Phil Schiller Describes His Reaction to Seeing the Galaxy Smartphone and Tablet

Taking the stand in the Apple vs. Samsung trial, Apple's SVP of Worldwide Marketing describes his reaction to seeing the Galaxy smartphone and tablet for the first time.

"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 and so famous to having something that was difficult to market" because it could be confusing to customers.

When asked about competition, Schiller said, "Competition's great... Every day there are companies creating producs to compete with us."


When asked if copying is fair, Schiller says 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."

Schiller said he reacted with "even more shock" when he saw the original Galaxy Tab. "I thought they were just going to copy our whole product line."

"It confused the customers on who's the creator of these products. It diminishes the value we'd created of Apple as the creator of these products, of these beautiful things... It dilutes the way customers see Apple."

"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.


The Verge has the full coverage of Phil Schiller's testimony at the link below...

Read More