Samsung accuses Apple of 'free riding' its patent technologies

Justin2830 / sip : "$150 billion KRW. 1krw is worth .0009 USD. Also try apple had 7 billion in profit. Not net sales."

Hm.. it seems like you Apple fanboys are in denial. No, Samsung's annual sales in Korean Won is 154 *Trillion* KRW (see 2010 SEC filing) or slightly less than $140 *Billion* USD (at 1100 WON = 1 USD).

I think you guys know so little or nothing about Samsung. Samsung electronics is a major player in flash chips business - widely used in mobile devices. Samsung has about 37% of the market share, Toshiba has 30+%. Those two Asians makers pretty much dominate the market, so where else is Apple going to turn for flash now? Toshiba is also getting into tablet market. Have you ever seen AT200? The industry is very capital-intensive, know-how, low-margin, high-volume - you just won't see new suppliers big or reliable enough to meet Apple's demand any time soon. Apple's had production problem with display suppliers in the past and now there are rumors that Apple is possibly delaying iphone 4G/5 due to more production problems (ie, defects) from their new suppliers - I won't be too surprised if Apple again turns to Samsung to fill shortfall in chips/display).

You also need to understand the market dynamics. The mobile business is still growing at double-digit rate - the demand for their flash/cpu/display is growing at 20%; Samsung's Galaxy S2 already outselling iPhones in Japan, UK, and others; their share of worldwide smart phones sales is also growing at the fastest rate (now #2 behind Apple #1). It probably sucks to lose a big customer willing to put $2B-$3B USD up front in capital investment, but Samsung has much more to gain in the long run.

As for lawsuits impacting their sales, Galaxy 10.1 is relatively new and a tiny share of the overall sales for Samsung (not true for Apple's iPad). Sure, it's a "desirable product" (just bought one), but it's not a show stopper for Samsung. Also note, Apple's strength is in marketing / industrial design, but Samsung is a technology / manufacturing giant - and their patent porfolio (mostly in IT) reflects that - #1 IBM 5,896 (issued in US 2010 ), 4914 (2009) , #2 Samsung 4,551, 3611 vs. Apple's 563, 289.

I just hope that they don't get too carried away..

As a consumer (and a owner of 3 iPhones), I'm glad that Apple is taking Samsung's threat seriously.

Samsung has repeatedly been fined hundreds of millions of dollars by several countries over the last decade for price fixing memory. They've even had several executives go to prison, again, in different countries. The company does not seem to learn from their mistakes.

2002: 3 Samsung execs pay U.S. 250k in fines, each serve 8-14 months in prison for memory price fixing.
2005: Samsung pays U.S. $300 million fine for memory price fixing.
2006: 2 more Samsung execs pay U.S. 250k in fines, serve up to 10 months in prison for memory price fixing.
2007: Samsung pays E.U. $402 million fine for memory price fixing.
2008: Samsung chairman, vice-chairman, and chairman's son all resign over price fixing scandal an tax evasion charges. Investigation in Korea discovers Chairman Lee hid $4.8 billion in U.S. funds and did not pay taxes.

When I stop seeing Samsung parts (memory/SSD) in Apple products, I'll actually start believing that they aren't friends anymore.

Maybe, it is because of competition why these companies are filing lawsuit against each other. Both of them don’t want to be left behind so they find ways how to attack one another. But, I personally believe that Apple did well than Samsung.

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Ah sooooo! love you long time G.I. These Koreans are an embarrassment .

I'd think if Samsung actually created all these unique and valuable innovations, then their products would sell better...

Both sides are riding on the concept of lawsuits. How is that for breaking it down?

God, this is like the Clone Wars series, choked for all it's worth and everything otherwise useless about it.

Most reports are saying that Samsung itself is quoting 3G standards technologies (which are most likely covered by FRAND) and that all the noises coming out of Samsung are the same kind of noises made by Nokia. Samsung thinks that Apple may not want to be challenged in court in case Apple's own patents are voided.

In the meantime, Samsung is hurting real bad -- one division has lost out on Apple contracts because of the folly of another division which seems to be getting hog-tied in various jurisdictions over the Galaxy range of handsets.

Next, we may see Ford Motor Co suing Samsung for the use of the word Galaxy which Ford has used for its cars in the US since before I was born and for the MPV in the UK ;-)

I'm seriously starting to believe Samsung's primary business is comedy.