Samsung, but against several other competing smart phone developers as well.
