Good analysis, Reinier. While this is clearly a strong legal win for Apple, the more I think about it and the more its pyrrhic aspect strikes me.
Like you say, it won't make a little bit of difference from a money stand point for either parties. The consequences for Samsung from a product stand point are probably going to be mild since they have already adjusted their line of devices to avoid the Apple patents, so they are most likely in the clear from now on (which won't stop more lawsuits from popping up, for sure). The positive advertising effect for Samsung cannot be underestimated, though, take a look at this post <https://plus.google.com/114476892281222708332/posts/246srfbqg6G>to get a sense of what this verdict has enabled. This is just the beginning. Like you say, this verdict has completely validated Samsung as a valid and cheaper substitute to iPhones. Of course, none of this changes anything to the fact that during all this time, Android has continued to increase its lead over the iPhone in market share and the experts seem to agree with my prediction last year<http://beust.com/weblog/2011/01/14/not-too-late/>that the market will stabilize around 70% for Android and 20% for the iPhone. No doubt motivated by this verdict, Google has finally decided to switch to the offensive and sue Apple directly<http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/08/21/and-now-google-sues-apple/>. What a strange world it would be if in just a few months from now, both iPhones and Samsung devices are banned from the US because of the lawsuit fallouts, uh? Will Apple sue Google in response? This would require Apple to give a credible estimate for the amount of money that Google is making with Android, and with the operating system being free, this might be a tough case to make. Finally, the trial has forced Apple to reveal more about its internal processes than it would probably have ever dreaded to reveal in a century and I can't imagine that Apple executives don't have a bitter taste in their mouth about that. -- Cédric On Mon, Aug 27, 2012 at 11:35 PM, Reinier Zwitserloot <[email protected]>wrote: > Actually, while samsung stock is way down, this is fantastic news for > samsung. > > * They can easily appeal here; the jury reached a verdict in 3 days. The > jury instruction manual was something like 700 pages, so the judge is going > to accept an appeal in about 5 seconds. The fact that various jury members > made overtures that they see this as a 'slap on the wrist' for samsung, > something the jury instruction manual specifically says is NOT their job > (their job was to give fair compensation to apple, NOT to send a message to > samsung). This keeps this farce going, and that's good for samsung, not > just because they might get their billion back, but because... > > * We now have a court-ordered claim that samsung devices are carbon copies > of apple devices. Geez. That's quite a bold claim, and now _the courts_ are > saying that this bold claim is, in fact, true. That's a marketer's wet > dream, isn't it? A court-stamped and validated claim that your stuff is > just as good as the top dog in the market? > > * It's just a billion. I know, we civilized look at that and shake our > head in disdain, but, it's like a week's worth of revenue for samsung. > Contrast this to Microsoft, who, in a bid to stay relevant and try and make > some leeway in the mobile phone business, bought skype for 8 billion. Let's > put it this way: If I approached samsung 4 years ago with this deal: You > can copy whatever you want from the device that is going to become the > cornerstone of an entirely new market, and in doing so you'll actually > outsell them, and all it'll cost you is the meager sum of a billion bucks. > Oh, and, by the way, included in that price is a highly publicized court > case which will highlight again and again how awesome your devices are. > > * Their flagship phones that they are _CURRENTLY_ selling (notable the S3) > are _NOT_ even in the list, meaning, if any motion to ban sales of their > phones shows up for the US market, samsung won't even care much. > > > Now, is patent law as it applies to software and design a farce? You bet. > The right answer is to abolish them entirely (not because this is the > clearly most fair way to do it, but because the issue is clearly too > complex for a law to handle, and abolishing them entirely leads to less > economic damage to the IT sector than any other proposal I've ever heard > about. Including Joe's various plans to try to make companies pay for > getting their patent vetted for being actually novel. At the end of the > day, taxing a law system to define novelty is a ridiculous proposal, think > about it. Why should the government even be in the business of determining > novelty? Why would anyone think that's actually going to work?). Would > samsung be even happier if there was no patent case? I doubt they care. > They got about a billion bucks worth of good press out of this I'd say. > They can write this off as an expensive but effective marketing campaign if > they want. > > In the mean time, apple is focused on entirely the wrong thing (please, > Team Apple: You need to be focusing on making cool devices and software, > and crowing victory when said software/hardware combos end up being awesome > in practice. The victory dance is for the home-run that are the 11" and 13" > macbook airs, for example. Not for a legal verdict that is in the end quite > meaningless, and a legally mandated cash windfall. I've been using an S3 > for a month or 3 now and from my perspective this thing is as good as an > iPhone. A little better, even, because google is still much better at the > cloud thing compared to apple. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Java Posse" group. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msg/javaposse/-/GaVe6gm4VpQJ. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
