Translated SeungYeon Woo / Written By Hyun Cheon Kim


Many Koreans in Boston are quite disappointed about Apple’s victory verdict by federal grand jury on August 24th. They can hardly accept the landslide decision, assuming the verdict was favorably influenced by jurors who live within 10 miles of Apple headquarters.

The biggest reason to distrust the outcome is that the jury consisted of people who were not technology professionals. Also, Korean Americans somewhat expected that the outcome would be unfavorable to Samsung anyway since the lawsuit took place in the U.S., the homeland of Apple.

Seung-woo Choi, a Korean resident in Reading MA, said “Charity begins at home. I expected that the U.S. jury would make the sort of decision that is more advantageous to Apple, but I think what they actually concluded is way too biased. Also, the demanded indemnity is too much.”

Choi cheered Samsung saying that, “I still believe in the Samsung’s potential. If I get to change my current iPhone to a new one, I will definitely get Samsung Galaxy.”

Another Korean smart-phone user, Sang-won Park, a businessman, said, “The verdict on August 24th just doesn’t make sense since the two companies’ main focuses are quite different. Samsung’s main focus is the exterior of equipment whereas Apple’s is software. I think this verdict is an example of the ‘effect of home turf advantage’.

Park lastly added that even though he is using an Apple smart-phone he would never use anything else from Apple.

On the other hand, some Koreans argue that what happened in court will not influence their lifestyle choices. They still want to pursue their own style. Although it is heartbreaking to hear about Samsung’s loss, they think that Samsung needs to reorganize their attitude in order to further develop.

Sung-joo Han, who works in Allston, said, “It’s quite hard to see Koreans saying that the outcome is unfair. I was very ashamed when I heard that Samsung disregarded the internal e-mail, which warned Samsung to change the design if they wanted to avoid copyright infringement.” Han also added that, “The indemnity is quite large but Samsung should come up with better ways to improve as a major company.”

He currently uses iPhone and he would continuously use the series of iPhones in the future.“Samsung is good at the exterior, yet they didn’t realize the importance of software,” added Han.

Apple filed for an injunction to the court on August 27th, demanding to prohibit the sales of Samsung products, including Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S2 (AT&T), Galaxy Prevail and five more, but not the recent products.

ⓒ 보스톤코리아(http://www.bostonkorea.com), 무단전재 및 재배포 금지