If youve been following Apple for a whileor know the companys history, youll probably remember them having quite a fewrivals over the past thirty five years. In the 80s it was IBM, in the 90s it wasMicrosoft, and in the 2000s, it eventually became Google. But the rivalry between Appleand Samsung is more recent, and more unique. Since Samsung not only competes with Applein the notebook, tablet, and smartphone markets, but also supplies Apple with key componentsfor their devices. Like the iPhones OLED display and flash memory chip. So letsexplore how the two companies relationship soured, and how they feel about each othertoday. This is Greg with Apple Explained and if you want to help decide which video topicsI cover, make sure youre subscribed and these voting polls will show up in your mobileactivity feed.And dont forget to check out our new iGenius plush doll at appleexplained.com. THE EARLY DAYS Now many of us today have become familiarwith Samsung through the consumer electronics they sell. But those business endeavors areactually a fairly recent development considering the companys long history. In the 80sSamsungs electronics division was focused primarily on the semiconductor business. Andtheir then CEO Lee Byung-chull spoke with Steve Jobs on several occasions for adviceor negotiations. In fact, the two met in person in 1983 at Samsungs offices in Seoul. Aroundthe time the company decided to make a sizable investment in a new chip plant in China. Itsunknown if Jobs encouraged Samsung to expand their semiconductor business, but the twoCEOs clearly had a friendly relationship. Apple went on to become Samsungs biggestclient. Ordering billions of dollars worth of electronic parts. But the friendly andcooperative relationship between Apple and Samsung didnt last forever. Before theoriginal iPhone was announced, Samsung CEO Lee Jae-Yong visited Apples headquartersto meet Jobs.It was then when Jobs revealed the device to Jae-Yong and dissembled it,explaining how the iPhones technology worked. And as you might expect, Samsung took theidea and ran. Releasing their own touchscreen smartphone called the Galaxy just two yearslater, which ran on Googles Android operating system. As a result, Jobs asserted that Androidwas a stolen product and eventually called Samsung a copycat. It was at this moment whenSamsung went from being Apples ally, to Apples enemy. And the lengthy legal battlethat began between the two companies in 2011 was proof that Apple was prepared to protectits intellectual property at any cost. FROM FRIEND TO FOE The seven year lawsuit war started with Applestriking first in 2011.But it wasnt something that came out of the blue. In fact, Appleapproached Samsung in 2010 and told them up front that their smartphones and tablets wereinfringing on Apples patents. And because the two companies had a long history of cooperation,Apple was willing to work out a deal. They proposed a licensing agreement where Samsungwould pay Apple up to $30 for every phone sold, and up to $40 for every tablet. Butthe company declined, since they didnt believe their products had infringed on anyof Apples patents. So the following year Apple issued the lawsuit. Claiming, Insteadof pursuing independent product development, Samsung has chosen to slavishly copy Applesinnovative technology, distinctive user interfaces, and elegant and distinctive product and packagingdesign, in violation of Apples valuable intellectual property rights. So was thistrue? Did Samsung really rip off the iPhone and steal features that Apple had patented?Well, lets see how Samsung smartphones looked before the iPhone and after theiPhone.I think its pretty obvious that Samsung borrowed heavily from innovationsthe iPhone pioneered. But what exactly were the offenses? Afterall, in a lawsuit a company has to point out specific violations of their patents in orderto successfully make their case. Well Apple made a total of sixteen claims against Samsung,but I want to focus on three in particular: Trade dress infringement, trademark infringement,and infringement of design patents. Lets start with the first one, trade dress infringement.Now what does that even mean? Well a trade dress is the visual appearance of a productor its packaging that represents its source. In other words, it prevents companies fromimitating other products in the marketplace as to prevent confusion among consumers. Whomay believe theyre buying a product from a certain brand, when in reality its justa knock-off. And thats why we see so many knock-off Apple products sold in China, butrarely in America. Because our trade dress laws protect companies from imitators.Infact, the very first iMac was imitated by an American company called eMachines witha product called the eOne. It was clearly a knockoff of the wildly popular iMac, butit didnt do well since Apple successfully sued the company through a trade dress claim.Now clearly Apple felt Samsung was doing the same thing by ripping off the iPhone and iPadstrade dress for their various devices. And as you can see from this picture, there arequite a few striking similarities that likely arent due to sheer coincidence.Next is trademark infringement, and this iswhere things get a little obvious. Because while Samsung may have been able to arguethat the similarity in hardware design was incidental, the similarities in software elementslike the icons became much more difficult to defend. There are literally hundreds ofways to design any given icon, and in many cases, Samsung just so happened to choosethe same visuals as Apple. And third, was infringement of design patents.These included the home screen icon layout, the form factor of the iPhones chassis,and the screen and button designs. So if we add all of that up, we have claims rangingfrom branding, to software design, to hardware design. Essentially every major componentof these select Samsung devices Apple claimed were copied from their iPhone. And what didthe court think of all this? Well they ruled in Apples favor.They ordered Samsung tocompensate Apple one billion dollars for their infringements and to never do it again inthe future. But this wasnt the end of the story. In fact, the two companies were justgetting warmed up. Samsung ended up appealing the verdict andcountersued. Claiming some of Apples products were infringing on their patents. This legalback and forth continued for years, with both sides enjoying some wins and suffering somelosses. Apple managed to ban Samsungs Galaxy Tab from Germany which forced the companyto redesign the device. But Apple was also found guilty of infringing on Samsungscellular data patent with the AT&T iPhone 4, 3GS, and 3G, as well as models of the originaliPad and iPad 2 with 3G data radios. Which meant Apple would be banned from selling AT&Tmodels of some iPhones and iPads in the US, but the white house had a chance to veto thedecision which was exactly what President Obama did. Now the seven-year-long lawsuit war came toan end in June 2018 when Apple and Samsung agreed on an undisclosed settlement. Althoughits unknown what that settlement was, its worth considering how much damage the entireordeal had on both companies, and how little each were compensated in return.But Appleclearly saw the legal battle as a victory when they released this statement: We believedeeply in the value of design, and our teams work tirelessly to create innovative productsthat delight our customers. This case has always been about more than money. Apple ignitedthe smartphone revolution with iPhone and it is a fact that Samsung blatantly copiedour design. It is important that we continue to protect the hard work and innovation ofso many people at Apple. Were grateful to the jury for their service and pleasedthey agree that Samsung should pay for copying our products. Samsung declined to comment.THE AFTERMATH Now youd probably imagine that after allthose lawsuits Apple and Samsung would want nothing to do with each other, but it turnedout to be quite the opposite. Because Samsung still provides Apple with crucial componentsfor their most popular products. The iPhone Xs beautiful OLED display was brought toyou by Samsung, as well as its memory chip. And the revenue generated by these componentsales are staggering. Samsung earned $110 for each iPhone X sold, and since Apple soldan estimated 130 million units, that adds up to over 14 billion dollars for Samsung.Compare that to the component revenue of their own Galaxy S8 at $10 billion, and you beginto understand how symbiotic the relationship is between the two companies. Apple relieson Samsung to provide high quality components that can be mass produced at scale, whileSamsung relies on Apple to buy the components they make.So the destruction of either companywould be detrimental to the other. I think thats why Tim Cook dialed backon the aggressive stance Steve Jobs took on the Android and Samsung case back in 2010.Jobs said, I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every pennyof Apples $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong, Im going to destroy Android,because its a stolen product. Im willing to go thermonuclear war on this. And althoughhe was referring to Android in that specific quote, those feelings extended to other companieslike Samsung who he also thought were copying Apples products.But in 2012 Tim Cook madeit clear that he preferred a different approach. He said, Id highly prefer to settleversus battle. But you know the key thing thatsvery important is thatApple doesntbecome the developer to the world. Ive always hated litigation.We need people toinvent their own stuff. So although Cook wasnt interested in draggingout Apples legal disputes against Samsung, he was interested in relying on Samsung lessfor components. Because in 2018 Apple reportedly added LG as a supplier of OLED displays, whobegan test runs of mass-produced panels near the end of 2018, and may believe Apple willbegin using LG panels in the new iPhones released later this year.This will improve supply-chainreliability and give Apple negotiating power with both suppliers, hopefully resulting inless expensive panels. But that isnt to say Apple and Samsungare growing apart, because just a couple months ago the companies announced a deal that tookmany tech fans by surprise. And it was that Apple would bring iTunes Movies and TV Showsto Samsung Smart TVs in addition to AirPlay 2 support. Which means not only will usersbe able to access their existing iTunes library and buy or rent movies and tv shows from theiTunes Store, but theyll also be able to play videos, photos, music, podcasts and morefrom Apple devices directly to Samsung Smart TVs. Something that was previously only possiblewith the Apple TV set top box. And this is another great example of Apple and Samsungworking together in a way that benefits both companies.Samsung will likely sell more TVssince theyll have iTunes and AirPlay, and Apple will likely sell more movies and TVshows since therell be more people shopping on the iTunes Store. MOVING FORWARD So weve recognized that Apples relationshipwith Samsung has had its ups and down. And its true that theyre direct competitorsin a number of markets. But moving forward, I think well see more cooperation betweenthese two companies rather than conflict. Mainly because theyve both been challengedby a new rival: Hauwei.Theyre a Chinese-based consumer electronics company that has beenexploding in popularity, thanks to their inexpensive, high-quality smartphones. Apple and Samsungboth made a concerted effort to expand their presence in China to take advantage of theirlarge consumer market and growing economy. But things didnt go as planned for eithercompany, since Chinese manufacturers like Huawei disrupted the market by undercuttingthe iPhone and Galaxy while still offering full-featured premium phones. In fact, inthe last quarter of 2018 Apples worldwide smartphone marketshare dropped two percentagepoints, and Samsungs dropped one percentage point. All while Huawei managed to grow theirhold on the smartphone market by four percentage points, which means theyre one of the onlycompanies not experiencing slowing smartphone sales.So it seems as if Apple and Samsung have moreor less become natural allies in the last couple years. They ended the lawsuit war,theyre striking deals to help each other access more paying customers, and they stillcooperate on component manufacturing. But only time will tell if this trend toward friendlinesswill continue, or if a new disagreement will cause a divide between the two companies yetagain. 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