A week ago, a rumor surfaced that Apple was planning a comeback of the banned iPhones in Germany. Now it has happened - they are back.
On December 20, 2018, the Munich Regional Court issued a ruling in favor of semiconductor manufacturer Qualcomm against Apple. According to this, Apple is no longer allowed to sell or market certain iPhone models in this country. The reason for this is the infringement of a patent whose technology optimizes the power consumption of the mobile phone chip. According to Qualcomm, Apple cannot change this with an iOS update. The ruling is not yet final, but is provisionally enforceable. After Qualcomm deposited a security deposit of over 1.34 billion euros in securities, the sales ban came into force on January 3, 2019. Accordingly, Apple was no longer allowed to sell or market the iPhone 7, iPhone 7+, iPhone 8, iPhone 8+ and iPhone X models in this country.
Apple bites the bullet
The iPhone 8 in particular was a box office hit. Now Apple has made a compromise. The iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are now available again. This means that they are a modified version of the two iPhone generations. Instead of the previous Intel chips, components from Qualcomm have now been used in the iPhone models for the German market. According to Apple, they had no other choice - this is the only way to ensure that all iPhone models remain available.
price and features
The seventh generation of iPhones is available in four colors (black, silver, gold, rose gold) and two storage sizes (32 GB & 128 GB). The price starts at 519 euros. The iPhone 7 Plus can be purchased from 649 euros. The eighth generation of iPhones is available in three colors (black, silver, gold) and also two storage sizes (64 GB & 256 GB). The starting price is 679 euros - the iPhone 8 Plus can be purchased from 789 euros.
