Google and Samsung have already complied with the injunction even though we do not think that Apple has posted the $96 Million Bond that is required for the injunction to go into effect (which could mean that Apple is not sure of their claim…). Originally Samsung and Google were going to simply push out an update to disable certain functions of the phone search feature so that they could get around the ban quickly. Now, however, in a very smart move Google is going to upgrade all unsold units to Android 4.1 Jellybean and may (if our information is correct) move up the schedule of updates for existing phones.
This would put the Nexus and many other phones out of the reach of the current patent Apple is trying to use to stifle competition, but we are sure they have another. After all they are masters of the vaguely worded patent and in many cases file for patents after seeing someone else’s product in action so they can later sue them. We hope that Google is ramping up the roll out of Jellybean as it would help to defragment their installation base and also close some of the holes that Apple is using in their attempt to kill Google like their late CEO Steve Jobs said they would.
The only obstacle in this is the individual carriers. Some, like Sprint, are notoriously slow to roil out updates and patches to their customer base. They would rather you buy a new phone than update your old one to get those new features. In this case though, with a large impact to potential sales maybe they will see things in a different light and fix the issue sooner than they normally would.
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