Apple's SVP of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller, is miffed that Samsung "copied" its "bet the company" product.
Schiller testified on Thursday, November 14, at the patent infringement trial in a California court, expressing annoyance at Samsung's blatant copying of Apple's iPhone, which is Cupertino's biggest product. He also explained the risks involved.
"There were huge risks [with the first iPhone]," said Schiller. "We had a saying inside the company that it was a 'bet the company' product...We were starting to do well again in iPod...Then here we're going to invest all these resources, financial as well as people, in creating this product."
Schiller also said that iPhone was Apple's "biggest product" and "it's fair to say that most everyone at Apple works on iPhone."
On Friday, November 15, as Schiller testified for the second time as a key witness in the trial, Apple's lead attorney asked him what he thought when he saw Samsung's Galaxy S smartphone for the first time.
"I was quite shocked. They went and copied the iPhone," said Schiller. "It weakens the view that the world has for Apple."
He further added that the presence of a similar product led consumers to "question our innovation and design skills in a way that people never used to."
We recently reported that Samsung and Apple were embroiled in a lawsuit and the former admitted to infringing its patents, but disputed the quantum of damage. Per Apple, 13 Samsung devices infringed five patents and the former claims that the latter owes it $380 million for copying iPhone and iPad features. However, Samsung disputes the amount and says it is $52 million.
In the retrial, Schiller also said that the infringement was damaging to Apple and its marketing would have been more successful had a similar product from Samsung not been released.
"This was an incredibly important time," said Schiller. "As this [infringement] has been occurring, it's harder for us to get new customers and bring them into our ecosystem."
