I want to be a chaebol - Chapter 294 Apple launched a patent war against Gaojin Electronics?

On July 10th, Apple released its first Apple mobile phone, iPhone 3G, in San Francisco. Like the Galaxy S1 series of mobile phones, the iPhone 3G mobile phone is currently available in 16GB and 32GB versions.

Because the iPhone 3G uses Samsung’s S5L7900 chip processor, Samsung Electronics’s Chen Jae-yong attended Apple’s press conference to support his own chip.

Song Yi did not expect that Samsung and Apple, the two largest smartphone manufacturers in the future, would join forces to deal with the challenge of Gaojin Electronics.

Steve Jobs emphasized throughout the conference that the iPhone 3G is currently the best smartphone. He also said that Apple gave up the aluminum alloy body in order to provide users with a good communication experience.

Although the iPhone 3G uses a plastic back cover, it is not ordinary plastic, but polycarbonate material (PC plastic). iPhone 3G is currently only available in black and white, and an exclusive Christmas red color will be launched during Christmas.

As a competitor, Song Yi also watched the iPhone 3G product launch. Steve Jobs was obviously eager to launch an iPhone to compete with the Galaxy S1.

The performance of the Samsung S57900L chip processor of the iPhone 3G is almost the same as that of the A1 processor developed by Gaojin Electronics, and the memory has not been significantly upgraded.

If we have to emphasize the advantages of the iPhone 3G, it is simply that the Apple Store has more applications than the Galaxy S1 App Store. This is also Apple’s years of technology accumulation.

However, Steve Jobs never mentioned the Galaxy S1, a competing mobile phone, from beginning to end during the press conference, as if this phone did not exist at all. However, because Gaojin Electronics released the Galaxy S1 mobile phone earlier than Apple, Jobs was embarrassed to say that the iPhone 3G was the world’s first touch-screen smartphone.

However, Steve Jobs still mentioned Gaojin Electronics in an interview after the press conference. He said that both Apple and Gaojin Electronics are new players in the mobile phone industry.

Apple was the first hardware company to get involved in touch-screen smartphones. He didn’t understand why Gaojin Electronics was able to launch a touch-screen smartphone before Apple. Apple also applied for many related patents on touch capacitive screens at the beginning.

At this time, the reporter interviewing Steve Jobs grasped Jobs’ subtext, “Steve, are you saying that Gaojin Electronics may have stolen some of Apple’s patents? Is it possible that the Galaxy S1 series mobile phones have infringed on Apple’s patents?”

Steve Jobs’s answer was somewhat ambiguous, “Touch capacitive screens have been around for a long time, and they are not our patent. The reason why other mobile phone manufacturers have not adopted touch capacitive screen mobile phone solutions is because of the technology of touch capacitive screens. It’s very difficult.”

“I would not be surprised if electronics giants like Nokia, Motorola or Samsung could solve the technical difficulties of touch capacitive screens. However, Gaojin Electronics is a young company established four or five years ago and could launch a touch screen before Apple. The smart phone is indeed amazing. Maybe geniuses have the same inspiration?” Steve Jobs said easily.

Kim Tae Hee also saw this report about Steve Jobs and said to Song Yi, “Husband, Steve Jobs also praised you in the report, saying that geniuses share the same inspiration, and admitted that you and him are the same. Type of genius.”

Song Yi smiled, “That’s not what Steve Jobs meant. He said between the lines that our Gaojin Electronics is borrowing Apple’s ideas. It is very likely that Apple will launch a patent war against Gaojin Electronics to squeeze Gaojin Electronics’ market share.” .Samsung is happy to see this happen.”

Kim Tae Hee was not very happy, “Obviously it was Gaojin Electronics that released the touch screen smartphone first. The design of the iPhone 3G is similar to that of the Galaxy S1. We didn’t sue Apple for plagiarizing our design. How could they have the nerve to say that Gaojin Electronics infringed on it?” Apple’s patent?”

The reason why Song Yi is sure that Apple may launch a patent war against Gaojin Electronics is mainly due to HTC’s experience.

In 2011, HTC was the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, with a market share of 14%.

At that time, HTC was also the largest smartphone manufacturer in the U.S. market. In order to crack down on Android phone manufacturers, Apple initiated a patent lawsuit against HTC at the U.S. International Trade Commission.

If the US International Trade Commission determines that HTC has infringed, the US International Trade Commission may ban the sale of HTC smartphones in the US market.

“In addition to Apple, Samsung Electronics may also launch a patent war against Gaojin Electronics. The reason why Apple uses Samsung’s S57900L chip processor in the iPhone 3G also has this consideration.” Song Yi said.

Kim Tae Hee was a little worried after hearing Song Yi’s analysis. If Samsung and Apple formed an alliance and attacked Gaojin Electronics together, it would be difficult for Gaojin Electronics to deal with it.

Song Yi saw Kim Tae Hee’s expression, held Kim Tae Hee’s little hand, and gave her reassurance, “Don’t worry, Apple has never made a mobile phone before, and it has not applied for many patents in the mobile phone industry. Apple will not win the patent lawsuit.” easy.”

“It would be a bit troublesome if Nokia or Motorola initiated a patent lawsuit against Gaojin Electronics. After all, the two mobile phone giants Nokia and Motorola have been working in the mobile phone industry for more than ten years. The Galaxy S1 series mobile phones will definitely use some patents of Nokia or Motorola. Every year Gaojin Electronics will also pay patent licensing fees to these two companies. If Gaojin Electronics acquires the mobile phone business of Nokia or Motorola in the future, Gaojin Electronics will have its own patent protection wall and will not be afraid of other mobile phone manufacturers competing with us. There’s a patent lawsuit,” Song Yi said.

In January 2014, Lenovo acquired Motorola’s mobile phone business for US$2.9 billion. This is also another major acquisition after Lenovo acquired IBM’s personal notebook computer business in 2005.

Nokia and Motorola are still in their prime, but Motorola never imagined that they would be bankrupt six years later.

Before Lenovo acquired Motorola’s mobile business, Google spent $12.5 billion to acquire Motorola Mobility in August 2011.

Motorola still had a license to use Android smartphones at the time, and Google also retained Motorola Mobility and operated it as a separate subsidiary.

The reason why Google acquired Motorola Mobility was to obtain Motorola’s 24,000 technology patents through the acquisition. Google plans to provide assistance to Android phone manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung in patent litigation with Apple.

Nokia and Motorola later sold their mobile businesses. Nokia sold its mobile phone business to Microsoft, and Motorola first sold its mobile phone business to Google and later sold its mobile phone business to Lenovo.

When Lenovo buys Motorola’s mobile business, Motorola’s 3,500 employees, its 2,000 patents, the Motorola Mobility brand and trademark, and partnerships with more than 50 operators around the world will all belong to Lenovo’s mobile business.

The reason why Google spent US$12.5 billion to acquire Motorola Mobility was because Motorola Mobility still had US$3 billion in cash in the company’s account at the time and also enjoyed US$1 billion in US tax benefits.

Google also sold Motorola Mobility’s set-top box business for $2.4 billion. In addition to these, when Google acquired Motorola Mobility, Motorola Mobility still held 17,000 technology patents. Later, Google took away 15,000 of them, leaving only 2,000 non-core patents for Lenovo.

The reason why Lenovo acquired Motorola’s mobile business was to replicate the success of IBM’s personal computers. Lenovo thought it could get a big deal by spending $2.9 billion, but it actually bought an empty shell.

If Gaojin Electronics wants to build its own patent moat, then it would be more feasible to buy Motorola Mobility before Google.

However, Motorola Mobility is an American company, and it is unclear whether the United States will agree to the merger of Gaofin Electronics. In comparison, it may be easier for Gaojin Electronics to acquire Nokia.

In September 2013, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Nokia’s mobile phone business, buying most of Nokia’s mobile phone business for US$5 billion, and then buying Nokia’s patent license for US$2.18 billion.

The “Nokia” brand will continue to be retained, and its smartphone brands and products such as “Lumia” and “Asha” will continue to operate.

Kim Tae Hee certainly didn’t expect that mobile phone giants like Nokia and Motorola would sell their mobile phone businesses within a few years. She raised her own questions, “Although the emergence of Galaxy S1 and iPhone 3G may bring some changes to the current mobile phone market. , but if Nokia and Motorola start to transform from now on and enter the smartphone market early, these two companies will still have very strong competitiveness, and they will not sell their mobile phone business to Gaojin Electronics, right?”

“As the saying goes, it’s hard to turn around. Mobile phone giants like Nokia and Motorola actually find it difficult for them to keep up with the development trend of smartphones.”

“Because these two companies are so successful, they cannot adjust their product strategies in time and launch mobile phone products that meet the current needs of the mobile phone market.”

“It has been almost a year since the release of the Galaxy S1 series of mobile phones. Nokia and Motorola have not yet launched a smartphone similar to the Galaxy S1. Doesn’t this explain the problem? When Nokia or Motorola go downhill, it will be our Gaojin Electronics Mu0026A. The right time for the two companies.” Song Yi gave his own judgment.

In order to deal with Apple’s possible patent litigation, Song Yi made a special trip to LG Group to visit Gu Bensheng and Gu Guangmo and his son.

In order to express its welcome to Song Yi, LG Group laid a red carpet outside the LG Group headquarters building. Gu Guangmo was waiting for Song Yi’s arrival downstairs.

Song Yi, who was sitting in the car, was very surprised to see Gu Guangmo. He quickly got out of the car and shook hands with Gu Guangmo, “Guang Mo, I came to visit LG Group today with a learning attitude. Thank you for your hard work.”

Gu Guangmo smiled and said, “SA Group is now one of the most important business partners of our LG Group. I can’t be too grand to entertain you.”

After Gu Guangmo’s introduction, Song Yi shook hands with the executives of LG Group one by one. Song Yi also focused on praising LG Display, a world-renowned LCD panel manufacturer that provides mobile phone screens for the Galaxy S1 series of mobile phones.

Gu Guangmo first congratulated Song Yi, “President Song, I heard that the global sales of the Galaxy S1 series of mobile phones have exceeded 8 million units. It seems that the global sales of the Galaxy S1 series of mobile phones will exceed 10 million units soon.”

Song Yi is very modest, “Now the sales of Galaxy S1 series mobile phones have begun to enter a period of weakness. It should not be a big problem for global sales to exceed 10 million, but it remains to be seen whether the target can be achieved before this year.”

Gu Guangmo said enviously, “To be too modest is to be proud. Even though LG has been producing mobile phones for so many years, there are only a handful of models that have sold more than 10 million units of a single mobile phone.”

In the field of smartphones, a model with a sales volume of 10 million is considered a super hot model. Huawei’s Mate series has only sold 20 million units.

The sales champion of a single smartphone model is Apple’s iPhone 6, with a total of 220 million units sold.

The hot sales of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S have also helped Apple become the top market capitalization champion in the US stock market, with a market value of more than US$710 billion. In comparison, Google’s market value is only US$489 billion.

After greeting Gu Guangmo, Song Yi met Gu Bensheng. Song Yi took the initiative to step forward and hold Gu Benzheng’s hands, “President Gu, I have long wanted to come to LG Group to learn from you, and today I finally got this opportunity.”

Seeing that Song Yi was not putting on airs, Gu Bensheng felt very comfortable, “Chairman Song is too polite. Before, you suggested that LG Display start transforming into the production of small LCD mobile phone screens. I have some doubts, but seeing the success of the Galaxy S1 series of mobile phones, it has been proven I’m still too conservative.”

“The iPhone 3G uses Samsung’s S57900L chip processor, and the Galaxy S1 series mobile phones use our LG Display mobile phone screens. This can be seen as a useful attempt by Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics to enter the smartphone field.”

“I remember Chairman Song said in an interview that he would not object to opening the SuperOS system to other mobile phone manufacturers. If LG Electronics also starts producing smartphones, can the SuperOS system be used on LG’s smartphones?” Koo Bensheng finally met Song Yi. Once, he first asked a question that he was most concerned about at the moment.

“Currently, the SuperOS system has been updated to version 1.1.2. There are still many bugs in the Super OS system, which require colleagues from SA Soft to continue to fix them. Some users of the Galaxy S1 series mobile phones have encountered sliding unlocking to enter the phone after upgrading the system. The home page crashes, and even after deleting the mobile app, the phone still freezes.”

“Of course we will not rule out opening the SuperOS system to LG Electronics. If the smartphones produced by LG Electronics want to be equipped with our SuperOS system, I also very much welcome it. However, I suggest that we wait until the SuperOS system ecosystem becomes more mature and the system operation becomes more stable. Come and join the SuerOS family to avoid bringing bad experience to LG Electronics mobile phone users.” Song Yi replied.

When Gu Bensheng heard Song Yi’s answer, he lamented Song Yi’s cunning. Song Yi did agree to open the SuperOS system to LG Electronics, but said that now was not the right time.

In addition to Samsung, Google also contacted LG Electronics and persuaded LG Electronics to join the Android camp.

Both Apple and Gaojin Electronics insist on building their own mobile software systems. The former has iOS and the latter has SuperOS.

The reason why Apple was able to create the iOS system was mainly due to the experience brought by Apple’s MacOS system. The reason why Gaojin Electronics was able to create the SuperOS system mainly relied on the technical support provided by South Korea’s largest Internet giant SA Soft.

If LG Electronics wants to enter the smartphone industry, they have no energy and are unwilling to invest huge amounts of money to build their own mobile phone software system from scratch.

So for LG Electronics, it must either join the Android camp headed by Google or join the SuperOS camp headed by Gaojin Electronics. Koo himself actually prefers Google’s Android system. After all, the Android system is an open source system. LG Electronics can deeply optimize the Android system, customize its own app store and map applications, etc.

Song Yi explained the purpose of his visit to Gu Bensheng, “Chairman Gu, during the research and development stage of Galaxy S1, Gaojin Electronics applied for many technical patents related to mobile phones and 3G communications. These patented technologies play a key role in the production and manufacturing of smartphones. .”

“Compared with LG Electronics, Gaojin Electronics is a new mobile phone manufacturer after all. In order to help LG Electronics enter the smartphone industry faster, it is also to make up for the technical shortcomings of our Gaojin Electronics.”

“I want to form a patent technology alliance with LG Electronics. Our two companies will license key mobile phone technology patents and 3G communication technology patents to each other. This will also help our two companies to better deal with the patent traps of other mobile phone manufacturers in the future. You What do you think?” Song Yi suggested.

When Gu Bensheng heard Song Yi’s intention, he felt a little hesitant. After all, LG Electronics is the fifth largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world and the second largest mobile phone manufacturer in South Korea. If Gaojin Electronics and LG Electronics license each other’s patented technologies, and if LG Electronics has much more patented technologies than Gaojin Electronics, then through mutual licensing, Gaojin Electronics will gain and LG Electronics will suffer.

Seeing that Gu Benzheng was hesitant, Song Yi immediately understood his concerns, “Chairman Gu, our Gaojin Electronics will not ask you, LG Electronics, to reveal all of your wealth. If our Gaojin Electronics provides 800 patents, then LG Electronics will only Just provide a similar number of mobile phone patents.”

“Because LG Electronics has not yet started producing smartphones, and Gaojin Electronics’ mobile phone patents are more applied to smartphones. If LG Electronics and Gaojin Electronics start to license each other’s patents now, then Gaojin Electronics will undoubtedly have the share. LG Electronics is cheap.”

“In this way, I can make a commitment to LG Electronics. If Gaojin Electronics and LG Electronics can reach an agreement to mutually license patents, before LG Electronics officially produces smartphones, Gaojin Electronics is willing to pay a certain amount of patents to LG Electronics every year. Licensing fees. When LG Electronics starts producing smartphones, our two companies will not have to pay patent licensing fees to the other company when using the technology patents in the patent alliance.” Song Yi offered an olive branch.

LG Electronics executives were a little moved when they heard Song Yi’s promise. Song Yi’s meaning was very clear. He came here today just to reach a patent alliance with LG Electronics.

If LG Electronics has not yet produced smartphones, Gaojin Electronics will pay LG Electronics corresponding patent fees every year. When LG Electronics also begins to get involved in smartphone manufacturing, both Gaojin Electronics and LG Electronics will be able to use the patents in the patent alliance for free because they have already authorized each other’s relevant patents.

Song Yi was so sincere that LG Electronics had no reason to refuse. Finally, Gaojin Electronics and LG Electronics signed an agreement to mutually license patents.

Gaojin Electronics has come up with 900 mobile phone and 3G communication patents, and LG Electronics has come up with 870 mobile phone patents. Gaojin Electronics and LG Electronics also made an agreement that the two companies will come up with at least 300 patents every year and add them to the patent alliance of Gaojin Electronics and LG Electronics.

On September 19, the first anniversary of the launch of the Galaxy S1 series of mobile phones, Gaojin Electronics announced that global sales of the Galaxy S1 series of mobile phones exceeded 11 million units.

Gaojin Electronics will hold a spring new product launch conference in January 2008 to release the second-generation smartphone Galaxy S2.

On September 30, Apple filed a patent lawsuit with the U.S. International Trade Commission, accusing Gaojin Electronics of infringing on four of Apple’s patented technologies.

The two most important patents are the sliding unlock patent and the photo management patent. Apple asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to ban the sale of the Galaxy S1 series of mobile phones in the U.S. market. (End of chapter)