Apple trying to monopolize smart phone business?

Fox News:
Apple Inc. on Monday submitted a list of eight Samsung Electronics Co. products it wants pulled from shelves and banned from the U.S. market.

Apple submitted the list after a jury found Samsung copied the iPhone and iPad in creating and marketing the products.

The products are: Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S2 AT&T, Galaxy S2, Galaxy S2 T-Mobile, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G, Galaxy S Showcase, Droid Charge and Galaxy Prevail.

A judge will decide the issue later.

Apple claimed in a sweeping lawsuit that Samsung's smartphones and computer tablets "slavishly copied" the iPhones and iPads. Samsung countered with its own claims that Apple used its wireless technology without proper compensation.

A nine-person jury in its verdict last week unanimously agreed with Apple and ordered Samsung to pay $1 billion. Most of the damages were tied to Samsung's smartphones. It rejected Samsung's counterclaims.
...
I have said before I think the verdict is bad for consumers and the smart phone business.  I also question the merit of the patents the jury relied upon for its verdict.  Rubberbanding, has been around much longer than the iPhone.  It is prevalent in many games and you can check out the Solitaire game that has been a part of the Window's package for decades to get an idea of how prevalent it is.  As for the way it is used on the iPhone, I just do not find it particularly compelling.

The damages awarded in the case are ridiculous.  The judge or the appellate court could very well reduce them.  Apple is the most profitable company in the history of the world.  It is really hard to say that they have been damaged by a competitors product.  Apple will now have less incentive to innovate and its competitors will have to deal with the threat of a wealthy companies ability to engage in predatory litigation against them.  The results will be bad for consumers.  Apple's major concern going forward is that its huge size and domination of certain markets may attract the DOJ anti trust division.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t
Read more

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains

James Robbins: ... Bin Laden suggests that President Bush should allow Zarqawi’s body to be returned to his family in Jordan, but this is a matter that is up to the Jordanian government, which so far has not shown much interest in facilitating a homecoming. Bin Laden mocks King Abdullah II, calling him a Coalition minion, and asking “w hat scares you about Abu Musab after he’s dead? You know that his funeral, if allowed to happen, would be a huge funeral showing the extent of sympathy with the mujahedin.” A large crowd would definitely turn out, though most people would be on hand to demonstrate their anger and disgust. Last November’s hotel bombings in Amman , masterminded by Zarqawi, are still fresh in people’s memory, and mentioning them to Jordanians has the same visceral impact as memory of the 9/11 attacks does here. Jordan has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards those who choose to mourn the country’s least favorite son, and four opposition members of parliament who paid con
Read more