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"Nobody is going to 'win' this war." This is an existential crisis for the smaller companies, but it's simply raising the stakes a little bit for Apple, who ar

"Nobody is going to 'win' this war." This is an existential crisis for the smaller companies, but it's simply raising the stakes a little bit for Apple, who are making enough profit to afford endless litigation. The whole contest has numerous immediate benefits for Apple. Since they're making the lion's share of the money in smartphones, they win simply by raising the table stakes (i.e. litigation costs and court awards), which eat up a disproportionate share of their competitors' profits. It's not outrageous to think that their lawsuits pressured unprofitable Motorola to first threaten to sue other licencees and then sell to Google under extortionist conditions. I wouldn't be surprised if other struggling Android handset makers (LG?) moved to the fixed cost of Windows Phone 7 over the headache of Android-related litigation. Of course, the Motorola purchase incentivises profitable Android makers to hedge their bets on WP7, too. In the end, I think that Apple will be pleased if the product of their litigation is not to drive Android out of the market, but to create a phone market much like the tablet market - the iPhone and then a mish-mash of odd looking (to the average consumer) competitors.

marshray 15y ago
it's simply raising the stakes a little bit for Apple, who are making enough profit to afford endless litigation No, Apple cannot overlook the possibility that the import and sale of some of their own products is banned in the US. If that happened as a result of their litigious adventuring, they'd have some real explaining to do to big investors. Look at what happened with Blackberry and NTP. The actual service (used heavily by the US Government and no doubt patent judges) came very close to being shut down. Probably someone gave the parties a good talking-to and forced the settlement. But in this case, a suspension on the sale of these particular shiny devices is not an existential issue for anyone except Apple's executives.
- saturdaysaint 15y ago
  That's such a remote possibility that, yes, Apple can overlook it or at least consider it a remote risk in their cost/benefit analysis. If anyone had the patent position to keep Apple out of the market, rest assured that they would have regardless of Apple's lawsuits. Compared to the potential benefits of muddying the competitive field just as they make their first multi-carrier U.S. launch with the iPhone 5, it's an extremely negligible potential cost.
  - marshray 15y ago
    It's not a "remote possibility". It's foolish to predict the results of international quasi-legal panels and US judges and juries when it only takes one claim on one infringing patent. Even newcomer HTC has stockpiled hundreds of patents by now, some of which Apple has already been declared to be infringing. If anyone had the patent position to keep Apple out of the market, rest assured that they would have regardless of Apple's lawsuits. No, I don't agree with that at all. The vast majority of all patents are never litigated and it's very rare that any large-budget manufacturer is actually kept out of a market as general as mobile touch-screen phones. Normally patents are ignored, occasionally they're pooled or cross-licensed. Usually only trolls end up going as far as actually obtaining a suspension of sales and imports, but even then their goal is payment. This is what makes Apple's decision to start a "real" patent war with HTC (and all Android makers by extension) so exceptional. Apple has as much to lose as anyone.

marshray 15y ago

it's simply raising the stakes a little bit for Apple, who are making enough profit to afford endless litigation No, Apple cannot overlook the possibility that the import and sale of some of their own products is banned in the US. If that happened as a result of their litigious adventuring, they'd have some real explaining to do to big investors. Look at what happened with Blackberry and NTP. The actual service (used heavily by the US Government and no doubt patent judges) came very close to being shut down. Probably someone gave the parties a good talking-to and forced the settlement. But in this case, a suspension on the sale of these particular shiny devices is not an existential issue for anyone except Apple's executives.

saturdaysaint 15y ago
That's such a remote possibility that, yes, Apple can overlook it or at least consider it a remote risk in their cost/benefit analysis. If anyone had the patent position to keep Apple out of the market, rest assured that they would have regardless of Apple's lawsuits. Compared to the potential benefits of muddying the competitive field just as they make their first multi-carrier U.S. launch with the iPhone 5, it's an extremely negligible potential cost.
- marshray 15y ago
  It's not a "remote possibility". It's foolish to predict the results of international quasi-legal panels and US judges and juries when it only takes one claim on one infringing patent. Even newcomer HTC has stockpiled hundreds of patents by now, some of which Apple has already been declared to be infringing. If anyone had the patent position to keep Apple out of the market, rest assured that they would have regardless of Apple's lawsuits. No, I don't agree with that at all. The vast majority of all patents are never litigated and it's very rare that any large-budget manufacturer is actually kept out of a market as general as mobile touch-screen phones. Normally patents are ignored, occasionally they're pooled or cross-licensed. Usually only trolls end up going as far as actually obtaining a suspension of sales and imports, but even then their goal is payment. This is what makes Apple's decision to start a "real" patent war with HTC (and all Android makers by extension) so exceptional. Apple has as much to lose as anyone.