In the present tech era, every smartphone company wants to grab the largest market share from the current market. The market is limited, and the companies have to generate revenue to profit from their products. Sometimes companies tend to resort to underhanded ploys and tactics to earn more revenue aside from their revenue streams coming directly from the market. Tactics like using the same architecture on the products hardware or copyright issues on the software are some of the tactics that are used.
The Situation right now
This is the situation that we are seeing unfold in China as Qualcomm had sued Apple on the grounds of “stealing their source code and giving it to their chip manufacturer ‘Intel.’” Both companies have been engaged in a long-lasting legal battle, and this situation was Qualcomm were the ones who accused Apple of using their source code in their product line and not compensating them for it.
Apple’s defense
Apple came up with a pretty weak defense statement that “Qualcomm has been using its market dominance to ‘unreasonably raise prices.’ ” The statement is quite ironic coming from the American tech giant that they are accusing a rival company of charging a high price.
Companies rivalry
This is not the only instance where the two tech companies have gone head-to-head in a legal battle. Qualcomm has been trying to ban iPhone sales in the US, although that came to little fruition. However, they took this war of legalities to court in China and finally Qualcomm has scored a preliminary victory against Apple. On the basis of using Qualcomm’s software patents designed for picture resizing and the file management software that is used in Apple’s products. Due to this decision by the Chinese court, Apple is thereby banned from importing and selling their products in China including the iPhone 6S, 6S Plus, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus, and X.
Apple’s stance and Qualcomm’s reply
Apple has played it cool by giving out a statement that the iOS 12 avoids the patent conflict and it hasn’t much affected the device sales in China. Furthermore, Apple has released a statement to the Reuters, commenting on the situation.
“Qualcomm is using underhanded tactics to establish their monopoly in the region and they are already under investigation for illegal practices around the world.”
Apple is not entirely wrong as Qualcomm has a history of being fined for abusing its monopoly in China and Taiwan. Meanwhile, Qualcomm stays firm on their stance. A spokesperson from Qualcomm released a statement of their own to Reuters.
”Apple continues to benefit from our intellectual property and refuses to compensate us.”
The companies future
The war of legalities continues as both companies are looking to find openings where they can benefit in monetary terms from the other. Both are engaged in various lawsuits, and they are usually revolving around copyright infringements, etc. All this started in 2017 when Apple, ironically, accused Qualcomm of overcharging for their chips and withholding around contractual rebate payments that amounted to approximately $1bn. As things are now, the situation will only seem to heat further up between the two tech companies and no end appears to be in sight of their rivalry.
Fazeel Ashraf
Jazib Zaman
