Samsung's cheap-feeling plastic builds is now has the largest share in the smartphone market for every single region all for which it collects data. For the first time ever, the company has straddled the globe as the world's top vendor.
Samsung's strategy with one to two flagship devices each year has certainly proven effective at moving units to every corner of the world, conquering each and every marketplace it's put into.
On Wednesday, November 13th, 2013, Apple demanded the South Korean vendor to pay $380 million for copying vital iPhone and iPad features, as a billion-dollar patent fight between the world's two biggest smartphone makers resumed in a Silicon Valley courtroom.
Apple's attorney made the demand during opening statements in a trial to determine damages. The statements included a video of Apple's late Steve Jobs unveiling the first iPhone in January 9, 2007, Macworld conference in San Francisco. Since then, Apple alleges, Samsung has embarked on a copying campaign to keep pace in the smartphone market.
"Apple lost sales because Samsung was selling infringing products," Apple attorney Harold McIhenny told the jury.
Attorneys for Samsung are expected to make their opening remarks later in the day.
A previous jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion after determining 26 Samsung products had infringed six Apple patents. But a judge found the jury miscalculated $400 million in damages for 13 products and ordered a new trial to determine the proper amount. The new jury is free to order new damages ranging from nothing to more than the original $400 million.
"Most cases with these enormous stakes would have settled by now - particularly once the court ordered a new trial on damages, which could substantially increase or decrease the damage award," said Mark McKenna, a Notre Dame law school professor who specializes in technology.
But McKenna said a key incentive for both companies to reach a settlement was removed by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh when she refused to ban U.S. sales of the Samsung products the first jury found infringed Apple's patents.
No matter the outcome, McKenna and other experts expect the loser to appeal.
Samsung and Apple have been into bitter legal struggles around the world as they fight for supremacy of the more than $300 billion smartphone market. The two giants have each won and lost legal skirmishes over the past couple of years.
Apple has argued in courts, government tribunals and regulatory agencies around the world that Samsung's Android-based phones copy vital iPhone features. Samsung is fighting back with its own complaints that some key Apple patents are invalid and Apple has copied Samsung's technology.
The current proceedings are somewhat of a warm-up for a much larger trial. That case will focus on newer products still on the market, while the current trial is a battle over products that are several years old.
Samsung's devices are powered mostly by Android. The operating system that has hit a new milestone of popularity by owning 81 percent of the world smartphone market is growing its dominance impressively but not surprisingly because of the low-cost Android smartphones are the ones to that made it so much popular.
In Q3 2013, people worldwide bought 261 million smartphones and 212 million were Android. Apple only sold about 34 million iPhones.
Samsung accounted for 39.9 percent of all Android shipments for the quarter, while the rest of the vendors either saw single-digit market share or, in the case of the majority of vendors, market share of less than 1 percent. The partnership between Samsung and Android has proven to create the well-known attractive plastic-feel devices that many people underestimate.
Conquering the Market
Both Apple and Samsung are grabbing virtually all the profits in the red-hot smartphone market while most other makers are losing money.
"We estimate Apple and Samsung combined to capture a remarkable 109 percent of third quarter handset industry profits," said Canaccord Genuity analyst Mike Walkley in a research note.
Walkley pointed out that other manufacturers such as BlackBerry, Nokia, LG, HTC and Motorola are operating at a loss, based on his latest global handset survey. He estimated that Samsung shipped 84.8 million smartphones in the quarter and "captured an impressive 53 percent of handset industry profits."
On the other hand, Apple, which launched two new iPhones late in the quarter, "increased its share of industry profits from 53 percent in the second quarter to 56 percent in the third quarter due to slightly higher sequential iPhone unit sales but also primarily due to more pronounced struggles from other" manufacturers