Apple

Appeals court gives Apple another chance to ban Samsung devices

Cody Lee ∙ November 18, 2013

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has vacated Judge Lucy Koh's earlier denial of Apple's request to ban 26 Samsung devices that infringed on its patent. The move will give Apple another chance to permanently halt the sales of these devices in the US.

Now the issue will be sent back to Koh's court, where Apple's lawyers will no longer have to prove that the patented features in Samsung's products were the sole reason for driving sales, but only that there is some connection between the features and demand for Samsung devices...

Phil Schiller says iPhone was a ‘bet the company’ product

Cody Lee ∙ November 15, 2013

As the Apple v. Samsung trial to recalculate the damages Samsung owes continues, Phil Schiller took the stand yesterday. Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing was called up to speak with just 11 minutes left in the session.

But that still proved enough time for Schiller to dish out some interesting details about his role at Apple, and its early days of iPhone development. He said around 100 people worked on what was referred to as the 'bet the company' product...

Samsung and Apple bosses to meet in January for another round of peace talks

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 13, 2013

Following a ruling in March which halved last August's $1.05 billion verdict against South Korea's Samsung, a retrial to recalculate the remaining damages is due later this week. In its opening statement today, Apple's legal representatives demanded $379 million in pending damages. Samsung argues it owes Apple but a paltry $52 million for infringing its iPhone patents and design features.

And as the two parties gear up for a déjà vu retrial, its CEOs will apparently meet for a new round of peace talks - all over again - according to a new report out Wednesday from South Korea...

Apple expected to increase holiday-quarter iPad screen purchases from Samsung

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 11, 2013

Samsung of South Korea may have gotten itself into hot water with Apple over patents and design issues, but its semiconductor unit continues to churn out unabated the Apple-designed engine which powers the iPhone, iPad and iPod devices. As for Retina screens, Apple originally sourced mobile displays from non-Samsung suppliers such as Sharp and LG Display.

Last we heard, recent yield and quality issues have reportedly prompted the iPhone maker to turn to its frenemy for help. Korea’s ETNews last Friday claimed Apple has asked Samsung for help as Sharp struggles to solve burn-in issues with IGZO panels for the iPad Air.

At the heart of the production issues is Japanese giant's malfunctioning of the thin-film transistor display technology. Corroborating the report, a display research firm on Monday said Apple's purchase of Samsung-made panels for the iPad is about to skyrocket in the fourth quarter...

Samsung ordered to explain why it shouldn’t be sanctioned for leaking Apple docs

Cody Lee ∙ November 10, 2013

Last month, Apple filed a motion against Samsung in a California court for sharing confidential information. In the filing, the iPad-maker accused the Korean tech giant of disclosing details regarding its Nokia patent licensing agreement.

Samsung learned the terms of the deal during its court battle with Apple, and although the info was marked "attorney's eyes only," it used it to negotiate better licensing terms for itself—which Apple says is very illegal. And the judge agrees...

Samsung barred from proactive use of Apple-HTC deal in litigation

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

In spite of the massive coverage concerning the high-profile Apple vs. Samsung trial, it's easily overlooked that Apple first went thermonuclear on Android by suing HTC. Following the rise of Samsung and subsequent decline of the Taiwanese handset maker, Apple and HTC in November 2012 announced a global settlement on patent litigation.

Terms of the deal have never been made public, but we do know the two sides agreed to a ten-year cross-licensing for all current and future patents and I guesstimated the deal's value to at least $3 billion.

Yesterday, Judge Lucy Koh issued an order granting Apple's motion to exclude last year's Apple-HTC settlement and license agreement at the pending Apple vs. Samsung retrial. The ruling conditionally bars Samsung from pointing the jury to the Apple-HTC settlement deal...

Samsung talks future: folding screens and 4K smartphones coming in 2015

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated December 23, 2017

One of the thrills of writing about technology is that more often than not one gets to blog about the next big thing always lurking just around the corner. Fans of technology have been living in the future forever and today Samsung spoke to the technophiles, sharing some of the upcoming technologies its mobile display unit is aiming to bring to market in 2014 and 2015.

We'll be living in the post-Retina world next year as Samsung preps to double the pixel count on smartphone and tablet screens, we're being told. And by 2015, your mobile devices will have full 4K resolution displays - that's a whopping 3,840-by-2,160 pixels normally found on Ultra HD TV sets, or four times the pixels of the full HD (1,920-by-1,080) Blu-ray movies.

By comparison, the iPad's Retina display maxes out at 2,048-by-1,536 pixels. But that's just scratching the surface...

Samsung beating budget phone vendors in China, Apple losing ground

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 6, 2013

Apple may be winning in the United States, the world's top market for smartphones, but in the 1.33 billion people market of China - which is Apple's second most-important territory revenue-wise - Samsung is beating local vendors of cheap handsets to the punch.

According to data from research firm Canalys, Samsung has overpowered rivals in China.

The company has grown its September quarter share to 21 percent, a notable jump from just fourteen percent a year earlier. The Galaxy maker was estimated to have shipped nineteen million smartphones during the third quarter ended September 30. It's worth underscoring Samsung does not disclose unit sales like Apple does, citing competitive reasons.

For the most part, Samsung's growth came at the expense of local vendors who build dirt-cheap handsets. But what about Apple?

Apple hits 40.6 percent share of US smartphone subscribers

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 6, 2013

Research firm comScore is out with its new report measuring the state of the United States smartphone market for a three-month period ended September 30 and Apple's iPhone grew its share to comprise a healthy 40.6 percent of the nation's smartphone units. In other words, four out of each ten smartphones in the country were iPhones.

Samsung also gained share, LG stayed flat while HTC and Motorola both lost ground amid strong competition from Apple and Samsung devices. All told, iOS seems to be gaining ground overall, adding 0.7 percentage points to its share versus 0.2 percentage points for Android. The full reveal and charts can be found after the break...

JD Power offers bizarre explanation defending its botched tablet rankings

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

With the release of new iPhones and iPads, Apple has retired the somewhat defensive 'Why iPhone' and 'Why iPad' web campaign. It makes sense: Tim Cook & Co. probably think others should now defend themselves against the new iPhone 5s and iPad Air.

Fans will recall both of Apple's web pages gave undecided customers plenty of reasons to consider an iPhone and iPad over competing products, citing - among other reasons - rampant Android malware and high satisfaction scores by J.D. Power.

On the other hand, the removal of J.D. Power scores from Apple's web site could easily have everything to do with J.D. Power's last week tablet scores giving Samsung the top tablet ranking even though the South Korean company won only on price.

The results of that survey have sparked a heated debate and prompted some tough questions among the Apple faithful because the iPad clearly bested Samsung in all of the remaining five categories: Overall Satisfaction, Performance, Ease of Use, Physical Design and Tablet Features.

And now in a seeming PR damage control maneuvering, J.D. Power is attempting to defend the indefensible by claiming the survey wasn't botched and arguing the rankings hold up - even if the reputable research firm's actual explanation is pretty bizarre, to say the least...

Apple looks to Samsung as LG Display, Sharp struggle to make mini Retina panels

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

It looks like Apple's Retina iPad mini production problems are worse than we thought. According to a new report, both LG Display and Sharp are having so much trouble mass-producing the hi-res panels for the tablet that the company has been forced to turn to rival Samsung for help...

Samsung bests Apple in latest J.D. Power tablet customer satisfaction survey

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

J.D. Power and Associates is an American-based marketing information services firm that's highly regarded for its research on customer satisfaction. Apple loves to quote their surveys, and does so at media events and on earnings calls.

But this is one report Tim Cook and company are probably not going to be mentioning. In J.D. Power's latest tablet customer satisfaction survey, Apple was bested by Samsung on overall satisfaction and in particular areas like device cost...