After all of Apple's recent announcements regarding its various lawsuits against Samsung for patent infringement issues, the company has finally made a non-legal announcement about a new product launch on September 12th.
An e-mail announcement was sent out to members of the media on Tuesday with the message "it's almost here" placed on a white background with the number 12 displayed prominently casting a shadow of the number 5. This has led many journalists to speculate that the event will center around the official launch of the iPhone 5, lending credence to many reports circling lately about the next generation iPhone being unveiled on that date.
Apple is under pressure for a successful iPhone 5 launch as it attempts to make some headway in the Android market. Samsungly currently dominates with 68 percent of the market share. Apple only holds 17 percent of that marketshare with the iPhone, according to reports from bizjournal.com.
Apple has garnered a significant amount of negative publicity as of late, with a majority of consumers reacting unfavorably towards the company's intellectual property lawsuits against Samsung.
Last month Apple was awarded $1.05 billion in damages after a jury found Samsung guilty of patent infringement against the company. Also as a result of that lawsuit the jury decision seeks to have eight Samsung products banned from the U.S. marketplace. Although those products were largely older model phones and tablets, Apple filed a new legal brief on Friday seeking the ban of newer model Samsung devices, including the Galaxy S3, in addition to seeking additional monetary damages.
Latinos Post readers have weighed in on Apple's recent legal publicity through a poll asking opinions on how readers feel regarding the $1.05 billion verdict and subsequent Samsung bans. Here's what they had to say:
Almost 200 readers say these recent decisions have given them a bad impression overall of Apple as a company. 164 readers say that Apple shouldn't decide which products go on sale and which don't. 156 readers say Apple should take its patents to another planet. 246 readers say they are sick and tired of Apple's lawsuits. 202 readers voted that they intend to stop buying Apple products. Lastly, 219 readers say they are going to buy more Samsung products in retaliation to all of the recent Apple lawsuit news.
With its iPhone 5 launch, will Apple be able to bounce back from negative consumer opinion of the company, it's behavior in the legal arena and consequently its product family? Will the company be able to grasp a stronger hold in the smartphone market? The world will get an opportunity for a glimpse at the answers to these questions on September 12th, so stay tuned. Until then all we can do is wait and speculate.