A court decision that could actually be bad for Apple

There has been a lot of attempts by a lot of outlets to try to make Apple look bad through this entire courtroom mess.  As I posted here on MacWeekend the ruling about "apologizing" to Samsung was basically a complete joke with no negative impact for Apple.



However, VentureBeat reported that Judge Koh is making Apple release all the data about the profitability of the iPhone.
Judge Koh stated

"In seeking the very large damages award it sought at trial, Apple stipulated to the introduction of JX1500, a partial summary of its damages calculations, which contains some product-specific unit sales and revenue information. See ECF No. 1597. As Apple appears to have realized in introducing that exhibit, it cannot both use its financial data to seek multi-billion dollar damages and insist on keeping it secret."

 

We here at MacWeekend have speculated a lot about what the downsides for Apple may be to releasing all this data.  Apple has been very careful to not release these specific numbers.  There is a wide variety of issues that this can cause.  With true profitability numbers for specific products it can actually change relationships with vendors and suppliers.  Competitors can even see what Apple is paying for parts and negotiate a better deal, increasing their profitability.  Also, other companies can actually see how Apple is allocating funds with the real statements.

 

This should be a really interesting story to follow.