Philip Schiller, Apple’s SVP of worldwide marketing, took the stand in court Friday in the Samsung vs. Apple trial. While giving his testimony he described his first time seeing the Samsung Galaxy S smartphone.
“I was pretty shocked at the appearance of the Galaxy S phone and the extent to which it appeared to copy Apple’s products. We went from having something easy to market because it was so distinctive and so famous to having something that was difficult to market,” said Schiller.
When Apple’s lawyer, Harold McIlhenny, asked Schiller’s feelings about competition, Schiller said “Competition’s great. Every day there are companies creating products to compete with us.”
McIlhenny then asked Schiller if he thought copying is fair, which Schiller replied no, “Because when you copy or steal the idea of one company’s product now you’re trading off all that investment and marketing and goodwill with customers. When you rip that off you’re trying to get all that benefit for yourself.”
The appearance of Samsung’s Galaxy S smartphone may have taken Schiller by surprise, but his first look at the original Galaxy Tab really left him in shock. “I thought they were just going to copy our whole product line,” he said, explaining to Apple’s attorney.
Further describing his thoughts that Samsung copied Apple’s product designs, Schiller said, “It confused the customers on who’s the creator of these products. It diminishes the value we’ve created for Apple as the creator of these products, of these beautiful things. It dilutes the way customers see Apple.”
Schiller detailed the impact that product confusion has on customers and business, “One of the jobs of my teams is the forecasting process. It’s our belief that some customers are choosing to buy a Samsung product because one of the things it does is look like the iPhone and look like the iPad. It also has an affect after the first purchase, because additional customers then feed off the ecosystem of the devices they own.”
While some people may argue similarities between Apple and Samsung’s products, it’s obvious that Apple’s marketing VP is going to side with his company. It will be very interesting to see how Samsung’s legal team reacts to Schiller’s statements.
All of this courtroom drama has this case reminding us of a daytime court TV show. All we need now is a sassy judge, an announcer with a cheesy voice and a catchy theme song. Now that’s something that would have us setting our DVRs.
[via: The Verge]
