We still have to wait and see how the jury’s ruling against Samsung over Apple patents will play out for the company in terms of actual fines, injunctions — and crucially — future device design for the handset giant. But for now the markets have spoken. Share prices for Samsung Electronics fell by 7.5% yesterday, equating to a $12 billion loss in market value. However, it looks like this was a single big hit rather than the start of a series of sustained blows for the Android handset maker: today, shares are still trading down, but not by nearly as much: 3.65%, giving it a market cap of $159.38 billion.
Samsung’s loss was really Apple’s gain. As we noted yesterday, Apple’s shares opened at a record high of $680. The feel-good factor lasted for the whole of the day, with Apple closing more than 12% higher, with its total market cap currently at $633.39 billion. But while Apple got the biggest boost, others equally saw bumps in their prices.
Some believe that the potential pressure on Samsung’s market strategy, which has been built in large part on the success of its Galaxy line of Android devices (one of the earlier models of the Galaxy S line shown here), could spell a win for Nokia, its biggest competitor in the wider mobile market (Apple competes only on smartphones and tablets).
Nokia — which Samsung usurped as the number-one mobile phone maker worldwide earlier this year — saw its shares on the NYSE go up 5.5%. However, with trading closing at $3.25 per share, it’s still less than half the value of its 52-week high of $7.38 per share. Really, it will take Nokia itself launching killer smartphones in September, and showing that it is moving the needle both in advanced and more basic handsets, for that situation to change more permanently. Nokia’s market value is now $12.17 billion.
Interestingly, RIM also saw a rise yesterday, but an even smaller one than Nokia’s: it was up 1.89% and currently has a market cap of $3.67 billion.
The beleaguered smartphone company has been rumored in the past to be a potential acquisition target for Samsung. And while there has never been a statement from either company to confirm such speculation — in fact, Samsung and RIM have denied it outright — it’s an interesting concept to contemplate particularly in light of the jury’s vote that Samsung has found smartphone success in part by copying Apple. Could a completely different approach, on a completely different operating system, potentially give Samsung a fresh start on that front?
Another loser — but not nearly as badly as Samsung — was Google. Some believe Google could become a more direct legal target for Apple, especially as it moves further into producing its own hardware through Motorola Mobility and others, rather than simply making its Android operating system available to OEMs. Its shares were down nearly 1.4%, to a market cap of $218.86 billion.
Samsung is one of the largest super-multinational companies in the world. It’s possibly best known for it’s subsidiary, Samsung Electronics, the largest electronics company in the world.
Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computers to consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple, Inc. in January 2007. Among the key offerings from Apple’s product line are: Pro line laptops (MacBook Pro) and desktops (Mac Pro), consumer line laptops (MacBook Air) and desktops (iMac), servers (Xserve), Apple TV, the Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server operating systems, the iPod, the...
NOKIA is a Finnish multinational communications corporation. It is primarily engaged in the manufacturing of mobile devices and in converging Internet and communications industries. They make a wide range of mobile devices with services and software that enable people to experience music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games, business mobility and more. Nokia is the owner of Symbian operation system and partially owns MeeGo operating system.
BlackBerry (formerly Research in Motion) is a Canadian designer, manufacturer and marketer of wireless devices and solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. The company is best known as the developer of the BlackBerry smart phone. Blackberry technology also enables a broad array of third party developers and manufacturers to enhance their products and services with wireless connectivity to data. Blackberry was founded in 1984. Based in Waterloo, Ontario, the company has offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific....
Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including: Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and Google+, the company’s extension into the social space. Most of its Web-based products are free, funded by Google’s highly integrated online advertising platforms AdWords and AdSense. Google promotes the idea that advertising should be highly targeted and relevant to users thus providing...
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