Displaying items by tag: Samsung

It seems that there is the potential for peace after all between Samsung and Apple. As we have told you over the past few weeks, the patent trial between Samsung and Apple has been a much more tactical event than the show we expected. Both sides have presented many witnesses to support their claims, but were hampered by a time limit imposed by Judge Lucy Koh. The time limit is not unheard of in cases like this as it prevents either side from trying to monopolize time and can help keep things to the facts. We would have to say that Judge Koh’s decision was at least partially successful.

Yesterday we covered Samsung's achievement, selling 10 million Galaxy Note phones and posted rumors about new model that is about to come. Today we found out that photos of new Galaxy Note II have been leaked to the internet. After there was leak of front panel pictures a few days ago now we get to see the whole device. It is very similar to Samsung Galaxy S3, and it may be a sign of authenticity since Galaxy Note was very similar to Galaxy S2.

Although I am writing this article today the facts behind it have spanned the course of a few years going back to when Steve Jobs first fell out of the public eye and Tim Cook took over the day to day duties as CEO (although he did not have the title). At the time there were subtle indications that things were not going well at Apple even with the record sales and massive money pile in the bank. Some of the items that kept showing up in the media were about what would happen to Apple if and when Steve Jobs was gone. The articles a speculation were backed up every time there was a rumor about Steve Jobs’ health and Apple stock took a hit.

There is a lot going on with the Samsung V Apple trial today as we head toward the final summations and then a jury decision. As we told you yesterday Judge Koh would like to see both sides compromise or to make peace entirely. She claims that there is danger to both sides if the trial goes to a jury. Although they jury cannot truly decide the validity of any patents in question they can still determine if one or the other has infringed. It is a situation that could see both sides impacted.

One of my favorite quotes (relating to security) is “what man can lock, man can unlock”. Another quote that I like is “they all break when you apply enough pressure”. Both of these are crucial to an understanding of security as it relates to just about everything. This includes physical security, data security; you name it… if you try to hide it or lock it up someone can get at it with enough time and resources. One place that this is often overlooked is in the department of DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Samsung's experiment, as they called it before launch because of its huge 5.3 inch display, has celebrated 10 million units sold. Samsung managed to sell 5 million in March and since then sales have been going pretty solid for the Note. One of the biggest concerns about the device was how users will accept its size, since most of smartphones are 4.3-inches and smaller. Although we recently had 4.7 (HTC Titan and Sensation XL), and new Galaxy Nexus is 4.65, 5.3-inches is still quite big and we can consider it a mini tablet instead of solely smartphone.

Judge Lucy Koh has asked that Samsung and Apple executive meet for a third time. Her request for a peace talk is coming with only about a day and half of Samsung’s presentation in the bag. This move seems a little odd to us considering her defiance in allowing for key pieces of Samsung evidence to be shown to the jury and her refusal to throw out some Apple patents based on Prior Art.

The Samsung V Apple trial is still going on, but what we have noticed is that now that Apple is finished with their side of the story many sites that were carrying the Apple flag have stopped covering it. As Apple paraded one witness after another we saw so many headlines proclaiming that Apple had won with this or that witness that is became comical. This is despite the fact that in many cases the actual experts felt that the key witnesses either had a neutral effect on Apple’s case or ended up slightly in favor of Samsung (with Peter Bressler and Terry Musika being two of the worst).

The other day Microsoft decided to make an official announcement of the OEM partners that will be supporting Windows RT for the October 26th launch party. The list is pretty much what we described before and shows Lenovo, Asus, Dell and Samsung.  Acer, HP, Toshiba, Motorola, HTC and more will be passing on this (Motorola and HTC not by choice …). Of that list HP, Acer, and Toshiba will still work to release Intel based tablets running Windows 8 by the official launch date. The list has been dwindling since Steve Ballmer first made his proclamation that there would be 20+ tablets running Windows RT for the launch.

From the beginning of the Samsung V Apple case we have likened the situation to a battle field.  We have seen ambushes, feints, counters and now landmines. Landmines are one of the worst things that you can find in a battle field. It seems that Samsung laid one down for Apple to step on and the Apple team obligingly did just that. This was in the form of their expert financial testimony about the damages that were due to Apple. Simply put the claims that Apple made were flawed in their core premise that if someone had not opted to by a Samsung phone they would automatically have bought one from Apple.