As anticipated, and per an order from Judge Lucy Koh to submit a list of mobile devices Apple (News - Alert) believes should be banned from sale in the United States on August 27, 2012, Apple has now submitted a preliminary list of those devices.
Technically speaking, Apple could probably include as many as 152 Samsung (News - Alert) smartphone and tablet models in this list, though of course it will be Samsung's heavy hitters that Apple will far more likely target.
In any case, the preliminary list has just been made available and the products include the Galaxy S 4G, the Galaxy S2 for AT&T (News - Alert), the Galaxy S2 for Skyrocket, the Galaxy S2 for T-Mobile, the Galaxy S2 Epic 4G, the Galaxy S Showcase, the Droid Charge and the Galaxy Prevail. One has to wonder what else Apple will demand, but we need to note here that these products are those that specifically fall under the jury's finding of "willful infringement" – a particularly damning charge. And yes, they are all Samsung heavy hitters.
As we noted in an earlier article, Samsung clearly opted to get products to market quickly, patent issues more or less be damned, with a strategy of "we'll do whatever we have to now and ask for permission later." That certainly falls under "willful" and we noted that Samsung's head will have to hang in shame.
It also suggests that Samsung made a strategic mistake in believing that it might be able to get away with doing so.
Still, in that same article, we also suggested Samsung's bet might ultimately pay off albeit at some cost – Samsung's revenue will fall somewhere over $18 billion dollars this year, and the company has over $23 billion in cash on hand, so in the end it can afford to pay any fine and the company should have no problem maintaining its Android (News - Alert) market share.
The real danger in Samsung's strategy would be to its overall longer term reputation – significant brand harm is a critical hit for any company to sustain – hence our reference to Samsung's head hanging in shame. Reports from the Wall Street Journal and other reliable news sources have suggested that Samsung may be going into a bit of a panic mode, with CEO-level meetings taking place. No doubt!
Samsung is probably also wishing it hadn't let its attorneys take so many liberties within Judge Koh's courthouse. As they say, hindsight is 20-20.
If Samsung is smart, it’ll move quickly to settle things with Apple and begin to quickly move forward with other avenues to true innovation. Earlier today we offered Samsung some suggestions for doing so.
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