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Apple is anything but a commodity assembler. In fact that's what distinguishes it from its competitors in most markets. Most people are upset with Apple for the

Apple is anything but a commodity assembler. In fact that's what distinguishes it from its competitors in most markets. Most people are upset with Apple for the opposite - choosing to create from scratch proprietary software and hardware standards instead of choosing commodity options.

nitrogen 11y ago
Many of the ideas they assembled into the iPhone were derivative of work done by others in academia and private companies, especially the things they sued Samsung for. Maybe that's what the OP was getting at.
- gh02t 11y ago
  Well yeah, that's true in just about every industry. Everything from biotech to nuclear reactors have a technology flow like that. I don't own any Apple products (at least not nowadays), but they are really good at recognizing what upcoming tech has potential, buying it and then packaging it in a way that makes it appealing to consumers. They may not have invented many of the things they sell, but they definitely helped to popularize a ton of things that we take for granted now. Smartphones are a good example. They existed before the iPhone (I remember the days of ye olden Palm Treo), but they weren't something the average person really cared about or wanted until the iPhone came around. Now, I won't go so far as to say that we wouldn't have smartphones like we do now without the iPhone as I think largely that it was just about the right time that smart phones were really becoming technically feasible, but Apple still deserves credit for being the ones who were there first with the pieces put together into a product that finally made people want one. Though I also remember the strange delusion they seemed to have had with the original iPhone pre-App Store that people would be OK with just HTML "apps", but that's a different tale.
mSparks 11y ago
this is for their "design patents" issued in 2007. which can basically be described as "a phone as a box with a touchscreen and no keyboard" all they "make" is the box. they don't own the rights to any of the parts inside it (although they do have exclusive distribution rights for the versions of the components they put in the box) OK they write their own firmware for those boxes. but none of that is actually that good. anyone using their latest kit knows their phones don't even work that good as a phone. apple as a company won't survive past the last of Steve jobs patents expiring. which is no later than 2028.
- evan_ 11y ago
  Just so we're clear the $548 million they got is roughly equal to the profit they made in 4.5 days last quarter.
- jxdxbx 11y ago
  Apple designs the best mobile CPUs in the industry. They're years ahead of Qualcomm and the rest. They have some of the best hardware and software engineers on the planet. You just have no idea what you're talking about.
  - mSparks 11y ago
    don't they owe US$862.4 million in damages for infringing others patents for that?

nitrogen 11y ago

Many of the ideas they assembled into the iPhone were derivative of work done by others in academia and private companies, especially the things they sued Samsung for. Maybe that's what the OP was getting at.

gh02t 11y ago
Well yeah, that's true in just about every industry. Everything from biotech to nuclear reactors have a technology flow like that. I don't own any Apple products (at least not nowadays), but they are really good at recognizing what upcoming tech has potential, buying it and then packaging it in a way that makes it appealing to consumers. They may not have invented many of the things they sell, but they definitely helped to popularize a ton of things that we take for granted now. Smartphones are a good example. They existed before the iPhone (I remember the days of ye olden Palm Treo), but they weren't something the average person really cared about or wanted until the iPhone came around. Now, I won't go so far as to say that we wouldn't have smartphones like we do now without the iPhone as I think largely that it was just about the right time that smart phones were really becoming technically feasible, but Apple still deserves credit for being the ones who were there first with the pieces put together into a product that finally made people want one. Though I also remember the strange delusion they seemed to have had with the original iPhone pre-App Store that people would be OK with just HTML "apps", but that's a different tale.

mSparks 11y ago

this is for their "design patents" issued in 2007. which can basically be described as "a phone as a box with a touchscreen and no keyboard" all they "make" is the box. they don't own the rights to any of the parts inside it (although they do have exclusive distribution rights for the versions of the components they put in the box) OK they write their own firmware for those boxes. but none of that is actually that good. anyone using their latest kit knows their phones don't even work that good as a phone. apple as a company won't survive past the last of Steve jobs patents expiring. which is no later than 2028.

evan_ 11y ago
Just so we're clear the $548 million they got is roughly equal to the profit they made in 4.5 days last quarter.
jxdxbx 11y ago
Apple designs the best mobile CPUs in the industry. They're years ahead of Qualcomm and the rest. They have some of the best hardware and software engineers on the planet. You just have no idea what you're talking about.
- mSparks 11y ago
  don't they owe US$862.4 million in damages for infringing others patents for that?