If you're looking to invest long term invest in Samsung

I don't think that this ruling will change too much at all.

The jury made so many mistakes that an appeal is certain.

- Damages amount deliberately "punishing" rather than accurate reflection of the lost earnings as instructed
- Damages for individual phones don't bear any connection to their sales or the scale of infringement
- Didn't consider patent prior art by their own admission
- Jurors contradicting each other in the media post-trial

if it stands though, I don't think anyone will gain except other Android makers than Samsung. Apple could not sell more phones because they don't make anything mid-low end, Nokia is extremely dead regardless and everyone else is irrelevant.

So I guess I'd bet on HTC.

I think Bloomberg is taking a event and stretching it to the max like they always do. The products up for ban are older generation Samsung models that are at least two generations removed from Samsung's current offerings. The only thing I can see problem wise is if Apple takes the pinch to zoom features available in almost all smartphones and goes to war with that.

As for winners and losers

Apple: Neutral to Positive. its plus or minus depending on how public perception pans out. They will be ok in the US most likely but may have an image problem worldwide. They cannot rest on their laurels as the mobile phone market is very image conscience. Releasing the same thing year in and out will only work for so long before pundits start to trash it. They need to start putting that cash to work.

Samsung: Positive. They are still pushing to be the world largest cellphone maker and their scale alone will make it happen.

Google: Neutral to Positive. The android OS is going to be continually challenged in court so the litigation risk is going to be there. They are still innovating at a pretty fast clip though, so their growth will outlast that litigation.

Nokia: Negative. Overreaction to the news. They still have multiple problems with their Lumia line and Samsung is still releasing Windows phones.

RIMM: Negative. Same as Nokia

If everyone switched to the software vendor UI, that would be Android stock as seen on the Nexus line, which would be a win for Google and also a win for customers because all these custom Android skins suck.

Those are the all-phones numbers, look at the smartphone only numbers and also that all phones will effectively be smartphones within a few years.

But that's not why they're dead. They're dead because they bet everything on WinPhone and no one wants one (~1% marketshare). I'd LOVE it if they'd have stuck with Symbian that has 30% of the market according to your numbers, or MeeGo, but they've committed to WP8 for all future products.

Also their financials are terrible. Nokia has a junk credit rating and has been doing nothing but lose money.

We will see. I don't see how WP8 can reverse WP7's fortune by that much; MS are still thinking about it from a software engineering perspective ('maybe if we add X feature') rather than why the market isn't buying.

If Android is completely shut down by lawsuits then OK maybe.

I understand that, however, I don't think that this ruling will really change how competitive each of the big handset and software firms are. 

Legal battles are still ongoing, the big companies will no doubt find ways around the patent infringements if they absolutely have to, and there have been no significant product bans as of yet.

Basically, after this is all said and done, Google and Apple will still be the big dogs on the software side, Samsung will still sell the most phones around the world, RIM will still be in decline etc etc etc. 

no one.

Apple receives a lot of negative press and people (ya know the mass market sheep who know nothing of tech) see Samsung as identical to Apple for less money.

Samsung loses billions and allows the US courts to set a precedent that will fuck all the other OEMs, including MS.

Google has to keep pouring billions into helping its OEM partners (who clearly should of listened to them day one and changed the look/feel of their product to be less like the iPhone) instead of future innovations.

Other OEMs have to immediately avoid litigation by handing Apple licensing due to this stupid precedent.

Consumers (regardless of what you like) are forced to be raped by the higher costs all around. Apple will only increase their price and offer less innovation as they seal more market. Android OEMs have to charge more to cover Apple/MS licensing.

Patent system needs to be changed big time and furthermore software probably shouldn't be patented at all. So long as its not copy/paste source, its a different thing. Doesn't matter if the functionality is the same, its a different fucking solution!

Furthermore, many of the patents supposedly breached are being reviewed right now to see if they even should be patents in the first place.

#banappleproducts

so is it final that samsung have to pay $1B or can they appeal and how much would they be able to get of by if so.