If you’re in the market for a Galaxy S 4G, or a Galaxy Fascinate, or a first generation Galaxy Tab, I have some terrible heart breaking news for you. Due to the patent battle that Samsung had with Apple in 2011, a battle that the South Korean consumer electronics giant lost, you’re no longer going to be able to buy the previously mentioned devices.
Does this sales ban matter? Yes and no. Almost no one in their right mind should be buying a two to three year old smartphone or tablet. I don’t care how cheap they are, they’re terrible products that I’d never recommend to anyone in a million years. That being said, a precedent has now been set, so Apple could, if they wanted to, try to get some of Samsung’s newer devices off store shelves. It’s one thing to get a Galaxy S II variant banned, it’s another thing altogether if the Galaxy S4 gets banned. Will this impact the company’s bottom line? Not really. I can already imagine that Samsung’s minuscule inventory of these now illegal (in the USA) products are already on a plane to Vietnam where they’re be unboxed, flashed with firmware for other local markets, and then reboxed and put on a boat destined to Eastern Europe or Africa. Morally, should Samsung be ashamed of themselves? Back in 2010 and 2011, when they were blatantly copying Apple, sure. But you can’t show me a device like the Galaxy Note 3 and say it’s somehow been inspired by an iPhone 5, because those two smartphones couldn’t be more different if they tried.
