Apple’s desperate battle to use US Courts in their home State of California to try and stop Samsung with patent claims comes as the Korean Company strips away Apple market share in markets like Australia and Europe.The launch of the Galaxy S3 has seen demand outstrip supply for the new smartphone, with shipments already topping 10 million in a space of weeks.
Demand in Australia for the new Galaxy S3 is “unprecedented” claims executives from Vodafone, Telstra and Optus. In Western Europe where Samsung is seriously stripping market share away from Apple, the Guardian said Samsung has driven into this field (Europe) like a truck into a glass-fronted supermarket.
Samsung drove their share up in Australia through the very successful launch in 2011 of its Galaxy S2; that looks set to continue with the S3, launched in May.
Helping both Apple and Samsung, according to IDC data is the fast decline of brands like Sony, Blackberry and Nokia.
In Europe rapid growth in smartphone share, which passed 50% in the second quarter of 2011 and in the first quarter of 2012 was just short of 63%, is helping Samsung take it up to Apple who on Friday obtained a key victory in a Californian Court when a US Court ruled in Apple’s favour blocking potential sales of the Samsung Google Nexus Smartphone.
Samsung has appealed against the preliminary injunction arguing Apple cannot prove that iPhone market share is legitimately threatened by the Android phone.
Judge Lucy Koh, who appears to have taken a dislike to Samsung after initially banning the Korean Company’s 10.1″ Galaxy Tablet, said the Galaxy Nexus is likely to be found infringing on at least one of four patents the Cupertino company holds.
Samsung claims Apple’s case fails to prove that the potential loss of market share caused by the third-gen Google phone is as “substantial” as the Federal Circuit’s requirements.
“The Court’s finding that Apple will suffer irreparable harm was based on legally insufficient evidence that Samsung and Apple are competitors” Samsung’s retort suggests. “The Court’s order is inconsistent with the Federal Circuit’s directive that market share losses must be substantial.”
The Guardian said there are other storm clouds gathering for mobile handset makers who aren’t called Samsung or Apple due to the recent financial crisis in Europe.
Some carriers are already seeing a reduction in the number of subscribers with the downturn not looking good for the pending launch of Nokia’s Windows phones later this year.
According to the Guardian, Analysts are tipping if Nokia gets into serious trouble, it will be encouraged to spin off the smartphone business, and Microsoft will finance it by buying some tiny share for billions of dollars.
They claim that the strategy worked with Apple, when Steve Jobs cajoled Bill Gates into ironing out some patent infringement rows in 1997, and Microsoft injected $150m for a chunk of non-voting stock.
