Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s Top 5 Stories Round Up In The Past Week

Here are the top 5 news of the week (20^th – 24^th August) of Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL)

Friday, Aug 24: Apple Inc. won a favourable ruling from a federal jury panel in San Jose, California, which found Samsung Electronics Co guilty of infringing six of seven Apple patents and rendering the Korean company liable to pay damages of more than $1.05 billion to Apple.

The trial went to the jury for a verdict after three weeks of legal wrangling and accusations between the two parties.

The jury upheld all of Apple's patents that were disputed, as valid. Judge Lucy Koh, who has been presiding over the trial, will herself deliver the verdict on whether a ban should be imposed on Samsung's Galaxy devices in the United States.

Apple, which sued Samsung in April 2011 for infringement of patents, had sought $2.5 billion in damages from the Korean company.

Friday, Aug 24: A court in Seoul ruled on Friday that both Samsung had Apple had violated each other's technology patents and imposed a partial ban on the products of both companies in South Korea.

Analysts said that the ruling offered no advantage to either of the companies. The three judge panel said that Apple had violated two Samsung patents while Samsung had violated one of Apple’s. The ban on sales has been imposed on those products that infringed on patents.

The ruling also makes Apple liable to pay Samsung $35,000 and for Samsung to pay Apple $22,000. The produces which will be affected by the ban are iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPads 1 and 2, Galaxy S2 and other products.

Wednesday, Aug 21: A little known research firm Oracle Investment Research downgraded Apple to Hold from Buy, arguing that the hype around the stock was worrisome.

“The hype concerns us,” Oracle’s Laurence Balter wrote in a note to clients, likening the frenzy over the Apple stock to what was witnessed years ago with Microsoft and Cisco Systems when they ruled the stock markets. He cut his price target to $650 from $670.

Monday, Aug 20: A Goldman Sachs report said that Apple was closing to making a television set along with a set-top box for streaming video content. Steve Jobs is known to have told his biographer Walter Isaacson, before his death that he had found out a way to build a TV device with simplest user interface ever. Goldman Sachs analysts said that Apple had the option of offering both a TV and a set-top box thus being in two market segments at once. Or it could focus solely on the set-top box and scrap the idea of a full-fledged television altogether.

Monday, Aug 20: On Monday Apple created history by becoming the most valuable company in the world. Microsoft had been the previous record holder in 1999. Apple surpassed that record and became the most valuable company of all time on August 20.

Shares in the iPad and iPhone tech maker hit a high of $664.75 in morning trading on Monday, valuing the company at over $619 billion. The price topped the $618.9 billion by Microsoft achieved in December 1999.

Earlier, Apple had surpassed oil firm Exxon Mobil to become the most valuable company on the planet. It now surpasses Exxon’s $405.6 billion market value by more than $213 billion.

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