The relationship between Apple and Samsung is really representative of the complexity of the links of all the companies connected to the mobile phone sector.
In recent months the two giants have both been involved in a legal battle over copyright infringement..
The 15 April a 38 page complaint was lodged by Apple reproaching Samsung for flagrant copying of both the design and the user interface of its iPhone Smartphone and iPad tablet .
As fast as expected Samsung reacted the 22 April with complaints in 3 countries (Japan, Germany and Korea) indicating that Apple could have infringed 10 patents. The latter concerns the electrical capacity control, data transmission and wireless telecommunications technologies.
It should be noted that this legal rivalry comes on the occasion of a favoured commercial relationship between these two giants. Samsung is the principal hardware supplier of Apple (flash memory, RAM memory, flat screens and above all the microprocessors). These contracts bring in around $ 5.7 billion per year to Samsung, equivalent to 4% of its annual sales.
This example shows the complexity of the relationships between all the players in this sector which is in turn, linked to a lot of other sectors. If one of these big links breaks, it will be interesting to see the effect on this innovative sector!
Sources:
http://www.actutic.com/2011/04/conflit-samsung-apple-la-reponse-du-berger-a-la-bergere
http://www.lepost.fr/article/2011/04/26/2477633_apple-vs-samsung-explication-du-cas.html