HTC Sues Apple, Apple Making 150K iPhones a Day
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When Google acquired Motorola Mobility, many experts claimed that the company was doing so mainly to protect the Android platform against lawsuits being launched against it from all directions. Google executives were quick to claim that was not the only reason for this expensive move:
We did it for more than just patents..We actually believe that the Motorola team has some amazing products coming…We’re excited to have the product line, to use the Motorola brand, the product architecture, the engineers. These guys invented the RAZR,
claim Eric Schmidt. This assertion may or may not be completely true. But HTC is using some of the patents acquired by Google to go after Apple. HTC is suing Apple to fight back against the claim that Android is copying iOS. It has been quite desperate to defend itself, having bought S3 Graphics to strengthen its legal position in this fight:
Google knows that HTC is under tremendous legal pressure from Apple and clearly on the losing track… This intervention on Google’s part increases the likelihood of direct litigation by Apple against Google,
explained Florian Mueller, a Munich-based consultant to Bloomberg. The most recent lawsuit claims that Mac and iOS devices and programs infringe patents for updating software wirelessly (among other things). As Apple starts having success against Android partners in the courts, it will have to contend with even more lawsuits, which will be costly to both sides.
Regardless of what Android partners are doing to stop Apple, the company is getting ready for a mega launch of iPhone 5. According to Digitimes, 150k iPhone 5s are being manufactured everyday. Apple is expected to sell millions of iPhone 5 units in 2011.
Suppliers in the iPhone 5 supply chain in Taiwan have geared up production recently with volume shipments of the new Apple smartphones to begin soon. Production of iPhone 5s at OEM maker Foxconn Electronics has reportedly reached 150,000 units per day
This means 5-6M units should be ready to go in September with millions more to be sold in the following months. Apple has a lot of momentum in the smart-phone business at this point. It simply can’t afford to not have a successful iPhone 5 campaign.
