Samsung gets iPhone 4 banned, but probably too late

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imageSamsung has won a a limited ban and cease & desist order on a number of older Apple AT&T products, including the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3, iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G.

Apple was found to have violated a Samsung patent on encoding and decoding cellular data.

While a cease and desist has been issues the order will be sent to President Barack Obama, who will have 60 days to veto the ruling before it goes into effect. Apple will also have the opportunity to appeal the ruling in federal court.

Of the devices affected most are pretty irrelevant,  but the iPhone 4 is actually a rather large part of Apple’s sales on AT&T, being the handset that is being offered free on contract.

It is however likely by the time this issue is resolved Apple will have a new low-cost iPhone in place, and given than around 80% of smartphone sales on AT&T are iPhones, the breathing space this would have created for Windows Phones and smartphones from other operating systems it appears will not materialize.

Via BGR.

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