I believe that is only true for smartphones, and does not include iPads or iPod Touch. Android still outsells that total outside of the US, but not by 2-to-1.

People like you make me proud to be an American. You prove that it is ok to be a jerk and spout crap in America.

I'm curious why repeated attacks "by the Chinese" have invoked no response from the government? It seems odd that we have US Companies being attacked on US soil and there's not even a peep about it.

How do you know we're not doing anything about it?

Samsung didn't know, either, so are they incompetent or lying?

The Mini speakers ARE stereo. That's why Amazon took down that comparison ad.

Disney is able to produce great movies, like the first "Pirates of the Caribbean", "The Avengers", and others. Any Star Wars movie without Mr. Lucas involved has to be greeted with great hope!

Hanging around here makes it obvious that nerds know everything, that everyone else is an @sshole, and nothing matters except technology.

The /. crowd would rather believe the FBI is lying. They will contort themselves to protect that belief. Just as with so many other issues discussed here, like Apple and Android.

Goodbye karma. sigh.

Although walkers do help, I have seen some folks fall even with their walker.

I'd rather have some false positives than find my Mom has been lying on the floor for a few days.

Mr. Gates gave a rather insightful and intelligent discussion of this problem at a recent Ted Talks. He makes a pretty solid point that some kind of nuclear power is our only way out of the carbon-destroying-the-earth problem.

Thank you for bringing an intelligent argument to this thread. I apologize in advance for /., as you will probably be modded into oblivion.

Fanboy drivel

Copying a feature or two is vastly different than copying an entire concept, the icons, the shape and size and color and on and on. Even Samsung's damn charger is identical to Apple's. Surely you're not saying Google's pull-down notification is in the same class as redefining the industry with the iPhone? As for licensing from Nokia, they did license it. That whole thing was more about getting the best possible deal than anything else.

And please, can't we all get past the whole name-calling thing? Really? I mean, can't you make an intelligent argument that stands on its own without that?

Actually, the more I think about it, the more offended I am by the very nature of this post.

Your basic premise is that nothing is different because everything is copied, so the only way to exist is to continue to make new things for others to copy. I'm sorry, that's just not acceptable. It's not good for business, it's not good for "innovation", it's not good for consumers.

Sure, Samsung might make some phones that are cheaper than iPhones (although they often do not do so) and that is good for consumers in the sort term. But if folks like Apple lose their incentive to bring out new features (because they just get copied, anyway), then what you get is differentiation based on price. This is where the PC market is today - all the PCs are essentially the same, and your average consumer buys strictly on price. There's no margin for real R&D, and the products themselves are cheaply made. In the long run, the consumer is harmed by having nothing but a sea of vanilla (or imitation vanilla) to choose from, harmed because no one has any money to invent really new things.

In Apple's case specifically, they are a hardware manufacturer that uses software to differentiate their products. They make their money on the hardware and give the software for those devices away. Mountain Lion is $20, and that covers all the computers you own. iOS upgrades are completely free. When someone like Google/Samsung copies the "cool stuff" from Apple's labs, then that differentiation disappears, and Apple ends up being compelled to chase their products down the rathole of price, along with everyone else.

Aside from all that, it is simply wrong, IMHO, to allow and support blatant copying. It's not right that Milo T. Farnsworth never made any real money from inventing TV. Just wrong. The fact that Apple (or any other corporation) is not an individual doesn't change that. True innovators deserve our respect and support.

There are plenty of ways to make a smart phone that don't have the same UI as an iPhone. I personally am proud of Palm and Microsoft for inventing totally different paradigms. They both did things that are very interest. THAT is innovation. THAT leads to better products. THAT is what the world and consumers need.

Copying someone else and putting some lipstick on it is NOT innovation, it's criminal.