Is being sued by Apple really bad for Samsung?

The news of Apple vs. Samsung fight over patent and design infringement was all over the place during the last few weeks , both sides were providing evidence from everywhere, Samsung tried to say the original iPhone design was copied from a draft design of a Sony phone. This claim ironically reminds of the days when Apple was accusing Microsoft of copying their user interfaces in Windows, but they actually stole it from Xerox themselves.
Anyway that is not the topic of my discussion here, when I started thinking more about what Samsung has done and the series of events that led to Samsung being the leader in the Android smart-phone market, I realized it was a smart strategy from Samsung and its executives. If you were the CEO of Samsung and all of a sudden find yourself as a follower in a market with many followers and one  leader what would you do? Many companies tried to be different (such as HTC, SonyEricsson, etc. ) and differentiate themselves from other Android manufacturers, well that wasn't a bad idea given that Android's market share has increased dramatically over the last few years ( mostly thanks to Samsung Galaxy Series).
Samsung executives on the other hand had another trick up their sleeves, they analyzed the situation and decided to create phones that look similar to the iPhone. You might say: that is not smart at all it's just being a copycat, but think again. If you are a follower, the best thing you can do is to draw people's attention to your product and attract people who were looking at the leader when you started. The way that Samsung achieved this was very simple. They created phones very similar to the iPhone and got sued by Apple. Again don't rush into any conclusion, some might say they lost the battle, but for a multi billion dollar corporation is that really a big loss? If you compare it to the attention and public awareness that is gained from it.
If you think again you can say that if Apple was not afraid of Samsung they would have gone so mad about suing them. If Samsung Galaxy was not a threat to the iPhone, Apple would not go after Samsung so badly. Even if you don't say that, Samsung still wins because you can not deny that most of the people know the name Samsung Galaxy, but they might not know that HTC has a model called HTC ONE.
Therefore, I think Samsung, by being a smart follower, has secured its position in the smart-phone market, and from now on Samsung can innovate on its own and be different.

Back to Business, Can RIM save BlackBerry in the business market?

RIM is one of the companies that got hit badly when Apple introduced iPhone and Google followed by Android, It just took them a few years to realize that. Maybe since most of their customers were business enterprises and companies that are slower when it comes to change, they didn't realize they need to adapt to the emerging market.  It is also possible that they were in the camp of people who predicted the fall of Apple with iPhone (like an interesting article in Bloomberg I read a couple of days ago) and got too comfortable. Anyway, during the last couple of years anyone could see that they're desperately trying to catch up with other popular platforms in the app race.

BlackBerry Playbook is a good example, at attempt to follow Apple iPad's success in the tablet market with something very interesting but pretty much incompatible with everything else. The other attempts look like a failure to me as well. For example, I went to RIM's desk in WIPJam during the 2012 Mobile World Congress and asked about BlackBerry OS 10 and the incentives of creating apps for it. At first I met a lady who said she only works with people who are already BlackBerry developers and I have to come back later. Later on when I went back the developers at that desk looked more confused about their system than I was. They basically told me to choose the old BlackBerry devices for development which wasn't even close to what asked about. So they were not even trying to get people interested in their platform, it looked like that they are there because they had to. So it seems to me that the strategy of going after the consumer market was not going to be a success at all.

Unfortunately, it seems that RIM was not aware of (or didn't think) that BlackBerry is loosing a market that it used to own, the "Business Users". More and more companies started moving away from using BlackBerry phones as their default devices. A while ago while meeting a few high level business executives from South America, I noticed that they all use either iPhone or Android phones, even though I would expect all of them to use BlackBerry phones. I took moment and asked one of them, he mentioned that they actually made the change in the whole organization (a really big enterprise, in scale of a Telecom operator) in 2011.

There are at least some good news coming out of the BlackBerry camp these days, the new CEO, reorganization and re-focusing to the business market. Although it looks like a sensible thing to do, I personally think it wouldn't be as easy as it could be two or three years ago. The concept of Bring Your Own Device(BYOD) has become more and more popular among companies. Let's be honest to ourselves how many of us would go for a Blackberry if it was our own decision? The guys in RIM have to be smart and move fast to keep the market to themselves, because I suspect Microsoft can see the opportunity and might move in with their Windows Phone 7.

SO, it is tough but not impossible and I think there are ways that RIM can benefit from BlackBerry's brand position to have a completely new set of customers. Here is how I would do it if I was in RIM. I believe one of the major motivations for choosing BlackBerry was its secure services and infrastructure. I think they can use that as a leverage and build something on top of it. Being a phone manufacturer is not bad but my suggestion to RIM people is to see themselves as service providers rather than manufacturers only. They don't need to invest most of their money in creating a market for apps on top of their platform and trying to get developers do stuff for BalckBerry rather than iPhone or Android. They can easily create a BlackBerry environment(software) on tops of those platforms which provides the competent services that BlackBerry has to offer. I think they have startedmoving that way and it is good BlackBerry Device Fusion is the future of their business and I think they should put all of their efforts on that. I think people at RIM should not only look into MDM (Mobile Device Management) but also invest in MAM (Mobile Application Management) services to increase their margins and customer base.

Of course, some might say this is depending on other companies, which might not be very good for RIM. I would argue that if they make their services platform independent they can loosen the pressure and buy themselves some time for being creative and making their systems more attractive to the end users (well in this case the employees who work for corporate customers). Anyway they might have many reasons for the way they work, or maybe I am stating the obvious, but I think by moving in such directions BlackBerry can once again sit on its throne. 

iPad to Windows 8, is Microsoft going to be the Google of tablets?

I've just stumbled upon an interesting design guide that aims to help people from porting their UI designs from iPad to Windows 8. Pretty smart move from Microsoft, which indicates a lot of things in my point of view.

We all know that Android tablets are not getting anywhere. In that last two years they have next to no market share.  Honeycomb was a complete failure and you can easily say that the folks in Android just sat down and said let's come up with something quick so people can have Android tablets.

Windows 8 on the other hand looks like a promising platform, the interface looks cool,  and it hase a nice innovative UI which is not perfect but adorable. I believe, it is microsoft's ultimate weapon in the tablet market. Now with these documents they are aiming at getting nice looking apps to their market.  The major problem with android tablets is the amount apps specifically designed for tablets and Microsoft is already on top of that issue (or at least trying to).

Therefore, I think microsoft is looking to be the second major player on the tablet market, because Android tablet is pretty much a lost cause. I personally think unless Google comes up with a very interesting innovation (or Microsoft delays the release of their product as they usually do), the tablet market will be owned by Apple and Microsoft in near future. It might be gaming consoles all over again with Sony (in this case Apple) and Microsoft owning the market. Who knows, maybe Android strikes back to get the crown (the way Nintendo did with Wii).

Codefessions: How fast is the HTML5 Canvas? (Part 1)

Here is a blog I have written in codefessions comparing different mobile platforms' web performance.

Codefessions: How fast is the HTML5 Canvas? (Part 1): The conventional wisdom in the mobile development industry has been that mobile browsers are very slow and developing HTML5 based games on m...

Fossil Watches, a social media marketing and support experience that I loved

I am obsessed with social media and twitter stats these days. One interesting experience with twitter is that is makes interacting with companies you buy things from much more fun and interesting.

Last week I was looking to buy a new wrist watch. I am so bored of looking at the boring designs of many established brands. I wanted something different so I went to a store in Amsterdam and saw Fossil watches. I liked the designs immediately especially. They look different and they're not boring.  I bought one and came back home.

The next day I figured out there is a small problem with my watch. Due to my obsession with twitter I tweeted to fossil about my problem. Within less than 3 minutes I got a nice response. In the next one hour I got complete information and guidance on how to exchange the watch with a new one. No need for waiting in a queue on the phone line and frustration.

This experience made me a loyal customer to Fossil brand and I wrote this out of respect for their great customer support. Tip of the hat to Fossil and their social media support team.

The new iPad, what I miss about it?

Everyone in the tech world enjoyed watching the keynote for one of the most anticipated products of the year, the new iPad. The product is amazing, Retina display, high speed wireless, and a much better camera. Most people say it delivered what they expected. For months many journalists and reviewers were bragging about what they want to see on iPad. I must give it to the folks in Apple they listened and delivered.

For me though there was something missing. This keynote, introducing the new iPad missed something. Many might say well it is obviously Steve Jobs, well yes and no. I like many other miss watching amazing presentations from Steve Jobs, but what I miss is the feeling I had after an apple product launch. We are all used to hearing rumors on what would be the next thing coming out of that company in their next event. Apple always did a very good job in coming up with a surprise. This time though there was no surprise, they delivered specs that people wanted and nothing more.

This brings me to my hypothesis. I think starting with the iPhone 4s launch, Apple is moving slowly away from being a company that had an artist and a rebel in control. You can clearly see, it is more an engineering company that it was before. There is no craziness  in the high level management that leads to extraordinary things. Don’t get me wrong I think Apple is still a great company, but from the evidence it might not be an extraordinary company anymore much sooner than we expect.

Who knows maybe I am too skeptical, maybe I am trying to find the flaws in the poor management team of Apple.  After all what they have is one of the most difficult jobs in the world.