The US Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust case against Qualcomm is closing up soon in San Jose, CA with final witnesses on January 28 and closing arguments on February 1. The FTC accuses the mobile chip maker of abusing their monopoly and effectively hiking up prices for consumers.
Apple supports the FTC’s cases, accusing Qualcomm of unfair patent licensing. Qualcomm has accused Apple of patent infringement.
Qualcomm refused to license patents to other chipmakers, which prevents competitors from challenging their dominance, and offered lower patent royalties in exchange for exclusivity. Thus, Samsung and Intel, direct competitors of Qualcomm, both filed amicus briefs supporting the FTC. "The issue that we have with Qualcomm is that they have a policy of no license, no chips. This is, in our view, illegal," Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, says.
Qualcomm has won injunctions in China and Germany, forcing Apple is update software to finesse the patent in China and pull older devices from stores in Germany.
Even if prices drop and competition emerges, it may not drastically decrease the consumer price of smartphones (royalties top out at $20). But, other chip makers may succeed with potentially groundbreaking designs and alter the manufacturing approach, allowing them to spend more money on other features.
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