After a California court ruled that Samsung will have to pay Apple an unexpected $539 million for patent infringements in the ongoing smartphone saga, Samsung is suggesting a conspiracy of sorts, and Apple is getting a taste of Samsung’s nasty advertising strategy.
On Thursday—and six long hears after this battle launched—a California court ordered Samsung to pay $539 million to Apple for infringing on 3 Apple design patents and two utility patents relating to Samsung Android phones from 2010 and 2011.
It’s a major win for Apple, as Samsung was hoping to pay around $28 million, while Apple sought over $1 billion in damages.
Samsung’s already paid $399 million of the total damages in the meantime, but was hoping at least to get out of paying the balance. It wasn’t in the cards, however, and now it’s striking back in other ways.
Following the California ruling, Samsung said in a statement that it “will consider all options to obtain an outcome that does not hinder creativity and fair competition for all companies and consumers”.
That’s a statement that seems to suggest a wider conspiracy at play to target the South Korean company at a time when Asian tech activity in the United States is under severe scrutiny.
It also suggests that Samsung believes Apple is the beneficiary of unfair competition, and was “hindering” Samsung’s creativity by not turning the other cheek to what the courts deemed patent infringements.
For its part, Apple views itself as the mother of the smart phone revolution, and it’s not going to let anyone else steal the show.
“This case has always been about more than money,” Apple said in a statement. “Apple ignited the smartphone revolution with iPhone, and it is a fact that Samsung blatantly copied our design. It is important that we continue to protect the hard work and innovation of so many people at Apple."
While we still don’t know whether Samsung plans to appeal the verdict, it’s crystal clear that they’re seeking retribution in other, much more public, ways.
Just when Apple thought its battery throttling scandal was dead, one of Samsung’s latest commercials gets down and dirty, bringing it back to life.
In December, Apple apologized for the battery issue and offered a deal on replacements. In March, it issued an iOS software update with a performance management tool that lets users disable the throttling capabilities installed in Apple phones. Disaster was averted, and Apple customers seemed satisfied. Related: Millennials Are Waiting For A $30T Inheritance That Might Not Come
But Samsung is keen to let this one die out and just as everyone’s gotten over it, the South Korean giant sees advantage in bringing it back with a sort of “horrible day in the life of a iPhone user” commercial.
The commercial—which features a woman with an iPhone 6 traveling by air and then by car, all the while growing increasingly frustrated with her slow, ‘throttled’ iPhone, eventually takes a cab to an Apple store where they suggest an upgrade—to a Samsung.
Apple fans, at least on Twitter, aren’t happy, so Samsung’s under-handed attempt to win them over may backfire.
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But the commercial steels feels good, likely, with Samsung coming off a bitter loss to Apple to the tune of nearly $540 million.
Apple stock is loving it, even if it’s not about the money:
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And it’s going to take a lot more than a nasty commercial to tear this $930-billion market cap company from its aggressive push to become the first trillion-dollar company in the world.
By Tom Kool for Safehaven.com
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