Tim Cook was reportedly against Samsung lawsuit, but does that matter now?
It sounds like Apple’s Tim Cook might not have been as emotionally vested in the war against Android as the late Steve Jobs was — after all, Apple’s fearless leader nursed that baby from the ground up. According to Reuters, Tim Cook was a bit more level-headed about his approach to the Samsung-Apple beef, reportedly being against suing Samsung due to the Korean manufacturer’s important role as a major parts supplier for the iPhone, iPad, and several Mac products.
Assuming all of that is true, does it make a difference now? Steve Jobs didn’t take heed to any warning Tim Cook might have given him, and now that Apple’s fully engaged in a full-blown patent war with Samsung (and other OEMs) it doesn’t seem like there is any interest in stopping.
Apple enjoyed mild success early on as it got several of Samsung’s products banned, but the result of those decisions seemed ineffective. Samsung was able to either get the decision turned, replace the banned product with a non-infringing one, or the devices banned were already out of commission by the time Apple could deal any significant harm.
It seemed the Cupertino company might have struck gold here in the United States when Judge Lucy Koh granted Apple a series of wins that were to result in product bans, including for the fairly recent Galaxy Nexus, but her decision was quickly overturned by the higher powers of the court system. Her decisions were said to be shortsighted and an abuse of discretion. Apple was denied a second chance to ban the Galaxy Nexus late last month.
Without any meaningful victories or results for Apple it sounds like this silly “war” against Samsung isn’t going as easily as planned, and the company could be losing interest as Tim Cook — who has been known to be a lot more sensible and objective in his approach compared to the late founder of Apple — looks to tweak the company’s direction just a bit.
[via Reuters]