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To me this smells of a couple possibilities. This is the first tablet to my knowledge that Apple has gone after in this way, though it seems the scope is wide
by 51Cards 15y ago
To me this smells of a couple possibilities. This is the first tablet to my knowledge that Apple has gone after in this way, though it seems the scope is wide enough they could have used it against several others in the market. Makes me wonder if this is the first product that Apple is somewhat worried about? Why this one and why now? The added interest is that Samsung, being a major parts supplier for Apple's products is being singled out despite this.
I don't know what it would mean fiscally for Samsung but I would think they have some leverage in the "Well, if you want to be that way about it" department. Apple may stop getting priority consideration for parts orders over other companies. Also Samsung's product range is wide enough they could easily pull the same move against several of Apple's other products like monitors.
- AllenKids 15y agoSamsung already sued Apple in more countries than Apple did to it. Pissing contest and such. HTC's tablet is also under ITC's investigation, initiated by Apple. Except the A5 SOC nothing Samsung makes for Apple is unique enough. And TSMC is actively testing mass producing Apple's IC. BTW: Apple's utility model of essentially a giant iPod touch is ridiculously hilarious.
- fpgeek 15y agoSamsung is a very big producer of flash memory. While that isn't unique, if Apple has to fill their large requirements from other suppliers, those suppliers may decide to charge more (or have to charge more given other demands on their production capacity) if they know Apple doesn't have Samsung as an option...
- AllenKids 15y agoOn the other hand Apple is the single biggest buyer of NAND Flash in the world, if Apple goes elsewhere, Samsung's foundry would find it really hard to fill the capacity.() IIRC, since Japan Tsunami everybody's been scrambling securing components but the demand was relatively soft, e.g. Qualcomm ends its recent quarter with 59 days worth of inventory. So now everything is cheap including NAND Flash, as a matter of fact Apple in its financial outlook for Q4(fiscal) stated a buyer's market for multiple key component will positively affect Apple's GM. http://digitimes.com/print/a20110801PD204.html http://digitimes.com/print/a20110801PD204.html
- notatoad 15y agomy guess is that this suit is specifically because of samsung and apple's business partnerships, and apple will be dropping the suit in exchange for better pricing or availability on some component they need.