Comment by sinnerswing | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sinnerswing | Hacker News Reader

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Why am I not surprised. Samsung has a history of imo unethical and questionable business practices.

Samsung Inflates Galaxy Tab Sales, Gets Busted

http://modmyi.com/content/360-samsung-inflates-galaxy-tab-sa...

Quite smooth: Samsung actually sold 1/10 of the 2 million Galaxy Tabs it claimed in 2010

http://forums.appleinsider.com/t/151854/quite-smooth-samsung...

Looks Like Samsung Pretty Much Lied About US Sales To The Public

http://www.macgasm.net/2012/08/10/looks-like-samsung-pretty-...

Samsung Hires 'Actors' To Pretend To Be Happy Galaxy Tab Testers?

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110325/12360313633/samsun...

Samsung caught presenting actors as Galaxy Tab "consumers," fudging thinnest tablet claims

http://appleinsider.com/articles/11/03/25/samsung_caught_pre...

Here’s how Samsung flew bloggers halfway around the world, then threatened to leave them there.

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/09/02/heres-samsung-flew-...

Samsung Caught Fudging Testimonials, and Lying about Galaxy Tab’s Thickness

http://techie-buzz.com/gadgets-news/samsung-galaxy-tab-fake-...

That is an amazing list. They seem to be on top there together with Ryanair and european banks.

Samsung's antics are hardly contained to smartphones & tablets either.

"Ethics" in Asia are not the same as the rest of the industrialized world. While I can't speak for Korean ethics, I've had dealings in other Asian countries where business ethics are really more like guidelines, elastic ones at that.

I wouldn't be surprised if the execs who sanctioned this behavior on Samsung's part don't even understand that it was wrong.

Right ... and US companies are always ethical, and have always been that way? Or US companies have simply been burt so many times that they know not to play loose with the truth.

It's probably worth noting that Korea "chaebol" (conglomerates) can be a little odd. They have a lot of power over the local government and media, so they end up thinking they are invincible. They are sometimes said to be very shady, at times.

Exactly. While the US of course (as mentioned below) have corporations that exert influence over government, overstep the law, etc., it is generally NOT tolerated by the general public.

That's where it's different in Asia, where such behavior is business as usual.

Big Tobacco in the USA is of course a shining example of the West's greater moral values /sarcasm

Microsoft Monsanto Exxon and so on...

Of course it happens in the US. I think that's covered enough here and elsewhere. But i believe the basic ideal of ethics is a cultural one. Consider that certain cultures in Asia, China for example, have been doing things a certain way thousands of years, and some of those ways are repulsive to the average American.

I don't accept this - everyone surely knows its wrong, however its a matter of how wrong. Is it seen to be wrong like driving 5kmh over the speed limit is?

Its only a matter of getting used to. If you have been doing this, and you think your competitors are also doing it, after some time, you will (conveniently) forget that it was wrong to begin with.

It reminded me of a project we did by analysing the reviews using basic NLP techniques. http://goo.gl/TqhfL

Oh I had meant that their IP theft isn't limited to mobile devices, but you have a very good point with their reviews in general.

(with their oncoming push into notebook computers, I expect similar fraudulent reviews in that area as well)

Forgot to add this:

"Tax evasion, bribery and price-fixing: How Samsung became the giant that ate Korea"

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/tax-evasion-bri...

"Samsung's rocky legal past paints a picture of scandal and corruption"

http://www.theverge.com/policy/2012/8/7/3226651/samsung-lega...

"Samsung Bribery Probe Points to Pattern of Graft in South Korea"

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a...

4/7 of those websites are explicitly pro-Apple, which makes it seem unlikely that they are telling the whole story, given how, unfortunately, these things tend to descend into us-vs-them/clan warfare.

(I'm not saying it isn't true, just they aren't necessarily reporting everything.)

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