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(Credit: Apple) Apple gained a slight edge over Android in the U.S. smartphone market last quarter, courtesy of the 37 million iPhones sold. ...
One of the larger questions yet to be answered in the wake of Apple‘s huge patent litigation victory over Samsung on Friday is what the case might mean for Google Android-based devices more broadly.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster asserts in a research note that the long-term impact of the case on the progress of Android will be limited. He also doesn’t see any big long-term changes in Samsung’s ability compete against Apple in smartphones and tablets.
“In terms of what this means to the on going battle between Apple and Samsung (and by extension of Android, Google), we do not expect significant changes in the market,” he writes. “We expect Samsung to continue to offer competitive phones to the iPhone in the U.S. and other markets. We believe what will truly decide the winners in the smartphone market will be individual hardware and software offerings that excite consumers and we expect both Apple and Samsung to continue to deliver those experiences regardless of this particular court decision.”
Munster notes that Samsung will appeal the jury ruling; Apple, meanwhile, is likely to seek injunctions against the sale of products that were found to be infringing.
“We believe that Samsung is likely to make software modifications to devices to work around the patented software features in question,” Munster asserts. “For devices that infringe on design patents, we believe those devices may no longer be sold in the U.S.; however, it does not appear that newer devices, including the Galaxy SIII are impacted. Net-net, we do not believe Samsung will see any meaningful interruption, likely only minor interruption, in device sales in the U.S.”
And as for Android more broadly?
“We believe that it is likely that other lawsuits between Apple and other handset makers move toward a settlement, given the precedent of the Samsung case,” he writes. “In these cases, we note that software changes are the most likely competitive outcome (aside from monetary exchanges). We do not believe further settlements are likely to hamstring Android in any serious way. We continue to be confident in our 4 year outlook on mobile device share, which assumes that iOS and Android further dominate the smartphone market with likely close to 85% share combined by 2015.”
Musnter maintains his Overweight rating and $910 target price on Apple sharess.