Apple's $1Billion victory over Samsung!

The verdict in the ongoing patent battle between Apple and Samsung in San Jose court swung largely in favor of Apple Inc. Samsung was asked to pay Apple $1.05billion as compensation damages. Apple will now file for permanent injunction on the sales of Samsung's smartphones which infringe on patents that belong to Apple.

After the verdict, this is what both the companies had to say about the ruling:

Apple's spokesperson Katie Cotton: We are grateful to the jury for their service and for investing the time to listen to our story and we were thrilled to be able to finally tell it. The mountain of evidence presented during the trial showed that Samsung's copying went far deeper than we even knew. The lawsuits Apple and Samsung were about much more than patents or money. They were about values. At Apple, we value originality and innovation and pour our lives into making the best products on earth. We make these products to delight the customers, not for our competitors to flagrantly copy. We applaud the court for finding Samsung's behavior willful and for sending a loud and clear message that stealing isn't right.

Samsung issued this statement: Today's verdict should not be viewed as a win for Apple, but as a loss for the American consumer, it will lead to fewer choices, less innovation and potentially higher prices. It is unfortunate that patent law can be manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners, or technology that is being improved every day by Samsung and other companies. Companies have the right to choices, and they know what they are buying when they purchase Samsung products. This is not the final word in this case or in the battles being waged in courts and tribunals around the world, some of which have already rejected many of Apple's claims. Samsung will continue to innovate and offer choices for the consumer.

Apple obviously being grateful. And Samsung being the typical loser.

Was Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) actually ready to go public? 

After being the most traded stock in a day (on the day of the listing) Facebook's stock price has taken a beating. Facebook's stock price is down 50% from its listing price of $38.

An article in the Wall St. Cheat Sheet said, "Early Facebook investor and director Peter Thiel earned $396 million after selling 20.06 million shares in the company after the IPO lockup period ended. Following the sale of, of 640.1 million worth stock in the public offering, Thiel's proceeds hit more than $1 billion. He now has around 8 million Facebook shares, down from his 44 million shares prior to the listing."

Another article stated how Mark Zuckerberg lost $9 billion of his net worth, in the recent downturn of his company's stock price.

What is the reason for such a dismal performance on the stock market, by a social networking site which is expected to touch 1 billion users by September? Why does something so popular like Facebook go bad on the exchange?

There could be various reasons for why Facebook is not doing that well on the exchange:

1) Facebook does not have a strong business model. Agreed its one of the most used avenue for advertising, but how many people actually go on to even click the advertisement? When the social networking site was fresh, advertisements did work because it was a very new concept about 4-5 years back. But now, people do not click on advertisements that often. And if advertisements do not work, advertisers won't be willing to spend such hefty sums of cash and remember Facebook earns a maximum amount of its revenue from advertisements.

2) Why Facebook's mobile application, adds to the problem? Desktop users are also now not that interested in ads, and when it comes to the mobile application, the biggest disadvantage is that there are no advertisements on the Facebook's dedicated application for smartphones. And a recent statistics released pegs the percentage of mobile users at 64%.

3) Not many people take Facebook credits seriously.

So the final question that comes to our mind, was Facebook actually ready? Or was it a mistime? Unless Facebook comes up with a half decent solution for advertisements it will have to make sure that advertisers feel that the money they are investing is being put to good use.    

Anticipating the new iPhone:

According to recent statistics, the worldwide smartphone sales fell 2.3% this quarter, in anticipation of the new iPhone. So we should expect a huge surge in iPhone sales, than what we usually see after the release. The people waiting for the new iPhone are surely going to be in for a treat.
A reminder of what is expected to feature in the new iteration of Apple's new iPhone:

1) 4.0 inch screen (diagonally)
2) 4G- LTE support (reminder it is expected to be a world phone, as it will support LTE on worldwide networks, because of the imminent deal with ChinaMobile,
3) Smaller dock connector (9 pin)
4) A new nano-sim.
5) iOS6.
6) And other surprise features by Apple.

 Let's hope that the new iPhone lives up to our expectations! 

Let the blogging begin