In fact, at first these two companies had a very good relationship, but over time the balance shifted and these two friends became bitter enemies. So how did their rivalry come about?

Let’s take a closer look at the two companies’ highly contested battle

Apple has actually been in a struggle with many competitors since day one.

IBM in the 80s, Microsoft in the 90s, Google in the 2000s. But the competition between Apple and Samsung is much more unique and contentious. Since day one, Samsung has not only competed with Apple in the laptop, tablet and smartphone markets.

It also supplied Apple with key components for its devices. The iPhone’s screen, for example.

So, with such a relationship between them, for what reasons did the two companies fall out?

Each of us knows Samsung for the products they sell for consumer electronics. But this business sector, which encompasses phones, computers and tablets, is a new development given the company’s history. This is because Samsung started its journey with only parts manufacturing.

In the 80s, the priority of this company was actually the supply of components (semiconductor materials) and Lee Byung-chull, Samsung’s managing director at the time, had several meetings with Steve Jobs to exchange ideas on whether to continue supplying these components or open up to other business ideas.

In the meantime, Samsung had decided to make a move towards a new chip factory and the relationship between the two was quite amicable.

Apple remains Samsung’s biggest customer, supplying millions of dollars worth of electronic components. But this collaborative relationship between Apple and Samsung did not last forever.

Samsung’s general manager visited Apple’s headquarters in 2007, before the first iPhone was announced, and Steve Jobs explained to him how the iPhone technology worked. The fear was realized and Samsung adapted the technology for its own products.

Just two years later, Samsung launched the Galaxy smartphone running on Google’s Android operating system.

Jobs then claimed that Android was a stolen product and called Samsung a copycat. It was also at this point that Samsung stopped being Apple’s ally and became Apple’s enemy, and a long legal battle between the two companies began in 2011.

In fact, Apple had already told Samsung in 2010 that its smartphones and tablets were infringing Apple’s patents, and Apple was willing to settle since the two companies were in a business alliance.

Apple offered Samsung a deal in which it would pay Samsung $40 per tablet and $30 per phone, but Samsung rejected the offer, arguing that its products do not infringe any patents.

Thus, Apple, unable to reach a settlement after a year, did not hold back from filing a lawsuit.

Apple’s defense in the lawsuit was as follows: “Instead of pursuing independent product development, Samsung chose to blindly copy Apple’s distinctive interfaces, innovative technology, and unique product and packaging design in violation of Apple’s intellectual property rights.”

But did Samsung really imitate the iPhone? Considering the design and technology of Samsung products before and after the iPhone, it is possible to see that Samsung has benefited greatly from the iPhone’s innovations.

Apple has made a total of 16 different claims against Samsung, but 3 of them stand out.

Trade dress infringement, trademark infringement and infringement of design patents. The first of these, trade dress, is the visual appearance that represents the source of a product or its packaging.

For example, the first iMac was imitated by an American company called eMachines with a product called eOne, which was no doubt a copy of the hugely popular iMac. But Apple was not successful in suing the company for trade dress.

Apple has suggested that since it has faced such a case in the past for the iMac, it has been subjected to the same imitation by Samsung for its various devices such as the iPhone and iPad.

In terms of trademark infringement, Samsung could claim that the similarity in hardware design was a coincidence, but could not easily defend similarities in software elements such as icons.

There are, of course, dozens or even thousands of ways to design an icon, but Samsung chose to use the same images as Apple. The infringement of design patents involved the home screen icon layout, the form factor of the iPhone case, and the screen and button designs.

In summary, when all these elements were brought together, striking claims were made about branding, type design and hardware design.

And how did the court rule on all these charges?

The juries ruled in Apple’s favor, ordering Samsung to pay Apple $1 billion in damages for its infringement and not to do so in any of its future products. But this court ruling was not the end of the story.

Samsung appealed the decision and filed a lawsuit against Apple. It argued that the products did not infringe its patents. The legal wrangling that followed this legal court process lasted for years, with both sides making some gains and suffering some losses.

Apple succeeded in getting Samsung’s Galaxy Tab series banned in Germany, forcing Samsung to redesign the device.

However, Samsung was not always to blame in this dispute. Apple was found guilty of infringing Samsung’s cellular data patent with the AT&T iPhone 4, 3GS and 3G, and the original iPad and iPad 2 models with 3G data radios.

Such an offense would have meant that Apple would have been banned from selling AT&T models of certain iPhones and iPads in the US, but the White House vetoed the decision.

Ultimately, the 7-year-long battle ended in June 2018, when Apple and Samsung reached a compromise over an agreement of unclear content. Although it is not known what the deal was about, it was clear that this difficult process had taken its toll on both sides.

But in a statement, Apple clearly saw this legal battle as a victory.

“We believe deeply in the value of design and our teams work tirelessly to create innovative products that delight our customers. This case has always been about more than money. Apple sparked the smartphone revolution with the iPhone and Samsung has clearly copied our design.

It’s important that we continue to protect the hard work and innovation of so many people at Apple. We are grateful to the jury for their service and are pleased that they recognized that Samsung should pay for copying our products.” Samsung, on the other hand, preferred not to comment on the issue.

After 7 years of protracted and contentious litigation, one might think that Apple and Samsung are now two different companies that have nothing to do with each other, but this is not the case.

Samsung continues to supply Apple with key components for its most popular products. For example, the OLED display for all models in the iPhone 15 series is made by Samsung, and Samsung is the only manufacturer from which Apple orders OLED panels.

In fact, Apple’s plan was to source panels from China’s BOE as well as Samsung, but as with the previous series of the iPhone, BOE again failed to meet Apple’s quality standards, leaving Apple to rely entirely on Samsung.

In short, Apple relies on Samsung to provide high-quality, diverse components that can be mass-produced on a large scale, while Samsung is confident that Apple will buy its components.

So the damage or destruction of either company means that the other will clearly follow suit. Perhaps it will be possible to see more different collaborations between Apple and Samsung in the future.

What do you think about these two companies, which are often in competition with each other, but in some ways are also pregnant with each other?