In addition, Samsung also asked Apple to refund another compensation in case of patent infringement on multi-finger touch, which is about 145 million US dollars. Samsung believes that because the patent later expires, Apple must refund the money paid.
The correspondent of "International Finance News" interviewed the public relations team of Samsung China's mobile phone business on this matter. The other party said that it did not understand the specific situation, and it refused to pay appeals. It did not receive any response to the reporter's deadline.
Industry experts believe that Samsung’s move aims to maintain the brand's influence and reputation, because an obvious fact is Samsung's continued sluggishness in the Chinese market in recent years. According to the latest report released by Sino Data, the first quarter of 2018 Samsung sold only 2.14 million units in China's smartphone market, ranking ninth, with a market share of only 0.8%.
Refusal to Pay Patent Cases, Maintaining European and American Markets
Samsung's patent case also goes back seven years.
In April 2011, Apple Corp’s Samsung Electronics’ first-generation Galaxy phone was similar to the iPhone. After Samsung’s rejection of its patent licensing offer to Samsung, Samsung sued Samsung.
In August 2012, the California District Court of First Instance decided that Samsung Electronics infringed several Apple patents and must compensate the other party for US$1.05 billion. Samsung disagreed and appealed.
On December 7, the same year, Apple and Samsung reopened the trial in the federal court in San Jose.
In the following years, the two parties underwent attempted reconciliation, retrial, and several more rounds. Until May of this year, the United States jury reconsidered and reached a unanimous verdict: Samsung changed the payment amount to 538 million U.S. dollars, of which 533 million U.S. dollars were infringing Apple. Three design patents, and 5.3 million US dollars for the violation of Apple's two practical patents.
It is reported that after Samsung filed a refusal of compensation and appealed motion, Apple needed to respond to this motion by June 21, and the hearing was scheduled to be held on July 6.
In response to Samsung's motion, Hao Junbo, chief lawyer of the Beijing Hao Junbo Law Firm, believes that before the final decision, Samsung has the right to refuse compensation and appeal. As a technology giant, Samsung cannot despise US laws and currently only takes legal established procedures. As for the outcome of the trial after the appeal, it is possible to maintain the status quo and possibly revise the sentence. However, at the current stage, Samsung does not need to implement the contents of this judgment.
Sun Yanyi, dean of the first mobile phone industry research institute, said that Samsung refused to compensate Apple’s patent fees. Fundamentally, it is not a question of how much money is less, but it is to protect the reputation of the brand. 'Europe and the United States attach great importance to patents and Property rights. Once Samsung accepts the verdict, it means that it recognizes patent infringement. This will have a great impact on Samsung's reputation.
Sun Yanxi believes that Samsung currently performs poorly in the Asia-Pacific region and China, and the European and American markets are areas that Samsung must hold onto. So, to the extent permitted by law, Samsung will certainly die in this case.
China's market is sluggish, dealers sell several units each month
On June 7th, Samsung released the Galaxy A9 Star, a mid-range positioning model priced at RMB 2,999. It is geared towards young fashion groups and endorsed by Brilliance. Prior to this, when the Galaxy S9/S9+ was released in Guangzhou, , also invited the popular talent Xiaoran Boran to help out. "Little fresh meat" began to become a signboard of Samsung.
In Sun Yanqi’s opinion, looking for 'little fresh meat' stars is because Samsung sees the biggest competitors in OPPO and vivo from the domestic market in China. 'The earliest time was that the fashion concept was packaged by Samsung. Apple and Huawei is a business, but now the strongest counterfeiting opponents of fashion concepts are OPPO and vivo. Now these two brands rely on variety and pan-entertainment to smash the market and scramble to seize market share, so Samsung must follow suit. Rear' .
According to Sinodata, Samsung’s share of the Chinese domestic market began to squeeze out of the top five positions in the first half of 2016, ranking behind Huawei, OPPO, Apple, Vivo, and Xiaomi. Ranked as 2017, Samsung is The total sales volume in the Chinese market was more than 10 million units throughout the year, and its market share slipped to 2.2%. As early as 2014, Samsung had ranked first, occupying over 20% of the market share.
In the above report of Sayre in the first quarter of 2018, Samsung's mobile phone sales volume was 2.14 million units, which had fallen to the ninth position with a market share of 0.8%. OPPO ranked first with 18.52 million units in total sales. It was Samsung’s total in the first quarter. 8.6 times of sales; vivo sold 17.34 million units, occupying second place, 8.1 times that of Samsung.
The data that Samsung mobile phones do not look good have also been confirmed in the online shopping mall.
When visiting Shanghai's Suning Tesco store, the “International Finance News” reporter found that none of the Samsung exhibitors had stopped to watch, and the staff seemed to be idle. While on the side of Huawei, Oppo showcased five or six people, from time to time. To the sales staff to understand the specific information of mobile phones. Samsung showcase staff told reporters, 'Samsung is not selling well, mainly in the past few years are to update the flagship machine, the price is high, the low-end product upgrade to a slower pace, let Other manufacturers seized the market. 'But the person stressed that the Galaxy S9 is selling well, but the specific data has not been revealed.
In the Pacific Digital Plaza, dealers asked each person to actively ask for purchase needs. When reporters answered that they wanted to see Samsung’s mobile phones, dealers were a bit puzzled. However, there were almost no samples of Samsung in the dealer stores that the reporter had contacted. .
'Because of less sales, Samsung's mobile phones do not give the user experience. 'One of the dealers told reporters this way. Another dealer said to reporters, 'Samsung is very poor in the domestic market in recent years, which is very Little can directly get Samsung's goods, I also sell a few Samsung mobile phones in a month. '
In a survey conducted by reporters, it was discovered that Pacific Digital Plaza sells Huawei, OPPO, Vivo and Apple. Several distributors that the reporters contacted also recommended mobile phones such as vivo x21, OPPO R15 and Huawei Mate 10.
According to Sun Yanxi, there are multiple reasons why Samsung is declining in China: 'On the one hand, from the perspective of the development trend of smart phones, it should be said that Apple's system is more representative, and Samsung is avoiding its edges. This wants to look and feel from the experience. Starting with the full-screen technology, leading to the trend, but the explosion of note7 cut off this trend, and also caused a huge negative impact on Samsung. On the other hand, Chinese manufacturers have risen rapidly in recent years, and they have taken a step forward in terms of cost performance. Pressed, eventually led to Samsung's defeat in the Chinese market.