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Lex_Samsung/Apple
USinfo | 2012-12-29 16:58
The irony will not be lost on the Android ecosystem. It was Google’s suggestion that Samsung make its products look less like Apple’s that convinced a Californian jury the former had wilfully infringed the latter’s patents. The damage to the Korean group from the verdict is painful, but surmountable. The real question is the hit to Google’s Android operating system.
More than half of all smartphones run on Android. Assuming other Android-using phonemakers, including HTC, Sony, ZTE, and Huawei, fear their own day in court (HTC has had several) then they will at least pause with new models as they navigate patent-sensitive areas.
Apple’s case was not just about smartphones but, if it is sensible, it will avoid trying to squash Android tablets via Samsung. No maker has yet made much headway here. Apple has outsold Samsung, the market number two, by nine to one, according to Bernstein. Any banning of Samsung’s tablets (to be decided in California next month) is only likely to push rivals into the arms of Microsoft, whose tablet-friendly Windows 8 is due to launch. Apple’s old foe is already friendly with tablet makers that have always outsourced PC operating systems to it.
And any boon to Microsoft’s tablet ambitions will not hurt its Windows Phone either, especially if phonemakers hedge their Android bets. ZTE and Huawei already plan to produce Windows-based phones. Growing familiarity with the system could even help raise Nokia from the nearly dead.
Samsung’s fine, as it stands, is only a 20th of this year’s forecast net profits. The Korean group reckons the real loser is the consumer. Phone users could in fact be the ultimate beneficiary as makers work harder to innovate. Samsung’s latest phone, the SIII, is not part of this case and has already set the benchmark by which Apple’s iPhone 5 will be judged. This battle is not over yet.
More than half of all smartphones run on Android. Assuming other Android-using phonemakers, including HTC, Sony, ZTE, and Huawei, fear their own day in court (HTC has had several) then they will at least pause with new models as they navigate patent-sensitive areas.
Apple’s case was not just about smartphones but, if it is sensible, it will avoid trying to squash Android tablets via Samsung. No maker has yet made much headway here. Apple has outsold Samsung, the market number two, by nine to one, according to Bernstein. Any banning of Samsung’s tablets (to be decided in California next month) is only likely to push rivals into the arms of Microsoft, whose tablet-friendly Windows 8 is due to launch. Apple’s old foe is already friendly with tablet makers that have always outsourced PC operating systems to it.
And any boon to Microsoft’s tablet ambitions will not hurt its Windows Phone either, especially if phonemakers hedge their Android bets. ZTE and Huawei already plan to produce Windows-based phones. Growing familiarity with the system could even help raise Nokia from the nearly dead.
Samsung’s fine, as it stands, is only a 20th of this year’s forecast net profits. The Korean group reckons the real loser is the consumer. Phone users could in fact be the ultimate beneficiary as makers work harder to innovate. Samsung’s latest phone, the SIII, is not part of this case and has already set the benchmark by which Apple’s iPhone 5 will be judged. This battle is not over yet.
