Oof, right before the holidays too. What a blow to their sales.
I wonder if Apple will use the estimated sales losses as damages when they counter-sue the other party in the patent dispute. Apple is taking “preemptive” steps to comply with an order that is not in effect yet – perhaps it’s a long con to entangle the patent holder in a prolonged legal battle so as to devalue and acquire them.
Agreed, they probably should have been ordered to stop a while ago.
That said, Apple is the largest company in the U.S. by a number of metrics, so the fact that the government would cross them at all is kind of a surprise.