Sure, Apple wins and Samsung loses. But does Nokia win, too?
On Friday, the long courtroom battle between Samsung and Apple finally wound to a close. Apple came out on top. The Cupertino company was awarded聽approximately $1 billion in damages from Samsung, and Apple reps are currently seeking injunctions against a range of Samsung handsets, including the Galaxy S2 and the Droid Charge, both of which were found to violate patents established by Apple.
Samsung, for its part, has vowed to fight on. But聽how will the verdict affect the rest of the smartphone industry? Well, many analysts believe that Microsoft and Nokia in particular stand to benefit from a weakened Samsung presence in the marketplace. In February of last year, of course, Microsoft and Nokia announced they would partner to release a line of handsets running Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system.聽
Among the products of that partnership is the Lumia smartphone;聽in September,聽Nokia聽is widely expected to introduce a line of handsets running Windows Phone 8, the upcoming version of the Windows Phone OS.聽
"After the verdict, I am sure that vendors in the Android ecosystem are wondering how long it will be before they become Apple鈥檚 target," Gartner's Carolina Milanesi Bloomberg this week.聽"This might sway some vendors to look at Windows Phone 8 as an alternative, and for the ones like聽HTC聽Corp. and even Samsung who have already announced plans to bring to market a WP8 device, how much stronger their investment should聽be."
As Bobbie Johnson of GigaOM , Nokia stock has climbed steadily since the conclusion of the Apple and Samsung case.
Still, Johnson warns against getting too optimistic about Nokia's prospects. The company is still an聽 in the smartphone wars.聽
"While the promise of jam tomorrow might help Wall Street鈥檚 sensibilities," Johnson writes, "the reality is that it鈥檚 a long, long game that is far from sure. Does Nokia have the time, or the inclination, to wait for the world to change?"
