Only yesterday we discussed the ongoing patents dispute between Motorola and Apple and how Google has been embroiled because of its merger with Motorola. Today we have news that Apple is looking for a settlement of up to $15 per Android smartphone from some manufacturers in a bid to bring some lawsuits to an end.
Dozens of lawsuits involving Apple are currently ongoing in various parts of the world but it seems that even Apple may be getting fed up with the drawn-out process as latest news suggests that it is now willing to accept royalty payments as settlement in some cases. Samsung and Motorola are two of the Android vendors that have received proposed settlements from Apple according to Dow Jones Newswires sources.
This news comes to us from BGR, sourced from Nasdaq, and tells how Apple has apparently offered proposals to Samsung and Motorola whereby Apple would receive between $5 and $15 per Android phone sold by the companies. We have no way of verifying this just yet but it represents a completely radical change from Apple’s previous stance if this has genuinely happened.
When the late CEO Steve Jobs was in charge at Apple it was no secret how much he wanted to see the Android competition annihilated. Indeed he once said, “I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong,” as told in the recent biography of Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Jobs was intent in his belief that Android was a stolen product but it now seems that the top dogs at Apple may have had a change in heart.
Of course with Google Play being announced yesterday in a bid to compete even more robustly against Apple’s iTunes there may yet be another change of heart at Apple. We’ll certainly be interested in following developments to see how things pan out but what do you think. After Steve Jobs made it quite clear how he felt about Android are you surprised that Apple may be willing to settle? Why not let us know.