Tech site The Next Web reports on an article from Korean Yonhap News Agency claiming that unlike HTC, the South Korean electronics giant Samsung has no intention of holding talks with its smartphone rival Apple Inc (AAPL) to reach an agreement on their ongoing patent tussle.
“It may be true that HTC may have agreed to pay 300 billion won (US$276 million) to Apple, but we don’t intend to (negotiate) at all,” Shin Jong-kyun, who heads Samsung’s mobile and IT division, told reporters.
The comments come after Apple announced that it had reached a ten-year-long global settlement with Taiwanese handset maker HTC Corp., which includes the dismissal of all current and future patent lawsuits.
The financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu speculates HTC will pay between $6 to $8 per phone, which would amount to an additional $180 to $280 million annually for Apple if HTC continues to sell 30 to 35 million Google (GOOG) Android-based smartphones per year.
While HTC’s settlement comes too late for the company which has posted declining sales for the last two consecutive quarters, Samsung, thanks to its flagship Galaxy S3 smartphone that has been a key driver in raising profit margins, posted another record quarter, with $5.9 billion net profit in the Q3 2012 – up 91% from a year earlier.
Jong-kyun said Samsung’s 4th quarter smartphone sales will stay as strong as they did in the 3rd quarter.
According to research firm Strategy Analytics, Samsung grabbed a 35.2% market share in the global smartphone market in Q3’12, widening its lead over Apple’s 16.6% stake.
These percentages maybe the reason why Samsung, which currently appears to be in a much stronger market position in terms of smartphones and mobile handset sales than Apple, doesn’t feel it needs to negotiate any time soon.
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