Linked List: September 3, 2012

Monday, 3 September 2012

NYT: ‘After Verdict, Assessing the Samsung Strategy in South Korea’ 

Choe Sang-Hun, reporting for the NYT, talks to Korean analyst James Song:

“Look what has happened to companies like Nokia, Motorola and BlackBerry, which didn’t do as Samsung did,” Mr. Song added, referring to competitors whose failures to adapt quickly to the smartphone boom driven by iPhones have drastically reduced their market shares. “Samsung may lack in innovation, but right now, no one can beat Samsung in playing catch-up.”

Don’t forget Palm, which arguably had the most innovative post-iPhone UI (and I’d go so far as to say, inarguably, the best post-iPad tablet UI), but which completely imploded on the market. “We’re the only ones having any success against Apple whatsoever” is Samsung’s best defense. It’s noble to try something innovative, but that does you no good, ultimately, without market success.

Just playing devil’s advocate for a paragraph. What if Apple is like a sports team that introduced a groundbreaking strategy. Something like introducing the forward pass to football. Is it wrong for another team to copy that strategy? What if the only other team that can win is the one team that most shamelessly copied that strategy? At some point you have to start thinking that the problem is with the (losing) teams that aren’t copying. (Is not the obvious conclusion to be drawn from the rash of MacBook-lookalike PC laptops that these models sell better?)

Stay Classy, Samsung 

Kind of bizarre story by Brad McCarty for TheNextWeb, describing how Samsung flew writers from India to Berlin, but then threatened to strand them there unless they dressed up and worked as company marketing reps at the IFA Conference.

Denominations 

Clever and extremely efficient iPhone currency converter app by Abraham Vegh. So simple.

Jordan Kahn Saw a Lot of Innovative Notebook Designs at IFA in Berlin 

Looks like Apple has been ripping off the laptop designs of companies like HP, Samsung, and LG.

Touched a Nerve 

The content of this Gizmodo post isn’t particularly interesting — it’s just a reblogging of Sebastiaan de With’s “PC laptops before and after the MacBook Pro and Air” comparison from the other day — but the comments are a gold mine. E.g.:

  • “The picture is nothing but a little fucking Apple Fanboy kicking up shit for no reason. […] Now this is showing only bulky machines and netbooks. Why don’t they actually show a normal laptop? Hmm? Also tell me how that tiny little battery is getting you through the day compared to the GIANT ass battery in my non anorexic laptop.”

  • “Ugh, this is bugging me more than I thought it would! You’re showing a Dell Dx30\Dx51 generation laptop. That laptop is NOT succeeded by a Dell XPS 13. There have been about 3 generations since that laptop, the current is the Dell Latitude E6420.”

  • “I mean, seriously, Apple didn’t invent the chiclet keyboard, for crying out loud. And thinness isn’t a new idea, either. This is just another John Gruber-derived piece of fanboy nonsense.”