Apple’s victory over Samsung in the patent dispute last week will force competitors back to the drawing board and drive mobile computing innovation.
While Samsung and Google suffered major defeats, Nokia and Microsoft are now positioned to win big, says a technology market research and consulting firm Technology Business Research (TBR).
A California jury awarded Apple over $1 billion in damages in the patent dispute over mobile devices.
The verdict upheld Apple’s claims that Samsung copied key design elements of its best-selling iPhone.
The verdict sends a clear signal to Samsung and other smart phone vendors that copying with impunity will not be tolerated, said TBR.
While Samsung was the specific target of Apple’s suit, its reverberations will be felt by other vendors and by Google, maker of the Android operating system (OS) on which the vast majority of Samsung’s (and other vendors’) smart phones and tablets run. Apple long contended that the Android OS copies critical elements of iOS, Apple’s mobile computing OS.
TBR expects Samsung and other vendors using Android OS will have to redesign many elements of their mobile devices. This could increase innovation and diversity in handset design, or design compromises that result in new, less-appealing smartphones and tablets.
Windows OS users to gain
Two companies likely to benefit from the verdict are Nokia and Microsoft. Nokia’s newest line of mobile devices uses Microsoft’s Windows OS. Unlike the Android OS, Microsoft’s mobile OS borrows very little from iOS, protecting Microsoft’s OS and vendors using it from future infringement suits from Apple.
Nokia, which introduced its first smart phones running the OS in 4Q11, has seen lacklustre sales in the face of competition from Android devices, but as Android handset makers now rush to drastically revamp their devices, a window of opportunity opens for Nokia. Lenovo, which will soon introduce its Windows OS phones to the world stage, could also benefit from the ruling.
Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, also stands to win.
Having struggled for more than a year in the face of the onslaught from Apple and Android, RIM has been scrambling to develop new devices and a modern OS, which it intends to begin selling in early 2013.