iPhoneIndiaBlog.com

This new ad from Samsung depicts its user as hip and cool while the Apple fans are still waiting outside in line for launch day and eager to take the first unboxing photos. The below commercial sounds quite funny and highlights the turn-by-turn maps navigation that comes built into the Samsung Galaxy S II, a feature which doesn’t come standard on the iPhone. And you will hear a new word, “Samsunged!”

Macrumors covers Samsung’s attempt to evoke the same type of emotion Apple typically employs in its own ads. One youtube ad (removed by user a while back) depicted a father and daughter playing with a Galaxy Tab in a sequence of shots reminiscent of Apple’s own iPad ads. The voice over says (rough translation):

You try to have fun with me, you try to win against me, you ask me millions of questions, you sit on my lap, you want to stay beside me all the time, strangely, when I stay with you time passes very quickly. This is a precious time.”

Macrumors goes on to say that the ad was posted to YouTube on December 14th. For reference, Apple’s own ads have long followed a similar style, focusing on experience than spec. While Apple doesn’t have an exclusive claim to this style of ad, it just shows how Samsung is trying to position their products comparably to Apple.

[via - Macrumors]

UPDATE: Heres that Samsung’s ad.

Samsung is continuing with its anti-Apple campaign. This time a new advertising showing Apple fans still waiting on absurdly long lines for a new iPhone. This Galaxy S II commercial seems to exploit the line waiters theme all over again. Check it out:

Samsung user asks those in the line for the iPhone “You guys are still here?” then proceeds to laugh at them insisting that his Galaxy S II keeps all his content. “I have all my playlists right here, my music streams from the cloud and I have tons of places to buy my music,” he says to his iPhone toting friends who stare at his device looking bewildered.

Last week Samsung posted their quarterly earnings and they passed iPhone sales by an estimate 10 million units. Samsung shipped about 27.8 million smartphones, up nearly 4 times annually and 44% sequentially. This gave Samsung a 23.8 percent global market share in smartphones vs. 14.8 percent for Apple. According to 9to5Mac, such a strong growth is attributed to their Galaxy smartphones, particularly the Galaxy S II model which sold 10 million units in the five months since its introduction:

After just one quarter in the top spot, Apple slipped behind Samsung to second position and captured 15 percent share. Apple’s global smartphone growth rate slowed to just 21 percent annually in Q3 2011, its lowest level for two years. We believe Apple’s growth during the third quarter was affected by consumers and operators awaiting the launch of the new iPhone 4S in the fourth quarter, volatile economic conditions in several key countries, and tougher competition from Samsung’s popular Galaxy S II model.

Apple also slid to fifth place in Strategy Analytics’s worldwide cell phone rankings as ZTE shipped 18.5 million handsets for a five percent global market share. Apple CEO Tim Cook said at the October 4 iPhone 4S introduction that iPhone had five percent share of the global cell phone market, hinting at Apple’s phone strategy:

Source – 9to5Mac

Looks like Apple has finally concluded that Samsung will provide A6 chips for iPhone, Korea Times reported yesterday. “Apple has been in talks with Samsung over shipment of its A6 quad-core mobile processor chips to be used in the next iPhone,” an anonymous parts supplier executive told The Korea Times. Samsung’s vice chairman and CEO Gee-Sung Choi said his company’s legal battles will be handled separately from its business partnership with the iPhone maker.

There had been speculation that Apple would shift its chip sourcing channel to Samsung rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC).
`Samsung Electronics will apply its advanced 28-nanometer processing technology to produce qualified A6 mobile APs. TSMC will provide customized chips with designs from Apple, however, the volume will be very small,’’ said the executive.

Apple will become Samsung’s biggest overseas client by the end of this year, according to industry analysts, after buying over $8 billion worth of components including liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and memory chips.

The Register has just reported that Samsung has today by filed for preliminary injunctions on the iPhone 4S in Japan and Australia. Samsung wants to stop the sale of iPhone 4 and iPad 2. Samsung is citing four infringements in its Japanese case, one on high-speed packet access (HSPA), which is standards-related, and three on user interfaces.

Usually, when companies get together and form a standard like 3G or HSPA, they all agree to issue licences on their patents in the standard on a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) basis – in other words, you have to give out licences even to those firms you don’t like very much, like your competitors.

In Japan, Samsung is arguing that three of its user interface (UI) patents are being infringed, “specifically UIs for the ‘in flight mode’ indicator (airplane icon); for customizing a smartphone’s home screen; and for browsing applications categorized in a tree structure (in an apps store)”, the Samsungs blog said. Back in Oz, Samsung is playing the old standards infringement card again for the iPhone 4S, this time for three patents related to wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) and HSPA, as well as appealing against the country’s decision to temporarily ban sales of its Galaxy Tab 10.1.

“In light of these violations, Samsung believes the sale of such Apple devices should be banned. Apple has continued to violate our patent rights and free ride on our technology. We will no longer stand idly by and will steadfastly protect our intellectual property,” Samsung reported.

Hats off to Google and Samsung who have delayed their CTIA launch event, widely expected to involve the introduction of their next generation Ice Cream Sandwich Android OS, and Nexus Prime handset, in deference to the recent passing of Steve Jobs.

“We believe this is not the right time to announce a new product as the world expresses tribute to Steve Jobs’s passing.”

Awesome!!!

Heres the official word from Kim Titus, director of public relations for Samsung Telecommunications America:

“Samsung and Google have decided to postpone the Samsung Mobile Unpacked event during the CTIA in San Diego, previously scheduled for Oct. 11. Under the current circumstances, both parties have agreed that this is not the appropriate time for the announcement of a new product.  We would ask for the understanding of our clients and media for any inconvenience caused. We will announce a new date and venue in due course.”

Samsung is attempting to get a full out ban of iPhones and iPads in the Netherlands. They’ve sued Apple on infringement of four patents and not only want a ban but a full retail recall of any device that uses 3G technology. Macworld covered this yesterday, The first hearing in the case is scheduled for Monday. Samsung in The Netherlands is demanding a preliminary injunction against all mobile products of Apple “specifically iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad 1, and iPad 2.”

“Should it turn out that Apple entered the market without taking licenses to essential patents, then that’s indefensible and Apple should pay,” …”However, it doesn’t justify an abuse of standards-essential patents. Asking for an injunction is an abuse unless the request for the injunction is limited to the scenario in which the defendant doesn’t accept to pay FRAND royalties.”

Patent consultant and activist Florian Mueller applauded this decision.

“I think the court in The Hague does the right thing by evaluating those FRAND issues first,” Mueller said. “This can simplify the whole case because it may reduce it to the question of whether Apple owes Samsung any money, and if so, how much, without any need to talk about an injunction.”

But at the end of the day Apple will probably just pay the royalties if ordered to and there will still be iPhones and iPads equipped with 3G for all.

[via  - Macworld]

iPhone 5 hasn’t yet been released and Samsung is already prepping a legal onslaught on the iPhone 5, according to a report. The Korea Times claims that Samsung Electronics is seeking a complete ban on the sales of the upcoming Apple iPhone 5 in Korea. The move is thought to be in retaliation for several patent-related lawsuits involving the two companies in countries all over the world, one of the latest of which is the UK. Samsung’s senior executive has reported that:

“Just after the arrival of the iPhone 5 here, Samsung plans to take Apple to court here for its violation of Samsung’s wireless technology related patents,”

“For as long as Apple does not drop mobile telecommunications functions, it would be impossible for it to sell its i-branded products without using our patents. We willstick to a strong stance against Apple during the lingering legal fights.”

Samsung has appealed against rulings in Germany and Australia, though as the report notes, has resisted a full-on dogfight with Apple over the lawsuits.

“Apple is Samsung’s biggest customer. Hewlett-Packard (HP), Nokia and Sony were Samsung’s previous big clients, however, Apple is now a primary one. From our perspective, we are not entirely happy (about the litigations),’’ Samsung CEO Choi Gee-sung said.

Finally this rumor has been confirmed. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has reportedly begun trial production of Apple’s next-generation A6 chip using a new 28-nm process, down from the 40-nm process used in the current A5 chip. Digitimes reports that Apple’s deal with TSMC may be even more extensive than first thought, extending beyond the A6 to the following generation, which would presumably be called the A7.

Industry speculation has long been circulated saying that Samsung Electronics would no longer be the exclusive manufacturer of silicon designed for Apple’s iOS devices. TSMC was pinpointed as Apple’s new potential foundry partner, but many analysts still believe that TSMC is unlikely to land orders from Apple until 2012.

Apple has recently signed a foundry partnership agreement with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), industry sources have claimed. Under the terms of the agreement, TSMC will apply its 28nm and 20nm process technologies to produce Apple’s next-generation CPUs, according to the sources.

Its said that TSMC has aggressively pursued Apple’s business with commitments to move the technology rapidly forward, also offering Apple the opportunity to shift production away from Samsung, which has become a fierce adversary in the smartphone and tablet market with its own Android-based products.

Apple and TSMC, however, have not yet talked about backend manufacturing, the sources said. It is likely that Apple will have TSMC and the other dedicated packaging and testing house split the orders due to TSMC’s limited available capacity for backend services, the sources speculated

Over the weekend Apple won something very important, it managed to block Samsung from selling its iPad competitor products in Germany and in greater Europe.  IFA show starts this week and its like CES, pan-European event and showcases new consumer products from just about everyone except Apple, reports 9to5Mac.

Most of the buzz this year however is around two of Samsung’s new products, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 and the Galaxy Note 5.3. Both have 1280×800 SuperAMOLED Displays and run Android 3.2 but the Tab falls under the line of products that Apple is trying to block and is currently under a set of injunctions in various parts of the world.

Earlier Samsung was showing the 7.7 devices to reporters with “not for sale in Germany” stickers attached. However last night, Samsung started removing the devices from the floor and covering up the advertisements like the product never existed.

Image via ThisismyNext

And then Bloomberg reported:

Samsung, Apple’s closest rival in tablet computers, pulled the just-unveiled Galaxy Tab 7.7 out of the IFA consumer- electronics show in Berlin after a Dusseldorf court on Sept. 2 granted Apple’s request to ban sales and marketing of the product, James Chung, a Seoul-based spokesman for Samsung, said by telephone today.

“Samsung respects the court’s decision,” Chung said, adding that the company believes it “severely limits consumer choice in Germany.” Samsung will pursue all available options, including legal action, to defend its intellectual property rights, he said.

Looks like this time Apple was successful in making Samsung block the whole Tab line.  The Tab 7.7 is much smaller than the iPad weighing only 334 grams, yet has a higher resolution screen – so it appears that Apple’s injunction is very broad.

Looks like Samsung is getting pinched badly by Apple. Foss Patents covered this news a while back, stating that Apple’s been granted a preliminary injunction to stop sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 across the entire European Union on the basis of patent infringement.

The leading German news agency, dpa, just reported that Apple has been granted a preliminary injunction against Samsung’s Android-based Galaxy Tab 10.1, barring with immediate effect all distribution of the product in the entire European Union except for the Netherlands on the grounds of an alleged infringement of Apple’s iPad-related [European] Community design no. 000181607-0001. I can confirm that Apple has a separate lawsuit underway in the Netherlands as well, asserting the same Community design. This was also confirmed by a court in The Hague to Dutch website Webwereld. There are differences in competition law between Germany and the Netherlands, which is why Apple filed separate lawsuits. In Germany, Apple asserts not only an infringement of the said Community design but also cites unfair competition grounds, denouncing the Galaxy Tab as an iPad imitation.

Gizmodo says Samsung has already been barred from selling its tablet in Australia, where it lost a similar case against Apple.