Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android is like Ben & Jerry’s and H¤agen-Dazs. Both delicious, yet some prefer the one over the other and that’s fine. Everyone deserves the right to their own choice. Ever since Android made its way into the marketplace, there have been numerous claims that it’s a blatant copy. Add to that Apple claiming various Android manufacturers have infringed multiple of their patents, and you’ve got quite a mess.
One question that many continue to ask is, why isn’t Apple going after Google, the source of Android? Well, the answer isn’t as obvious as one would think. Sure, it makes sense on paper for them to go after Google, but the reality is the tech giant doesn’t make profit or revenue off the Android devices themselves, just the mobile advertising. Android is a free and open source operating system. Any manufacturer can get access and develop for their own devices.
Going after Google itself would be quite an undertaking. If you don’t go after the source, what do you go after? The foundations and Samsung is one of the biggest foundations of Android. Quickly making their way to the top manufacturer (and seller) of Android smartphones and tablets, they’re an ideal target for Apple to go after and cause a ripple effect, a spreading of fear, to all other manufacturers.
Not to mention it’s far easier to compare one of Samsung’s smartphones to the iPhone and showing how it’s a potential copy. Google just has the OS, but companies like Samsung have the full package. By going after one of the foundations and slowly chipping away at it, the plan is to cause everything else to fall apart. Apple knows this and is very clever with their approach.
Also, by going after multiple manufacturers instead of just Google, Apple stands to potentially make far more money. This World of tech and patents is a nasty one, that’s for sure. The Apple vs Samsung case will soon be wrapping up and the decision from that court case will echo across the industry. Will Samsung be marked as a fraud and have to pay up, or will Apple go home empty handed only to return yet again with another argument?