[jstsch]

I don't think it is appreciable, since Samsung is one of the biggest copycat companies ever. I was shopping for a washing machine recently, and it struck me how blatantly Samsung copies features from Miele. You can say what you want about Nokia and RIM, but they certainly have been innovative in the past. Samsung, not at all.

[dereg]

What blows my mind is how so many geeks have flocked to Samsung's side in the patent debacle of late. Samsung is one of the most "evil" corporations out there. They are one of the most shameless abusers of power in South Korea and are well known to suppress competition, free speech, and political dissent through their media influence.

Samsung's success (and their past means of achieving it) is nothing to be proud of.

[megablast]

Samsung has such a huge control over South Korea, i think I saw a study saying Samsumg's income is about 5% of Korea's GDP. Insane.

Not that it would make much difference, but it is crazy to see all the geeks embracing them so much.

[ZeroGravitas]

Yes, I stopped buying Apple products because they used so many Samsung parts.

[dereg]

Samsung actually contributes to a whopping twenty percent of South Korea's economy.

[icebraining]

What the hell does the patent issue have to do with free speech or political dissent? If you're against the patents on principle - like many are - it makes perfect sense to side with the one being targeted by them, regardless of what you think of them.

To paraphrase Beatrice Hall: "I disapprove of what you do, but I will defend to the death your right to be free from patent abusers".

[J3L2404]

>What blows my mind is how so many geeks have flocked to Samsung's side in the patent debacle of late.

Anyone but Apple.

[blub]

Not only are they copycats in virtually all their product lines (from tvs to washing machines), they are part of other unsavory activities such as price fixing and obstructing gov investigations.

I am personally trying to avoid their products, they don't deserve any kind of admiration whatsoever.

[yogrish]

I completely agree that it is a copycat, that's why I mentioned 'hook or crook'. But how many copy cats are making it to top in any sector. Some thing more is there with it technology wise or marketing wise. Would like to hear Any other thoughts.

[josephlord]

They are a copycat but one with brilliant industrial design capabilities (not just a nice product but efficient to assemble), a ruthless competitive streak, most complete supply chain of any CE company (screens, semi conductors and god knows what else). They buy their way into retail with high dealer margins and slightly different models for each retailer/carrier so that the dealers/carriers push them until they are dominant.

They also form part of the supply chain for most of their competitors so they can gain an information advantage.

In the TV market I think where they really took the lead in product development was with the ability to redesign the panel packaging to use it as structure for the TV and then to design for thinner a thinner bezels.

[TimGebhardt]

So they're successful because they're holistically thinking about the entire supply chain, rather than just think that a cool product will sell itself?

Wow, sounds like another company I've heard of...

[Samuel_Michon]

"how many copy cats are making it to top in any sector"

How about Microsoft? They've done alright.

[TimGebhardt]

How is this any different than software? Certainly there are many cases where a startup or company tries to make a product and us geeks say "It's stupid to pay for that I can redo it in a weekend and put it on Github" and we fawn over the OSS project and grill the original company.

And certainly there are other cases where OSS blazes the trail. But copycat software gets a hall pass when it you get to download it for free? Or is your post just a different iteration on the iOS/Android fanboy-ism?