Following last month’s verdict saying Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) infringed Apple Inc. (AAPL) mobile-phone patents, the Korean electronics company faces pressure to copy another attribute of the iPhone maker: its focus on design.
The California jury ruling reinforced Samsung’s image as a follower rather than a trendsetter. The prospect of a ban on eight phones in the U.S. and a damages bill of more than $3 billion ratchets up pressure on Samsung to overhaul how it crafts handsets and give its design team freer rein to take risks. Yet creating the conditions for such a fundamental culture shift won’t be easy and any payoff uncertain in an industry whose creative standard was set by the late Steve Jobs.
“They need to change their innovation model,” said Sohrab Vossoughi, founder of Ziba, a design firm in Portland, Oregon, that counts Samsung among its clients. “Change of cultural mindset is going to be the biggest barrier.”
Samsung’s initial challenge will be making its new generation of handsets look as different as possible from Apple iPhones. Future devices will probably boast more styluses, have control buttons in different places and come in shapes besides rectangles with rounded corners, said Alexander Poltorak, chief executive officer of General Patent Corp.
“They have to move away from Apple design,” said Poltorak, whose firm represents clients in intellectual property enforcement. “Their products look like knockoffs. The judge indicated the changes have to be substantial.”
Future Products
Samsung has already offered a glimpse of coming handsets in its Galaxy S III, which is wider and taller than Apple’s iPhone, and is the company’s top-selling handheld, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. While the device isn’t on the proposed ban list related to the Aug. 24 verdict, Apple last week added it to a roster of products that it says infringe Apple patents.
At the IFA consumer-electronics fair in Berlin last week, Samsung also touted new phones using Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android and software made by Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) These include the latest version of the pen-equipped Galaxy Note smartphone, with a 5.5- inch screen, larger than its predecessor.
Samsung devices may include different navigational commands, such as how users scroll down the screen or zoom in on a picture or text, Poltorak said.
The Suwon, South Korea-based electronics maker will probably step up plans to introduce so-called flexible displays, or device screens that can be bent, twisted or folded, said Seo Won Seok, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities Co.
Weaving these types of screens into phones would help Samsung take advantage of its expertise as one of the largest makers of high-definition screens, Seo said.
Ban, Damages
“They may push flexible displays out earlier than expected because we can do a lot of different things with them” said Seo, who is based in Seoul.
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