Android’s Chinese Manufacturers Form Alliance To Defend From Apple and Microsoft Patent Lawsuits

Digitimes is reporting that Chinese OEM’s could be quietly banding together to fight off the ever looming threat of patent lawsuits from Android arch nemeses like Apple, Microsoft and Nokia. The Chinese coalition would be formed by ZTE, Lenovo, TCL, Coolpad and Konka who, it’s assumed, would pool their patent resources and share information on how to work around alleged patent infringements and keep from paying the dreaded “licensing fee.” As the Chinese smartphone market grows — currently the largest in the world — OEM’s are sure to draw attention from Apple and Microsoft who spend much of their time attacking Android manufacturers. [Digitimes via Electronista]...

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Nielsen: Samsung, Motorola and HTC Top Five in Recent Smartphone Market Share

Nielsen’s ringing in with their end-of-the-year lists of top brands, companies and web destinations. One that caught our eye, of course, was the smartphone manufacturer chart. They pulled data from the months of August 2011 through October 2011. This isn’t overall OEM market share but gives an idea of the trends that were developing leading into the holiday season. At the top of the chart was Apple taking up 29% of the sales throughout this period, but HTC is not far behind with 21%. RIM, surprisingly, is sitting at 17%, ahead of Samsung and Motorola who both have 11% each. It would be nice to get an idea of how these numbers stacked up through Christmas but those numbers will make their way to the forefront soon enough. To see more...

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Apple applies for “Face and Presence Detection” patent — Android laughs

I’m not really sure where to start on this one other than oh wait — Android already has the feature. It’s called “Face Unlock” and is available on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus within Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Just like our friendly source over at Phandroid I don’t really want to simply sit here and bash Apple but I can’t help but do so a little bit with this latest “innovation” and patent they’ve applied for. At first glance your are probably thinking seriously, what the hell. And I was too but after looking through the patent and information a bit closer over at PatentlyApple you’ll quickly notice that this has been in the works for at least a few years — and originally wasn’t aimed at iOS or mobile devices and actually was for...

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IP expert says Apple could earn $10 for every Android device

Apple’s been pretty ruthless when it comes to Android litigation, even if their success rate has been hit or miss lately. After suing Samsung and HTC in the United States and everywhere else they can send a legal team, they’ve become the bane of many an Android OEM. In an interview with Bloomberg, intellectual property guru Kevin Rivette notes that the licensing fees that Apple earns on its patent lawsuits could be as high as $10 per device – a figure that could seriously impede manufacturers, especially on cheap low-margin phones. To be blunt, that seems extremely unlikely. Apple has proven that it’s unwilling to negotiate with just about anyone, instead taking the all-or-nothing approach and going for a sales ban, as in cases with...

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Android clear winner of 2011 Smartphones race

The year 2011 has been a great year for Android based smartphone manufacturers. Handset makers like Samsung, HTC, Sony & Motorola lead the Android handset market. Special mention goes to Samsung's Galaxy series of Android phones. The series boasts various range of Android smartphones for everyone ranging from 5000 INR to 30,000 INR.According to Business Standard, Samsung Galaxy S II, priced at 30,100 INR has broken all the records. It not only became a hot-favourite of reviewers across the globe but also managed to hold ground against Apple’s smartphones. It seems to be one of the most powerful and user-friendly Android phones. Its 8MP camera is a very good replacement for a pocket camcorder.Other Android phones which lead the list of...

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German Court Leans in Favor of Samsung in Case of Galaxy Tab 10.1N

Apple’s case against the revised Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N will likely not hold up, the judge reviewing the case has stated. In Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann’s opinion, changes made to the Galaxy Tab design appear sufficient to comply with a court order banning the sale of the original device. The statement is not a final ruling, though a verdict is expected to be handed down shortly. Judge Brueckner-Hofmann held trial in her Dusseldorf court in September, hearing Apple’s case that Samsung had copied their iPad design when creating the Galaxy Tab 10.1. An initial injunction banning the sale of the tablet was upheld, and Samsung released the Galaxy Tab 10.1N — a modified version of the tablet taking the court’s ruling into consideration...

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HTC and Google comment on US Apple patent loss – Andy Rubin “optimistic” about the future

HTC’s boss Peter Chou and Android top man Andy Rubin have both gone on the record regarding the recent high-profile patent loss to Apple, which had some excitable people claiming HTC’s phones could be banned from sale in the US. That won’t happen. Chou says the infringing feature has already been removed, while Rubin is pleased that the ruling only covers user interface touches rather than anything deep within Android itself. Rubin said: “The majority of these patents [in Apple's complaint against HTC] were claimed in the operating system itself, but actually in this case what was allowed… is some user interface feature of an application, not the operating system itself, so that’s why I’m very optimistic in basically my desire to achieve...

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Apple Awarded Patent On In Call App Switching – Multitasking Smartphones Sound Familiar To You?

They’ve done it again. The boys at Apple must have some kind of strange patent voodoo because once again, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has awarded them with another IP to stick inside their portfolio, this time with a patent for a “portable electronic device with graphical user interface supporting application switching.” Sound familiar to you? It should. Somehow Apple received a patent for a multitasking smartphone that allows a user to switch between calls and apps. Yup, they seem to have patented Android. You best believe that with Apple’s small victory over HTC yesterday, their lawyers are already plotting new ways to stick it to Android manufacturers everywhere. What’s next? A patent on green robot mascots? Well,...

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First the court, now Samsung beating Apple in Australia’s mobile market

Fresh from beating Apple in the court room in Australia — after the ban on its Galaxy Tab was overturned earlier this month — Samsung has leapfrogged its rival to take the top spot in the country’s smartphone market, according to new data released by ABI Research today. The Korean manufacturer now holds 49 percent of the smartphone market in Australia and 28.5 percent in New Zealand, which puts it ahead of rival Apple which holds 36 percent and 13 percent respectively. In New Zealand, Apple has even slipped into third place with Chinese manufacturer Huawei rising to 20 percent of the country’s smartphone market. According to IDC, the popularity of the Samsung Galaxy range is responsible for the firm’s growth, while a rise in the availability...

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Apple shouts, ITC jumps: HTC imports banned by April 2012

In a blow for Android, not to mention the free market, innovation and common sense, the United States International Trade commission has ruled in Apple’s favor in its case against HTC’s Android devices. Certain devices, not currently articulated, will be illegal to import into the United States as of April 19, 2012. The two companies may reach a patent settlement, or President Obama may veto the order. Apple brought forth its case based on several patents, but the one that it won the patent case one is a system level patent, according to The Verge. The injunction will go to the desk of President Obama, who will have sixty days to veto the motion or sign it. (He’s a Blackberry guy, so we’ll call him neutral in this case.) Vetos against...

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Samsung expands patent row with Apple in Germany

Samsung Electronics continued the patent dispute against Apple in Germany, filing new claims in the process. The South Korean consumer electronics behemoth has added a quartet of patents to its current infringement case that is related to the telecommunications standard technology WCDMA where 3G mobile handsets are concerned. The four new complaints will comprise of the use of emoticons, where according to Samsung’s spokesperson, “(Samsung) made four more claims; two are standard-related patents and the other two are utility patents. And a court said it would make these claims separate from the April lawsuit.” Last Friday, a regional German court in Mannheim did hold a hearing on the April case, touting that a ruling would be announced...

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Samsung drops 3G lawsuit against Apple in favor of a different strategy

Both Apple and Samsung have been busy attempting to sue each other into oblivion, with the former claiming that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 infringed upon their designs while the latter claimed that 3G-capable iOS devices infringed upon their 3G technology patents, but now it looks like Samsung may be rethinking their strategy. According to FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller, Samsung appears to have given up their attacks on Apple via the 3G patent route. It seems that the South Korean company has finally acknowledged that the 3G license was covered by Apple’s payment for the Qualcomm chips found in devices like the iPhone 4S, but this doesn’t mean that Samsung has decided to throw in the towel. Samsung claims that the dropping of the Qualcomm...

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Consumers love Android, but developers are stuck on Apple

Android is taking the mobile world by storm as more handsets and tablets are Android powered, but as far as where the developers hang their hat, Apple is the place to be. Right now Android is easily the top selling mobile platform, Android powered handsets are outselling Apple iPhones by a ton and the Android Market just hit its 18 billionth download. An analytics firm, called Flurry, says that app developers are still choosing Apple’s iOS over Android almost 3 to 1. As developers complete their apps, they set up analytics from Flurry so that the company can get a sneak peak at what is on the horizon in the mobile market. According to Flurry, the company deals with more than 55,000 companies across more than 135,000 applications....

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Rumor: Apple is developing 7.85-inch iPad to compete with Kindle Fire

Apple may begin selling smaller, 7.85-inch iPads next year to compete with newer tablet devices, according to sources within the US firm’s supply chain who are quoted by a DigiTimes report. The company is rumoured to already be sourcing parts to begin producing the units by mid next year: In addition to purchasing 7.85-inch panels from LG Display, Apple will also buy panels from AU Optronics (AUO), indicated the sources, adding that makers in the supply chain are likely to begin production of the 7.85-inch models at the end of the second quarter of 2012.The rumoured size has been selected to allow the iPad to compete with, but differentiate itself from, the 7-inch Kindle fire and a number of large-sized smartphones that manufacturers...

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Samsung says Apple court cases boosted its profile

According to Samsung Australia’s mobile chief, the court case that is happening globally with Apple is doing far more good than harm to the South Korean company, where it raised the Galaxy Tab 10.1′s profile to that of a “household name” within a short period of time, potentially making it one of the best “advertising channels” for Samsung compared to going through an ad agency. It must also be said that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be hitting stores in Australia sometime this week after a Sydney court decided to deny Apple’s appeal request to reverse the ban on sales of the Gaalaxy Tab 10.1. To quote McGee, “At the end of the day the media awareness certainly made the Galaxy Tab 10.1 a household name compared to probably what it would’ve...

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Google’s official Siri fighter codenamed Majel, Trekkies switch to Android at Warp 9

Majel Barret as Nurse Chapel, opposite DeForest “Bones” KelleyRemember when that Google executive compared iOS’ Siri voice control implementation to the bumbling droids of Star Wars, and Android’s voice input to the Enterprise’s computer on Star Trek? Someone in Mountain View took that analogy quite literally. Android and Me quotes insiders that say Google is preparing a natural language update to Android’s Voice Actions feature, and they’ve codenamed it Majel, after the late great Majel Barrett-Roddenberry. The actress is best known as the voice of the Enterprise’s computer from Star Trek: The Next Generation onward, and has had small parts in almost every Star Trek series all the way back to the original pilot. In 1969 she married...

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Design of the Samsung Galaxy Tab according to Apple

As most of you guys should be aware by now, Apple and Samsung are currently embroiled in a fierce legal battle concerning patent infringement. Apple has accused Samsung of infringing upon their patents and design of the iPad 2, claiming that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has copied their designs. Samsung has attempted to work around this claim by releasing the Galaxy Tab 10.1n with some minor cosmetic changes, but apparently that wasn’t enough. The image you’re looking at above is a rendering of the interpretation of what Apple’s lawyers think Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 should look like. We can’t tell if they are dead serious or if it’s just a quick mockup but either way that thing above is pretty hideous. The mockup is based on Apple’s demands...

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Apple and HTC wait for trade rulings in patent fight

Apple is not only going after Samsung in numerous markets where patent rulings are concerned, Cupertino, too, has other targets in mind such as HTC as well. A patent fight between Cupertino and the Taiwanese smartphone giant will culminate in this week’s decision from a US trade agency, where a result in Apple’s favor might eventually lead to a ban on imports of select HTC devices. The International Trade Commission commission will be announcing tomorrow as to whether HTC infringed patents owned by Apple. Of course, who are we to say that the decision might end up otherwise, and life goes on as normal for HTC in the US, while Apple executives seethe and gnash their teeth, wondering why can’t the rest of the world see their point of...

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Quid pro quo: Motorola granted injunction against Apple in Germany

There are all sorts of appropriately snarky comments one could place here. But we’ll stick to the facts, ma’am, just the facts: FOSS Patents reports that Motorola Mobility has been granted a preliminary sales injunction against Apple in Germany, based on one of its wireless communications patents. Unless Apple can get the ruling overturned or stayed, it may face a sales ban on the iPhone and iPad in that country. It isn’t overly likely that the ban will be put into place. For one, Motorola would need to post a 100 million Euro bond if it wants to hold up the sales injunction. Moreover, these decisions are often overturned on appeal, as we saw with Apple’s case against Samsung in Australia. But weaknesses in Apple’s historically crack...

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Apple loses final Australia appeal, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is ready for a retail return

Early news out of Australia indicates that Apple has lost its appeal of a decision made in an Australian federal court, dismissing their patent case against Samsung and its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. AusDroid reports that the decision came early Friday morning. The two companies have been locked in a legal battle for months, culminating in a rejection by an Australian Federal court after a long period of injunction against Samsung. The High Court denied the appeal, meaning that there is basically no way for them to continue with the case on its current merits. The High Court chastised the original ruling granting a sales ban against the Samsung tablet, calling the judicial decision “replete with error” and saying that Apple won the original...

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