In retaliation to the patent infringement suit filed by Apple Inc. (AAPL) on HTC Corp. some time back, the Taiwanese handset maker HTC filed a counter complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission, accusing Apple of violating five of its patented technologies related to mobile phones, and thereby requesting for a ban on the import, marketing and sale of some of Apple’s mobile devices in the United States, which are currently manufactured outside the country.
Specifically, HTC alleged that Apple violated its patent relating to technologies that help the iPhone manage power and handle phone directories, as well as a technology that helps the newly launched iPad to store data, while it is in sleep mode.
This is not the first of legal battles between Apple and other tech majors. Apple has previously filed a suit against HTC, which uses Google’s (GOOG) Android operating system in a number of its latest-model smart phones.
Last October, Nokia Inc. (NOK) filed a lawsuit against Apple, claiming that the iPhone has violated some of its patents. So the legal war in the smartphone space has become very frequent in recent times.
It will be interesting to see how these issues are resolved. Apple has been growing at phenomenal rates and largely at the expense of other established players. If the company continues to take share from others, makes good use of market growth and does as well internationally as it has done in the U.S., it could very well become the global leader. On the other hand, if the charges prove justified, there would be a big price to pay.
As per the latest data provided by the technology research firm IDC, Apple held around 16.0% of the global smartphone market share during the January-March quarter, a relatively small share.
Additionally, the recently-launched smartphone from Google can turn out to be a potential threat to the future success of the iPhone. This apart, BlackBerry Bold 9000 from Research In Motion (RIMM) and the most recent BlackBerry Tour 9630 distributed via the Verizon (VZ) and Sprint (S) network are the other competing products.
Similarly, Palm (PALM), Nokia, Motorola, Research In Motion, Samsung, Sony Ericsson (SNE, ERIC), Microsoft and SanDisk (SNDK) may attempt to imitate some of the iPhone’s functions and applications within their own smartphones and new touch screen devices, further increasing competition.
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Read the full analyst report on “ERIC”
Read the full analyst report on “SNDK”
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