Samsung has reportedly filed a new lawsuit in its home country against Apple regarding its iOS Notification Center. It says that the feature, which Apple introduced last year in iOS 5, infringes on one of its active patents.
Of course, patent lawsuits have become commonplace between the two tech giants in recent years. Typically, however, Samsung has used its standards-essential, hardware-related IP to go after Apple. But this time it's software-related...
If you skimmed recent headlines, you could think Google's Android was clearly in charge of the smartphone arms race. Yet, there are these pesky indicators that Apple's impending collapse ranks right up there with the Mayan Calendar crazy talk.
However, a new report by a smartphone tracking firm shows Apple has more than half of the US market.
In other words, one out of each two smartphones sold in the country is the iPhone. According to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, Apple now has captured a cool 53 percent of the market for smartphones in the United States, an increase from 37 percent in 2011. Meanwhile, Android fell to 42 percent, down from 53 percent a year ago. Along with grabbing ten percent from Android, Apple also apparently gained six percent of the market from RIM...
As expected, Apple is filing for an appeal on Judge Koh's decision to throw out its request for a permanent injunction against Samsung's products. In addition to the $1 billion in damages it won back in August, the iPad-maker was seeking a US sales ban on all of Samsung's infringing devices.
But in a pair of rulings handed down Monday, Koh denied both Samsung's request for a re-trial due to jury misconduct, and Apple's injunction request, noting that it would not be in the public's best interest to halt Samsung handset sales when only a few features were found guilty of infringement...
The European Union will "very soon" charge Samsung over its practice of filing injunctions against Apple in Europe, Reuters reported Thursday. The news arrives after Samsung dropped all of its injunctions and injunction requests against Cupertino, California-based Apple's gadgets in Europe and following a U.S. ruling that threw Samsung's alleged jury misconduct claim out of the window.
The European Union in January launched a formal investigation into a potential breach of EU antitrust rules concerning Samsung's use of standards-essential patents...
We've seen the United States Patent and Trademark Office reject or invalidate a few important Apple patents in the last few months, including one covering the infamous 'rubber banding' UI feature, and one covering the iPhone.
Today, the USPTO added another key patent to the list, tentatively declaring Apple's US 7,844,915 invention — widely referred to as the pinch-to-zoom patent — invalid. It's just a preliminary decision, but it's still a fairly big deal...
For the second day, Samsung has been named the new leader. After Tuesday unseating Nokia as the top cellphone maker in 2012, the Galaxy vendor today topped HTC as the Android maker which gets most used to access mobile ads. According to ad firm Millennial, Samsung had 46 percent of Android app use, double the 26 percent of 2011.
HTC - which is bleeding money and is rumored to have cut in half shipments and delayed new devices - fell to #2, dropping 30 points behind Samsung. But for Apple, perhaps the best news is what the Millennial end-of-year report did not find...
The cellphone industry has a new king. South Korea's Samsung is #1 in the market, unseating the Finnish-based Nokia after fourteen years. As 2012 wraps up, Samsung is responsible for 29 percent of all cell phone shipments, up from last year's 24 percent.
Conversely, Nokia slips to #2, dropping to 24 percent of the market, a fall from 30 percent posted in 2011. Nokia's departure from a top spot it held since 1998 is largely due to the predominance of smartphones, an area where Samsung thrived and Nokia faltered, according to the hardware research firm iSuppli...
Is Samsung feeling magnanimous after a U.S. judge refused to ban its smartphones? That could be one reason why the South Korean firm Tuesday dropped its bid to ban Apple products in Europe. Although the company described its decision to withdraw requests to ban Apple devices in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands as "protect[ing] consumer choice", the Galaxy maker will continue to see Apple for licensing fees of patents it contends were violated by the company...
While the high profile Samsung-Apple trial technically ended back in August, with Apple winning a staggering $1 billion judgement, the fallout is far from over. The two companies must still endure countless post-trial hearings and their subsequent appeals.
In fact, both sides met this month to discuss some of their post-trial demands. In addition to its large settlement, Apple wanted Samsung's infringing products to be banned, and Samsung wanted the whole trial thrown out on the back of jury misconduct.
Tonight, US District Judge Lucy Koh published her decisions on both requests in a pair of court filings...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIKv1AXUmOk
Not sure whether or not you saw Samsung's TV ad starring Santa and Mrs. Claus where the characters share their sex tape using "the magic of S Beam on the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note II".
I know it's a rehash of Samsung's earlier (and pretty funny) take on a sex tape exchange between a guy and his wife. Let's be clear - I have absolutely no problem with sex in advertising, but that's a preposterous thing to air as we head into Christmas.
Just what exactly are kids supposed to think after being exposed to such a dramatized sexual innuendo involving their childhood hero? Seriously, what's next? A sexting Santa commercial? Thanks for ruining my childhood, Samsung!
The UK continues to be Apple's European fortress against the invading hordes of Android smartphones. That's the word from Internet firm comScore, which announced Monday most European cell phone owners have adopted smartphones. In the United Kingdom, Apple is holding onto a slim 4 point-lead.
Meanwhile, South Korea-based Samsung experiences double-digit growth. Germany is the only European nation where smartphone penetration has not reached at least 50 percent. In the UK and Spain, two countries where consumers have largely abandoned landlines, smartphone adoption is at 62.3 percent and 63.2 percent, respectively.
But the real story could be the tight race between Apple and Samsung, fueled by Android's growing presence in Europe...
As we head into 2013, patents - along with the legal fight to enforce and protect them - is becoming a larger part of tech companies. Just ask Apple and Samsung. Where should we look for the next patent to appear? A good bet is China, which in 2011 filed for more than 500,000 technology related patents in 2011, topping the United States. According to the United Nations, China applied for 526,412 patents last year, more than the US with 500,000 and Japan's more than 300,000 applications...