No white flag yet in Apple-Samsung war

Top smartphone maker Samsung Electronics does not intend to hold talks with Apple to reach an agreement on their ongoing patent tussle, its mobile business chief said yesterday, raising speculation that the company will rely on legal means rather than settling the issue out of court.

Samsung and Apple, who are both rivals and partners in the mobile business, have been involved in a dogged war over design and technology patent suits in four continents since April 2011.

“It could be true that HTC has agreed to pay 300 billion won [$276 million] to Apple, but we don’t intend to [negotiate],” Shin Jong-kyun, who heads the Korean tech giant’s mobile and IT division, told reporters.

Shin’s remarks come after Apple settled global lawsuits over mobile patents with the Taiwanese handset maker, a move that spurred talk of the iPhone possibly adopting a softer stance in its ongoing patent suits with global handset makers.

While the terms of the settlement were undisclosed, market watchers speculate that HTC will pay between $6 to $8 per phone, which would amount to between $180 million and $280 million a year.

Meanwhile, Shin forecast Samsung’s fourth-quarter smartphone sales will stay as robust as they did in the third quarter.

In the July-September period, Samsung registered a record 8.1 trillion won operating profit on the back of solid sales of its flagship Galaxy S3 smartphone. Operating profit from the company’s IT & Mobile Communications division accounted for roughly 70 percent of the total.

Yonhap