Samsung Slips Passed Apple on 4G

The war between Apple and Samsung over design and technology patents has cast Samsung as the underling, while Apple is painted as pushing at the edges of innovation. Ahh what a short sighted world we live in, I’d argue with such commentary, going so far as to say that most commentators have things wrong, very wrong.

While Samsung may have a little eggroll on it’s face over claims of plagiarism, the Korean consumer electronics behemoth is definitely no slouch on the technology front, winning the much more important war on patent innovations, particularly when it comes to 4G and it’s application in the mobile device wars.

4G isn’t so much a new technology but  a better use of existing technologies, Samsung has been working on 4G since 2005 and has pretty much perfected it’s use in mobile devices. The higher and more responsive – up to 10 x 3G – bandwidth of 4G is well suited to tablets and smartphones.

In Australia, Telstra has the largest geographic coverage in 4G and has been upgrading mobile cell towers to 4G since 2010, with a consumer roll-out from late in 2011. The benefits of running mobile devices on 4G are real, the simultaneous speed is pretty outstanding :: Read the full article »»»»

UPDATED! Apple vs Samsung vs Apple vs Samsung

Just hours apart, two separate courts – one in the USA and another in South Korea – have handed down absolutely opposing views on the war that is Apple vs Samsung, or should that be Samsung vs Apple?

A South Korean court has handed down a split ruling over Samsungs claim that Apple infringed it’s intellectual property, ruling that some element of the iPhone do indeed use patented Samsung telecommunication technology. The court also ruled however that Samsung had – as Apple has been ranting – copy Apples interface for it’s early Galaxy phones and tabs.

The South Korean court found that both companies shared blame, ordering Samsung to stop selling 10 products including its Galaxy S II phone and banning Apple from selling four different products, including its iPhone 4.

Meanwhile across the pacific in San Jose, California, a US jury has found in favour of Apple in a case that was expected to take years to settle, Apples copycat rant has just landed it a $US1 billion dollar win! However, the US ruling runs much deeper than just a huge compensation payout, BILLIONS of dollars in future sales hang in the balance for both tech-behemoths :: Read the full article »»»»

STANDOUT! Apple FORCED To Offer iPAD Refunds 4G Non Compatibility

Our favourite tech behemoth Apple is once again in an übergadget pickle.  The beheomoth has been forced to offer a refund to people who bought its new iPAD, which it admits is not compatible with Australia’s Telstra 4G network. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission – ACCC – has taken legal action against Apple for what it claims are misleading statements over its new iPad.

Lawyers for the ACCC have accused Apple of breaching consumer law by promoting the device as being able to connect to high-speed 4G mobile networks using a sim card. The Australian Federal Court heard that Apple ignored warnings from the ACCC and was told the day before the iPad’s launch that it was misleading consumers. Read the full article »»»»

Kodak Sells To Shutterfly

Kodak has agreed to sell its online photo services to Shutterfly Inc for $23.8 million, kicking off the bankrupt photography pioneer’s relaunch as a much slimmer company although a patent sale seen crucial to its turnaround may still be months away. The once-iconic company that invented the hand-held camera has said it will quit the camera business and is expected to fetch $1 billion to $2 billion from the sale of about 1,100 digital patents, which is due to get under way by June 30.

Reuters reported that a source familiar with the patent sale said the process was moving forward, but added that the completion was not expected anytime soon. Complicating the prospects is a dispute with computer giant Apple Inc over one of the patents.

At a hearing on March 8, a bankruptcy judge will hear Apple’s motion to move forward with its patent-infringement suit. Apple has asked the bankruptcy court to lift the automatic stay applied to pending litigation against Kodak when the company filed for Chapter 11 on January 19. Kodak said the deal with Shutterfly followed a “stalking horse” bid – a starting bid or minimally accepted offer that other bidders must surpass in a court-supervised auction – from the web-based personal publishing service. Read the full article »»»»

SMARTEN UP: HTC One Family 2012

HTC’s new series of flagship smartphones in the form of HTC One X, S and V have overshadowed the competition in their launch at Mobile World Congress 2012. The quad-core smartphone from HTC apparently has almost everything to be the most desirable device on the smartphone market today? Among the three models showcased during the event, HTC One X is absolutely the top model of HTC’s trio of One series. HTC has packed an absolute monster in HTC One X delivering extraordinary performance. But can HTC take on the stalwart behemoths of mobile?

HTC launched the One Series in the hope of taking the fight to Samsung and Apple, the One Series, with it’s überfast graphic chips and advanced music and photography functions is hoped to dent a stitched up market. It’s a fight that HTC has been losing, sales slumped and investors dumped shares late in 2011 on concerns the firm had lost its edge.

The Taiwanese mobile tech maker is confident it’s new models – coming to market in April 2012 –  will turn around the ailing fortunes of the world’s No.5 smartphone maker, and help to boost its annual sales volumes above last year’s level. ”We are confident this year will be … a much better year,” Florian Seiche, chief of HTC’s European operations said, referring to the number of smartphones sold. ”Even with the Q1 not being the ideal fast start right out of the gate in January, which of course we would have preferred, even with that we are very confident,” Seiche told Reuters in an interview on sidelines of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Surprisingly the Ice Cream Sandwich operating system has jelled well with the phone and improvements to HTC Sense has made it a much cleaner, easier to use experience than the previous version. Read the full article »»»»

Samsung to Double Smartphone Sales in 2012

Samsung Electronics mobile chief said the consumer electronics behemoth aimed to nearly double its smartphone sales in 2012 from last year, stepping up its battle with nemesis Apple. J.K. Shin, president and head of Samsung’s Mobile Communications Business, made the comment to reporters ahead of the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona. His remarks were later confirmed by a company spokesman. Samsung topped global smartphone sales rankings last year, more than quadrupling smartphone sales to 97.4 million from 2010, according to data from Strategy Analytics.

In 2011 Apple finished a close second to Samsung, with sales of 93 million smartphones. J.K. Shin also said Samsung aimed to boost its total handset - including non smartphones -  sales to 380 million this year, which would mark 16 percent sales growth for the world’s No.2 handset maker. Samsung Electronics last year sold 327.4 million handsets, up from 280.2 million in 2010, according to Strategy Analytics. Those foxy Fins, Nokia, though battling to get a foot into the smartphone market, sold 422 handsets in 2011, up from 150 million in 2010.  Read the full article »»»»