5 Companies That Had A Rough Week

The Week Ending Dec. 9

Topping this week's roundup of companies that had a rough week was Apple, which now risks losing a huge amount of money it expected to get from Samsung for infringing on iPhone patents. However, it was not the only mobile device company that took hits this week. Qualcomm's new deal with Microsoft to run Windows 10 on ARM could hit Intel's and AMD's mobile strategies, while Pebble's sale to rival smartwatch developer Fitbit ends that company's push to compete with the Apple Watch.

Also this week, Symantec lost a key channel marketing exec to a security rival, while a Trend Micro security patch messed up SharePoint for some folks.

Not everyone in the IT industry was having a rough go of it this week. For a rundown of companies that made smart decisions, executed savvy strategic moves – or just had good luck – check out this week's 5 Companies That Came To Win roundup.

Apple Loses Latest Court Battle vs. Samsung

Apple, which had been looking at receiving $399 million in damages from arch-rival Samsung as a result of its successful patent infringement lawsuit, will now instead be heading back to court over the issue.

The U.S. Supreme Court this week stepped in on the patent battle between the two mobile device heavyweights. The case has been ongoing since 2012 when Apple first sued, and then won, its argument that Samsung infringed on Apple iPhone patents. While Apple initially won the lawsuit after Samsung was found violating three Apple design patents, the Supreme Court this week ruled that the lower court must decide if it Samsung infringed on patents covering certain components inside the iPhone, or the entire device.

Intel, AMD No Longer The Only Windows 10 Mobile Game In Town

Qualcomm Technologies on Thursday used Microsoft’s Windows Hardware Engineering Community event to unveil a plan to collaborate with Microsoft to enable the Windows 10 operating system and applications run on mobile devices powered by upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon ARM-based processors. The move, Qualcomm said, will let Windows hardware developers create next-generation devices.

If successful, the ARM processor ecosystem will start competing with Intel and AMD, potentially forcing the cost of developing mobile devices down.

Pebble Sinks Like A Rock

Smartwatch maker and former Apple Watch competitor Pebble this week threw in the towel and said it is closing operations after another rival, Fitbit, announced it is acquiring Pebble's personnel and intellectual property.

Pebble followed up with a blog post saying that it is closing down and is no longer taking orders for its smartwatches.

Symantec Loses Top Channel Exec

May Mitchell, who has been serving as vice president of worldwide field and channel marketing at Symantec this week moved over to security rival Cylance, where she will be vice president of marketing for worldwide field and channel marketing.

It wasn't a total loss for Symantec. The company told CRN that it had appointed Muffin Mott, the head of global channel marketing at the company since September, to take over for Mitchell.

Trend Micro Messed Up Patch

An update to the antivirus software from leading security vendor Trend Micro this week failed when it placed false-positive flags that safe Microsoft SharePoint code had security issues. The patch then killed an otherwise harmless JavaScript file from SharePoint and crashed some users' servers, according to the Register.

After confirming the issue, Trend Micro pulled the update.