Apple pulls some older iPhones from sale in Germany after patent ruling

“Chip supplier Qualcomm Inc won a second court skirmish in its worldwide patent battle with Apple Inc on Thursday, with the iPhone maker saying it would pull some older models from its German stores,” Jörn Poltz and Stephen Nellis report for Reuters. “Qualcomm’s win in Germany comes weeks after it secured a court order in China to ban sales of some iPhone models in that country. Apple, which is appealing both rulings, has kept all of its iPhones on sale in China but made changes to its iOS operating system in the wake of the Chinese order.”
“The German victory may affect only a few million iPhones out of the hundreds of millions that Apple sells each year,” Poltz and Nellis report. “On Thursday, Apple said it would pull older iPhones from its German stores after a court there ruled that Apple infringed a hardware patent of Qualcomm Inc and banned sales of iPhones there with chips from Apple supplier Qorvo Inc.”
“‘We are of course disappointed by this verdict and we plan to appeal,’ Apple said in a statement. ‘All iPhone models remain available to customers through carriers and resellers in 4,300 locations across Germany. During the appeal process, iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 models will not be available at Apple’s 15 retail stores in Germany. iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR will remain available in all our stores,'” Poltz and Nellis report. “Stacy Rasgon, an analyst with research firm Bernstein, said in a note that Germany was a small iPhone market for Apple, selling about 10 million units a year…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hopefully, the appeal process doesn’t drag out to long in Germany, even though the number of iPhone units affected is small.
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