Displaying items by tag: Samsung

There are times in the US Legal system when I wished there was a review body that could not only reverse bad decisions, but also levy fines and consequences for bad and obvious prejudicial judgments on the part of our justices in the US. If there were I have a feeling that Judge Lucy Koh would be exceptionally poor right about now. This is due to her recent judgments in granting injunctive relief in favor of Apple despite the lack of sufficient evidence that Apple is being injured or that the devices in question actually violate Apple patents.

Someone needs to send some of the Apple lawyers back to preschool where they find shapes that are the same and get to pick out colors as well. We are frankly getting sick of Judges bowing to Apple’s request for outright bans on products because they claim that they “look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging”. It simply does not hold up under even the most cursory examination. The latest after a ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 for possibly infringing on a SINGLE PATNET is they have been awarded one for on the Galaxy Nexus.

Microsoft knows that it cannot compete directly in the smart phone OS marketplace. If you need any real proof of this just look at the sales numbers and the adoption rates of iOS and Android over Windows Pone in the business market. The problem is that Microsoft did not innovate fast enough as the market shifted. They had the leading product, but once there was real competition in the form of iOS and Android they failed to capitalize on it and instead embarked on a series of products that hurt them very badly dropping them down to a low of just under 2% for market share.

There is an old saying that says your first instinct is right. We are told this over and over again as kid as a warning against going back and changing our answers on test and for other “life lessons”. It is a lesson that most of us take with us through the rest of our lives. Unfortunately it does not appear to be one that Judge Lucy Koh remembered. In an unusual twist she is not upholding an Apple requested injunction against Samsung that she denied earlier.

We have often written that the continuous stream of patent lawsuits and injunctions that are pushed around the globe are costly, dangerous and anti-consumer, but now someone has actually gone out and done the math to find out just how much damage they do per year. The study performed by James E. Bessen and Michael E Meurer both from the Boston University School of Law states that in 2011 more than $29 Billion (with a B) in direct costs were incurred all because of what are called Non-Practicing Entities (most call them patent trolls). This $29 Billion also came during a down economy and affected small to medium sized businesses the most.

It looks like the world of the smart phone, tablet, and the digital “media” players are finally getting past the “good enough” trend that they were heading into. Well, at least where audio is concerned. One of the biggest issues that we have had with many phones and even top end media players is that while they spend money on the display to give richer visuals you are often left with audio that is very bland.

One of the things that has always bothered us is the continual lack of improvement in the smartphone market in the US. Although we get to read about new technologies for “world” phones and drool over the latest products from companies like Samsung and HTC which sport quad core SoCs (System on Chip) under their screens when they finally reach the US market they are shadows of what people are getting in other markets.

As part of their War on Apple, Samsung is pulling off some very neat tricks without having to spend a penny. Some of these are basic PR tricks like showing the phone off in the right ways with the right ads, giving extra color choices and also telling people how many other people want it. Of course we would never say that Samsung has not put in its fair share of money to get the Galaxy S III and other products off the ground (not including all of the law suits going on), but that sometimes the best tricks are the ones that do not cost you anything.

We have written more than our share of articles showing the decline of Apple as a major player in the market. We would never go so far as to say that we are predicting the “death of Apple” like so many analysts do about the PC on a monthly basis. The market needs both Apple and Microsoft to thrive (and really both are “PCs”). What we are talking about is the massive popularity of Apple mobile products will continue to decline as their rivals begin to bring faster and more compelling technology to the market. Right now Apple’s biggest method of competition is the law suit which they wield around the globe to prevent competitors from releasing their designs (all in the name of protecting IP).

Ok so here we are with part two of the Windows Phone 8 information. Microsoft has released the list of phone makers that will be supporting Windows Phone 8 at launch (still listed as “this fall”). The list was surprisingly short with only Nokia, Samsung, Huawei and HTC on the list. HTC is interesting as they were not allowed to make a Windows RT tablet which is what Windows Phone 8 gets the majority of its structure from. In addition to the listing of phone makers, Microsoft also announced that the SoC supplier would be Qualcomm which suggests that we are looking at a controlled BOM for the first round of phones.