Cellphones are crazy expensive, people are annoyed, and Apple and Samsung just got hosed.

They're angry.  And confused.  And bored.

You've probably heard by now that last Friday, a San Jose jury came in with a mixed result in the latest battle in the Apple-Samsung patent war.  The jury found that Samsung infringed some Apple patents, and that Apple infringed a Samsung patent

The most interesting part for me is that Apple was awarded $119.6 million in damages.  That's a lot of money, no two ways about it.  But Apple was asking for roughly $2 billion in damages.  That's a discount of just over 94%.  

Samsung was also awarded $158,400, having asked for $6 million.  That's a discount of over 97%.

I wonder if the reason for the huge discounts in these cases isn't at least in part that the products involved in the suit are so familiar, and that the public feels gouged by the prices of phones.  Yes, I know, most people are on contracts with their cellphone providers that provide free or discounted phones.  But most folks must realize that the reason they're stuck with these contracts is because the phones, without contracts, are so expensive.  And just maybe, folks figure that granting huge damage awards in these cases is going to drive up the costs of their phones even more.

Just wondering.