Recent ruling indicative of brand’s appeal, movement toward technological domination
Since Macintosh’s groundbreaking Orwellian “1984” commercial, depicting their company as one independent choice in a totalitarian market, Apple has stayed in the public spotlight almost without pause.
Now, it barely has to work for recognition because its product is in the hand, pocket or backpack of a good percentage of the public at this very moment. As with any corporation though, to stop growing is equivalent to death, so it continues to expand their mature monopolistic empire.
Lately, however, maybe because the company is lacking the level-headed leadership it once had, it’s making some not-so-mature accusations of companies who are rivaling its products and software.
Apple took Samsung to court to defend its iPad technology against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. The company accused the Korea-based company of basically copying its design. In a mildly insulting turn, the U.K. high court ruled that the Galaxy tablets were not as “cool” as Apple’s iPad and therefore did not infringe on Apple’s iPad patent. As punishment for the inconsequential lawsuit, Apple has to run ads on both its website and British media for the next six months announcing that Samsung did not infringe on its design patents.
This verdict was handed down to somehow help validate the loss of sales Samsung felt during the accusations and legal process. Apple, however, had almost no change in sales, and the company’s image remains untarnished among consumers for the most part.
We all learned somewhere along the way in our history classes that monopolies are dangerous to free enterprise and small business, something that our country has always depended on to make it great. So is it simply the battle of the better business in this case, or a bigger fight?
Maybe Apple simply is a better company with better products and that’s why it’s worth so much more than the other comparable companies like Dell in computers or Android in smart phones. I’m personally writing this from my MacBook, but I also own a Droid, so I can say that so far Apple doesn’t own my allegiance.
But in the coming years of technological growth, as middle schoolers and middle-aged people alike purchase the iPhone, iPad or other Apple products, how soon will it be before the other companies lose the battle in court and there’s only one option?
The concept of monopolies directly goes against what Apple was trying to say in their “1984” commercial.
How different are the people shown in that commercial marching in step and watching the same screen than the parade of faculty and students alike roaming campus with their heads down and their headphones in staring at identical rectangles?
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