Once upon a time Apple was the company that would stand up and quietly announce the next best thing since sliced bread in the tech world. I suppose you could argue you that they still are that company, that they still are the company that makes everybody else look silly. Once, they were however, if you were to ask me they’re the same big fish – only the pond has gotten a lot bigger, and the other fish have grown up as well. iOS, in particular, has largely stayed the same for the past five years of course, it’s undergone a few major changes but, if you were to show an iPhone user from 2007 iOS 6 they wouldn’t notice all that much of a change. The old saying “if it isn’t broken, why fix it?” applies here however, in a world of ever-changing software Apple are the ones that are staying still.
The verdict that came out of last week’s trial may have been in Apple’s favour however, they’ve taken more of a hit than Samsung had. You see, Apple have long had a reputation of being the company that you’re supposed to instantly know is better than everybody else, the company that shows consumers they’re doing better than everyone else. The verdict may have shown that however, the overall trial has left a serious chink in Apple’s armour. Cupertino has long been known as a fortress of secrecy – of course, the infamous iPhone 4 leak soon tore that down – and you very rarely hear of leaked products from Apple. The only thing you’ll hear surrounding Apple is rumour. They’ve gotten good at hiding their work and they like it that way.
With the iPhone and iPad such high-profile products for Apple you can imagine that they weren’t too happy when the trial exposed both prototypes as well as the fact that the company looked to Sony for inspiration of the original iPhone design. I can’t imagine that anybody inside Apple liked seeing their laundry aired in public. The company that has long had an air of arrogance, of the midas-touch has had their design process laid out in front the of the press, the public. It doesn’t matter how little or how much of it was revealed – it was enough to see that Apple do things just like the rest of the tech industry.
Timing was against Apple more than anybody here. If this trial had been last year – or the year before it, Apple would have breezed through even more so than they did because, last year and the year before it were very strong for the iPhone. 2012 however, seems to be the year the iPhone stood still. The iPhone 4S was the same trick they pulled with the 3Gs and this time around buyers weren’t falling for it, with consumers waiting for the iPhone 5 in massive numbers it looks like Apple’s games could be wearing thin. The trouble with having this trial come to light now is that there are smartphones everywhere and I really do mean everywhere. More people than ever before are using smartphones, as casually as there were their Nokias back in the day. You know what all these smartphones and the iPhone have in common? A shit load – all the Android and Windows Phones out there have rectangular screens, grids of icons and pinch-to-zoom as well as double tap to zoom. Who are Apple suing – Samsung.
Who’s the second most successful player in the mobile market today – Samsung.
Thanks to this trial Apple now look like the petty child who cried wolf. They’re suing one of the biggest names in tech over rectangles, touch screen controls and icon design. The consumers of today – surrounded by smartphones – are going to look upon Apple with skepticism, just like they should. They’re also going to see that Apple are not the invincible company any more, from now on, they should be known as the child who wouldn’t share and so, cried over the prettier rectangle the big kids had made.