Apple’s head of marketing, Phil Schiller, on Thursday took the stand in a damages retrial against Samsung with only 11 minutes left in the session. He testified that the iPhone was a “bet the company” product, and that now the entire company works on the product in one way or the other.
CNET:
“There were huge risks [with the first iPhone],” he said. “We had a saying inside the company that it was a ‘bet the company’ product…We were starting to do well again in iPod…Then here we’re going to invest all these resources, financial as well as people, in creating this product.”
Schiller also noted that the company had actually started developing the iPad before they began work on the iPhone. In the beginning, about 100 people worked on the device.
The marketing head’s comments came on the third day of the damages retrial to determine how much Samsung owes Apple for infringing on five of its patents.
The trial is scheduled for six days before the case is turned over to the jury – made up of six women and two men – for deliberation.
Wednesday’s opening arguments saw Apple asking for $380 million in damages, while Samsung asserted that it should only pay $52 million.
Apple came up with the $380 million figure based on lost profits of about $114 million, Samsung’s profits of around $231 million, and what they say are reasonable royalties of around $35 million.
Samsung asserts that Apple shouldn’t receive anything for lost profits, $52.7 million for Samsung’s profits, and royalties of only $28,452.
Apple originally filed suit against Samsung in April of 2011, accusing the South Korean firm of copying the look-and-feel of its products.
