Samsung's rise in the smartphone market is 'quite threatening' to Apple, says one analyst. Photograph: Lee Jin-Man/APSamsung Electronics has hit back against Apple with a tit-for-tat lawsuit a week after the US group accused its South Korean rival of "slavishly" copying designs of its iPhone and iPad.
Samsung filed suits against Apple in South Korea, Japan and Germany on Friday, alleging infringement of 10 patents in areas such as data transmission and wireless technology.
The move comes days before it launches a new version of its Galaxy S smartphone, and is the first against Apple, its biggest client as well as a rival. The South Korean electronics maker supplies Apple with microchips, memory chips and other parts. Analysts say Apple would struggle to find a supplier of the same calibre.
Samsung's Galaxy smartphones and tablet computers, which use Google's Android operating system, have emerged as the main competitors to Apple's iPhone and iPad. Apple sold 18.6m iPhones in the last quarter, while Samsung has startled rivals with the rapid growth of its smartphone sales and is estimated to have shifted 13m handsets between January and March. It aims to sell 60m smartphones this year.
"Apple is quite annoyed by Samsung's fast rise in a market which it virtually created," James Song, an analyst at Daewoo Securities, said. "It's quite threatening to see how quickly Samsung plays catch-up, and Apple might have felt a strong urge to put a brake on its march just when Samsung is set to roll out a new smartphone in May ahead of its new iPhone."
Samsung said on Friday that it was "responding actively to the legal action taken against us in order to protect our intellectual property".Apple filed a lawsuit against Samsung a week ago, claiming that its Galaxy design features copy the iPhone and iPad. Its spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said then: "This kind of blatant copying is wrong." The US company brought 16 claims against Samsung, including unjust enrichment, trademark infringement and 10 patent claims. But Samsung insists that the design of its products is the result of its own research and development.
The lawsuits are the latest in the fiercely competitive £100bn smartphone industry. Nokia has sued Apple, while the US company has brought suits against handset makers HTC and Motorola alleging patent infringement.
The global smartphone market is set to grow by 58% this year, with Android devices expected to grow strongly, according to research firm Gartner. It estimates that the tablet market could quadruple to 70m units. The iPad will dominate in coming years, but its market share is expected to be eroded by Android devices and could fall from 69% this year to 47% in 2015.
This year phone companies will struggle to obtain components after the Japanese earthquake led to factory closures. Experts say smartphone sales could drop by up to 5% as a result. Nokia, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion and Sony Ericsson are affected by supply shortages, while others including Apple, Samsung, HTC and China's Huawei are thought to have acted quickly to secure supplies from China, Taiwan and Korea instead.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has just filed another lawsuit in its legal crusade against Android: a ‘look and feel’ complaint against Samsung phones including the Galaxy S 4G, Epic 4G, Galaxy Tab, and Nexus S, that have allegedly copied “Apple’s technology, user interface and innovative style”. The suit was filed in the Northern District of California on April 15. The fact that the Nexus S is included is important, as this features Google’s stock build of Android 2.3.