Apple Gets New Hearing Date
The injunction hearing between Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc.’s (GOOG) Motorola Mobility is now scheduled to take place on June 20. This comes after the U.S. Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner cancelled the aforesaid trial that was scheduled to take place on June 11, according to Bloomberg.
Apple had earlier filed a lawsuit against Motorola Mobility related to the infringement of four of its patents. Apple had sought an injunction to bar the sale of Motorola products that includes Droid phones and Xoom tablets in the US.
Motorola Mobility has claimed that Apple too had infringed upon one of its patents related to cellular communications. It is interesting to note that Google had acquired Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion primarily to get its hands on the significant number of communications patents that Motorola has amassed over the years.
Apple has been very particular about stalling the growth of the android-based operating system. In doing so, it has engaged in legal battles in different countries, particularly against Samsung.
Samsung is leveraging on Android to become one of its most significant competitors and the company is already the largest vendor of Android-based products. The fact that Android is expected to continue its very strong growth all over the world is a major headache for Apple.
Despite the threat from Android and lower-than-expected sales in the tablet market, Apple has maintained its leading position in this arena in the first quarter of 2012. However, in the smartphone market, Android has outrun Apple’s iOS in the first quarter 2012, according to IDC.
We believe that Apple remains the biggest growth story based on its product pipeline, popular apps, iCloud and iPhone 4S, and the new iPad and Apple TV, and loyal customer base. With a solid balance sheet and robust revenues, we expect Apple to outperform its peers in the long run.
We believe that Apple’s legal hassles will continue as competition heats up in the smartphone and tablet space.
We maintain our Outperform recommendation over the long term (6-12 months). Currently, Apple has a Zacks #2 Rank, which implies a Buy rating in the near term.
Read the Full Research Report on GOOG
Read the Full Research Report on AAPL
More From Zacks.com
