Current speculation in some quarters is that Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) attacks on Samsung are actually a stand-in for a deeper struggle against Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and its Android phone platform. According to this argument, Apple is targeting Samsung rather than its true adversary both to avoid a potentially costly showdown with the powerful Mountain View enterprise and to gain extra leverage in court. American juries, the reasoning goes, are more likely to judge in favor of an American firm suing a Korean company, than one suing another U.S. corporation.
The Florian Mueller, the main proponent of this theory, is deeply hostile to Apple Inc. (AAPL), he raises an interesting point. Samsung is statistically the largest user of the Android platform in the world, with the biggest sales and the greatest diversity of globally popular smartphones utilizing Google’s (GOOG) mobile phone OS. If Apple can damage the
According to Mr. Mueller, Apple is also pushing other companies, such as Rockstar, to sue Google (GOOG) as well, thus using them as proxies to further their legal assault on their true adversary. In this way, the firm can hamper its competitor’s actions and cost Google some cash and trouble. It also sends a signal to Google that it needs to guard its actions, and should be cautious about trespassing on territory that Apple considers to be its own.
The truth is probably that Apple Inc. (AAPL) would pursue legal measures against Samsung even if there was no link between the Korean firm and Google (GOOG). Samsung has clearly copied many of Apple’s devices with its own hardware, including the Galaxy smartphone and its tablet line. The fact that Apple is concerned over Samsung’s blatant hardware ripoffs, independent of any considerations related to Android, is shown by the fact that it is switching production of its A8 chipset over to other firms. Similarly, the Cupertino enterprise would likely attack Google even if Samsung did not exist.
However, as it is, suing Samsung currently enables Apple to “kill two birds with one stone.” It can simultaneously launch a legal attack on the company known to have extensively copied its hardware, and the biggest user of Android, since these entities are one and the same. This is a convenient situation that Apple (AAPL) is undoubtedly happy to exploit.
The $2 billion judgment, if granted, will punish both the biggest user of Android and the most successful plaguerist of Apple’s hardware designs at the same time. Even if Samsung switches over to the Tizen OS, however, Apple is likely to continue applying legal pressure to it, even if it then begins a separate campaign against Android.
