BANGALORE & SAN JOSE: Apple Inc has scored a huge victory against Samsung when a U.S. jury , on Friday, found the Korean company had copied critical features of the hugely popular iPhone and iPad and awarded the U.S. company $1.05 billion in damages.
The jury has found a total of six patent violations.
According to a Reuters report, the verdict -- which came after less than three days of jury deliberations -- could lead to
an outright ban on sales of key Samsung products and will likely solidify Apple's dominance of the exploding mobile
computing market.
Here we examine the possible implications for Samsung buyers:
- You may not need to return your Samsung handsets/tablets subjected to patent copy issue
- Samsung may give a software update which may devoid Samsung users (particularly Samsung Galaxy S Series phones & Galaxy Tab 10) of new key features
- Samsung may halt shipments of new devices subjected to the patent issue
Implications for other Android users
Reuters adds that Apple's victory could present immediate issues for companies that sell Android-based smartphones
and tablets, including Google's own Motorola subsidiary, which it acquired last year for $12.5 billion, and HTC of Taiwan.
Amazon -- which has made major inroads into the tablet market with its cheaper Kindle Fire -- uses a modified version of
Android for its Kindle products but has not yet been subject to legal challenge by Apple.
(With inputs from Reuters)