“A financial expert said Apple Inc has overstated Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s profit margins for mobile products, an issue that goes to the heart of damages in the high profile patent trial between the two tech companies,” Dan Levine reports for Reuters.
“Michael Wagner, an accountant who testified on Thursday for Samsung, said Samsung’s U.S. profits from the smartphones and tablets targeted in the case should be calculated at about 12 percent, or about $519 million,” Levine reports. “Earlier in the trial, an Apple expert witness testified the U.S. margin was closer to 35.5 percent.”
Levine reports, “Earlier this week, Apple expert Terry Musika said Samsung earned 35.5 percent margins from mid-2010 through March 2012, on $8.16 billion in U.S. revenue. Apple is seeking over $2.5 billion in damages. However, Wagner testified on Thursday that Musika did not take into account many of Samsung’s costs, including marketing.”
Read more in the full article here.
Marketing is not an issue
Who cares for actual profit , just pay the 2.5 BILLION .
You made the first mistake of pricing it too cheap , using stolen patented technologies.
So pay up !!
I agree. If Samsung spent money on advertising for copycat products, then that is Samsung’s problem.
Samsung essentially stole iPhone unit sales from Apple. How much money would *Apple* have made from those unit sales, not to mention residuals from sales of licensed iOS products, apps, etc. In my opinion, that is how the damages should be calculated, and Apple has a much higher profit margin than Samsung.
The best bit was missed out by MDN…Samsung’s financial returns were rewritten 16 times over a period of months to better reflect a lower profit level.
Hope the jury are not all dunderheads, there are so many clues but will they register?
Sounds like they are using the Hollywood Studio defense with paying the writers and actors their residuals: even if the movie is among of the best selling of all-time, it still hasn’t made any profit.
If Samsung were innocent, they’d be arguing they shouldn’t pay anything in damages. Instead, they seem to be conceeding, since they are parsing over the calculations used to derive the amount of the penalty.
It’s a good day for Apple’s legal team if this is happening.
+1 .
Anything can happen in jury trial, one can just look at Oracle vs. Google…
Vegas should be offering odds on the trial outcome. But since they aren’t, hey MDN, how about a poll?
A poll would be awesome, I second that idea. We’ve already good as fired Browett, lets get a good poll that everyone can fight about up there!
If Samsung were innocent, they’d be arguing they shouldn’t pay anything in damages.
EXACTLY.
If you go through Samsung’s statements and strategy this week, the same theme comes through: They have surrendered. All Samsung are doing now is fighting over how much they have to pay Apple for their deceit.
…soooo screwed… And Samsung know it.
It is not what Samsung made when ripping off Apple’s IP. It is what Apple lost, market damage, …
Headline is close. I’ll fix it for ya:
Apple expert claims samsung understates its damages at trial.
It’s not about what Samsung lost or what Samsung made, it’s about what Apple lost because Samsung was throwing there Apple clones out there. e.g. Salesman from non iphone carrier “Here is our iPhone”. Its about Apples margins and what Apple lost.