Analysts have now had a chance to crunch the numbers and estimate that Apple could face shelling out between $200 million and $1 billion to satisfy the suit if successful -- and go on to say that Nokia has a pretty good case.
They note that the major existing players in the mobile industry (including Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson and Qualcomm) have a lot of intellectual property locked up already, making licensing costs a "significant barrier for late entrants" into the cellular space like Apple. Analyst Ben Wood was quoted as saying, "It is almost inconceivable that someone can produce a mobile phone without using Nokia patented technologies."
Nokia says they've been attempting to work out a licensing deal with Apple for some time, but their offers have been continually rejected -- leading to the suit they filed in a U.S. District Court yesterday.