The clash of the two biggest names in the Mobile Phone world came to a head in America over night. Jurors has sat through hours and hours of testimonies and they had reached their decisions.
The conclusions they reached supported, some would say rightly, Apple. Samsung's punishment came in to the tune of a $1billion!! Almost all of Apple's patents were upheld and none, yes absolutely none of Samsung's patents were found to be valid!
Just as an example, here is a list of devices that show the fines that made up that $billion;
• Infuse 4G: $44,792,974
• Prevail: $57,000,000+
• Mesmerize: $53,123,612
• Replenish: $3,350,256
• Transform: $954,060
Some perspective:
Overnight there has been lots and lots of reaction from over the web but let's put this in some kind of perspective;
- Apple's had a win here, but then there's appeals to come so the figure might come down a small amount.
- Samsung did copy Apple's design on the original Galaxy S and they utilised Apple's 'trade dress' for their own advantage. So it is a fair decision.
- This ruling does NOT affect newer Samsung devices such as the Galaxy S3 or Galaxy Note 10.1 who's design is notably original!
The $1billion is about a sixth of Samsung's $6billion profit from Q2 alone! They can easily take the hit and it will make the company more careful and original in future.
Is this the end of Android?
The patents that Apple has had 'validated' by this ruling are not the be all and end all for Android. Yes this is undoubtedly a set back for Android manufacturers and it may give Apple the confidence to go after them more aggressively. But, there's the option to license these patents or as we have seen with HTC, there are ways to get around Apple's patents. The 'bounceback' patent has been circumvented by HTC with a slightly edited animation that is widely regarded as an improvement anyway!
Also it's worth mentioning that Apple manufacturers all create their own skins and none of them apart from LG's look like iOS anymore. So this is not really an issue!
Windows Phone looking good now?
There's also been a lot of commentary overnight about the impact this will have on Windows Phone and whether manufacturers will be pushed into M$ arms.
This is unlikely, companies may get slightly more cosy and release a few more Microsoft devices, but most will stick with Android because it sells extremely well. We expect Android manufacturers to continue their work on Android until the 'licensing fees' become more than the cost of buying copies of Microsoft's OS and they'll probably continue to after that as well!
We'll see how this one plays out though!
What now?
It is conceivable that Samsung will stop releasing as many devices in the US market, so essentially the country has restricted their choices with this decision. But, on the contrary Samsung might be more determined to go after market share now and come out with absolutely stellar devices in the country.
This court proceeding isn't quite over yet either; Apple has until August 29, next Wednesday, to file their opinions, and Samsung will have 14 days after that to respond to the decision. Once Samsung has filed its response on September 12, Apple will have only two days to file a response of its own. This will all culminate with a preliminary injunction hearing on September 20. Stay tuned folks, because even though the trial is over, the fight between Apple and Samsung isn’t finished yet.
And just for reassurance if you think Apple is going to be taking your phone off you, they can't! If you've bought a phone that infringes Apple's patents then you will not have anyone coming to your house and you are free to use it until you no longer want it! This isn't mobile armegeddon!
