14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has officially stopped selling the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 series in Germany following a late-December court order that ruled these models are infringing on certain patents owned by Qualcomm.
While Cupertino originally appealed the decision and continued to sell these specific iPhone generations, Qualcomm earlier this week posted a $1.5 billion bond, technically forcing the ban to come into effect.
The bond can be used to compensate Apple for any losses that may be caused by the ban should the court eventually rule in its favor.
By the looks of things, Apple is only selling the iPhone XS and iPhone XR in Germany on its official website, but the company clearly relies on third-party retailers to continue making the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 available to local customers.
The largest German retailers selling iPhones are yet to pull the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 from their stores, and Apple hopes that this way the impact the ban would have on its revenues would be reduced.
Ban expansion
In the meantime, Apple has already appealed the ban, but Qualcomm is also seeking an expansion of the restriction to cover the rest of the iPhone models, including iPhone X and iPhone XS.
A similar effort is tried in China where Qualcomm also won a lawsuit against Apple, eventually banning the same iPhones in the country. However, Apple tried to avoid the injunction on Chinese iPhones by shipping a special software update addressing the alleged patent violation.
Certainly, Apple’s struggle to keep its iPhones on sale can’t be good news for the company and its investors, especially as the latest generations are selling much slower than anticipated.
CEO Tim Cook himself admitted the performance of the new models is below expectations, pointing to the China vs. US trade war and the battery replacement program as the main factors that impacted the last quarter revenues.