Apple may have turned Samsung into Frankenstein’s monster by entrusting it with the supply of iPhone components, a former employee of Apple’s strategy unit contended in a blog posting on Dec. 7.
James Allworth, present fellow at the Forum for Growth and Innovation at Harvard Business School, said that Apple’s expensive, risky patent war against the South Korean handset maker was not the solution to end the dispute.
Allworth wrote in his Asymco posting, “The problem that Apple is facing right now has nothing to do with their designs being copied. There is a long history of copying in the tech industry; patents being deployed in lawsuits by giants often signify desperation more than anything else.”
Allworth claimed that Apple’s extensive outsourcing of iPhone components to Samsung is to blame for making Samsung its biggest rival.
Arguing that Apple was not alone but Samsung’s business partner in the fight for a larger share in global handset market, he contended that Apple now was doomed to go up against at least one competitor that has been a beneficiary of its business operation.
“Apple’s partners ― their suppliers ― went through it with them. And they’ve got very big, and very good at what they do. Samsung, obviously, is among those partners,” he said.
Allworth also suggested that Apple CEO Tim Cook’s announcement on Dec. 6 to bring back Apple’s manufacturing to the U.S. may be the beginning of an attempt to rectify this problem.
In order to tackle the core problem, he recommended, Apple needs to build factories in third, tax-favorable countries ― or even in the U.S. ― thereby taking away business from competitors.
He ended his post, however, by asking whether it is already too late for Apple to turn the tide.
By Chung Joo-won (
joowonc@heraldcorp.com)
