Samsung sues newspaper for $284k over negative reports on Galaxy S5

Posted:
in iPhone edited May 2014
Samsung has sued Electronic Times for 300 million KRW (about $284,000 US) regarding its reporting related to the company's new Galaxy S5 phone.



According to a report by the Korean language MediaToday (machine translation), Samsung is taking issue with negative reports related to the Galaxy S5 camera.

Samsung alleges the news source published incorrect information, while the news site appeared to defend its reports, stating that "the story fits the facts" and was not a "false alarm."

Samsung expressed concerned that unflattering reports might cause customers to hesitate before buying its new flagship model during the critical launch quarter, and just as the company is seeking to placate investors concerned about the previous Galaxy S4 failing to meet its sales expectations.

False stories targeting Apple didn't result in lawsuits

Apple has similarly faced a barrage of negative reports that targeted every model of iPhone it introduced, including a number of ridiculous claims that were hysterically false, yet broadly syndicated by the tech media. Apple did not bring lawsuits to silence the reports, however.

For example, in 2007 Nomura analyst Richard Windsor stated that the original iPhone had a faulty screen film that involved "a chemical deposition to provide touch sensitivity based on heat," and claimed the film would catastrophically fail after a few months, requiring a massive product recall. The iPhone didn't use any sort of film, nor was its touch screen ever heat-based.

Rob Enderle used his Enderle Group brand to promote the idea that Apple's novel Slide to Unlock feature would result in women getting raped because they couldn't make an emergency call easily enough, back in the days when Slide to Unlock was considered a new invention and not community property, in the days before Samsung began its efforts to appropriate it.

The next year Windsor claimed that Apple's second iPhone 3G used a faulty Infineon baseband chip that would eventually fail and cause massive product recalls, another prediction that was entirely false. His warnings coincided with other reports targeting the iPhone 3G antenna, which were subsequently disproven.

iPhone 4 was famously the center of a controversy branded "AntennaGate" or "DeathGrip" by its proponents, who alleged that the signal attenuation that every other handset maker had documented in written warnings to their customers was actually an entirely new problem that had only ever affected Apple's phone. But rather than suing the media over false reports, Apple called a press conference to explain the situation and offered customers free cases to mitigate the issue.

Record-setting sales of Apple's iPhone 5 were falsely dismissed as disappointing at the launch of what has become the world's top selling smartphone.

When Apple relaunched the phone as iPhone 5c in a colorful case, the media again attacked it as being a flop, failure and mistake despite the middle tier phone's ability to outsell all BlackBerry phones together, all Windows Phone sales from every vendor globally, and even Samsung's top selling Galaxy S 4 flagship during the critical holiday quarter.

The false reports that harassed every iPhone release didn't seem to have significant impact on sales, as Apple continued to expand its market share and beat sales records with every new model.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 81
    danielswdanielsw Posts: 906member
    Sounds like Samsung is really worried.
  • Reply 2 of 81
    pmzpmz Posts: 3,433member
    Its not going to sell well as it is, (just the S4), so they can't afford any bad press.
  • Reply 3 of 81
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,239member

    What do you expect from a company that builds smartphones that look like miniature refrigerators?

  • Reply 4 of 81
    Very, very bitter souls. They can't even stand criticism
  • Reply 5 of 81
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,239member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DanielSW View Post



    Sounds like Samsung is really worried.

    Samsung CEO is now looking for the Korean word for harakiri.

  • Reply 6 of 81
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,927member
    Sammy is upset that their previous contribution to the paper didn't produce favorable results.
  • Reply 7 of 81

    They need to change their name from Samsung to Samsuey or Suesung or Suesomeone

  • Reply 8 of 81
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    This is from the company that had an entire smear campaign of commercials making fun of the iPhone and their customers? I'm glad to see Samsung is just as objective as their supporters. :D

    pmz wrote: »
    Its not going to sell well as it is, (just the S4), so they can't afford any bad press.

    I'm pretty sure it'll be the 2nd most successful high-end smartphone and the 1st high-end Android smartphone sold this year.
  • Reply 9 of 81
    One thing DED doesn't take a stand on is whether the newspaper is right or wrong in Samsung's case. He gives examples of where the press has made up factually incorrect stories about iPhones, but is he implying the newspaper is (thus similarly) lying about the Galaxy S5's camera (and therefore implicitly argue for Samsung's lawsuit against the paper)? Or is he taking the position that the newspaper is telling the truth, and Samsung's Galaxy S5 camera sucks?
  • Reply 10 of 81
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,927member
    Looks like Verizon already has a BOGO for the GS5 planned.
  • Reply 11 of 81
    rmgt008rmgt008 Posts: 9member
    Thank goodness Samsung could not pull this asinine lunacy off in the United States. I love my some First Amendment.
  • Reply 12 of 81
    danielsw wrote: »
    Sounds like Samsung is really worried.


    Samsung's just pissed because they paid the newspaper for a much better review.

    To quote the convicted president, "These aren't the reviews we were looking for!" (apologizes to Obiwan Knobe)
  • Reply 13 of 81
    imemberimember Posts: 247member

    here a false report about the iPhone 5 

     

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_5

     

    Benchmark tests conducted by UK consumer magazine Which? in June 2013, comparing the iPhone 5 and other smart phones in the same class such as the HTC OneSamsung Galaxy S 4 and LG Nexus 4 have consistently found the iPhone to be the slowest

  • Reply 14 of 81
    jkichlinejkichline Posts: 1,369member
    They really don't understand the notion of freedom of the press huh? Seems like a pretty North Korean tactic. Maybe Samsung should move.
  • Reply 15 of 81
    One thing DED doesn't take a stand on is ... bla bla bla ... Samsung's Galaxy S5 camera sucks?

    Samsung's Galaxy S5 sucks so bad that it can bust your eardrum with negative pressure.
  • Reply 16 of 81
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    I would love to know exactly what they said. Did they claim it was only 5MP when it is 8MP. Or something similar.

    Or was it a review where someone said their opinion that the photos taken are drop quality and Samsung just doesn't like that opinion.
  • Reply 17 of 81
    imemberimember Posts: 247member

    Samsung they should sue themselves for stating that s2, S3 and S4 are better than iPhone, not to mention for paying people and tech sites to talk trash about the iPhone 

  • Reply 18 of 81
    robin huberrobin huber Posts: 4,031member
    Thin skins. They can dish it out, but they can't take it.
  • Reply 19 of 81
    charlituna wrote: »
    I would love to know exactly what they said. Did they claim it was only 5MP when it is 8MP. Or something similar.

    Or was it a review where someone said their opinion that the photos taken are drop quality and Samsung just doesn't like that opinion.

    I would like to know too. But alas, that doesn't seem to be the point of this DED article, does it? ;)
  • Reply 20 of 81
    aaronjaaronj Posts: 1,595member

    There has got to be someone here who can read Korean.

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