marketers. Since many features were transient, coming and going with
uncertain futures, brand building was especially important so that the
Galaxy could stand above the features alone.
“You know, Todd,” Chief Product Officer Kevin Packingham said in
front of reporters at a press conference announcing the new phone, “our
closest competitor [Apple] in this same time frame has announced a
marginal software update....Since then, Samsung has launched three
massive products, and now we’re introducing the Galaxy S III.”
The Galaxy S III roared through the markets, selling nine million
preordered units and forty million units in the first six months. TechRadar
declared it the number one handset in the world in September 2012. At the
Mobile World Congress, the Galaxy S III won the “Best Smart Phone” of
the year award, beating out the iPhone. CNET’s Natasha Lomas called it
“the Ferrari of the Android circuit”; CNET UK readers voted it the “best
phone of 2012.”
Samsung’s profits soared that quarter, hitting $5.9 billion, a 79 percent
increase from a year earlier. Pendleton’s team celebrated as Samsung hit a
landmark: It had overtaken Apple in volume (though not in profit margins).
Samsung was crowned the world’s largest maker of smartphones.
Apple responded with a victory lap of its own on August 24, 2012, as
lawyers from Samsung and Apple and a mob of reporters were called into a
Cupertino courtroom.
At 2:35 P.M., after plowing through seven hundred highly technical
questions, the jury unanimously informed the court that Samsung had
infringed on many of Apple’s patents, and awarded the company $1.05
billion. Apple, meanwhile, the court decided, had infringed on none of
Samsung’s patents.
“We wanted to make sure the message we sent was not just a slap on the
wrist,” jury foreman Velvin Hogan told Reuters. “We wanted to make sure
it was sufficiently high to be painful, but not unreasonable.”
Judge Lucy Koh found herself something of a celebrity for snapping at
high-powered Silicon Valley attorneys. She told them during the trial,
“Unless you’re smoking crack, you know these witnesses aren’t going to be
called when you have less than four hours.” She later decided that the jury
had miscalculated Samsung’s damages and cut Apple’s award down to $600
million.
The legal war between the two companies, however, was far from over.