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  • Google, Sued by the British Telecom Operator BT

    British telecom operator BT sued Google in the United States for infringement of patents in areas such as mobile access to maps, Reuters.

    BT has launched the action in a court in Delaware. The complaint refers to six patents that would have been violated by https://smartphone.biz-news.com/news/tags/en_US/Google, according to BT, by services such as https://smartphone.biz-news.com/news/tags/en_US/Android, https://smartphone.biz-news.com/news/tags/en_US/Google Maps, https://smartphone.biz-news.com/news/tags/en_US/Google Music, Advertising, https://smartphone.biz-news.com/news/tags/en_US/Gmail and other products.

    "It’s about protecting BT’s investment in intellectual property and innovation. We think we have a solid case," said in a statement the British group.

    In the telecommunications industry are currently taking place numerous conflicts on patents, while the number of operators, mobile phone manufacturers and content providers try to offer attractive services such as accessing the maps or entertainment.

    Google Group is already involved in several disputes with companies such as https://smartphone.biz-news.com/news/tags/en_US/Apple, https://smartphone.biz-news.com/news/tags/en_US/Microsoft and https://smartphone.biz-news.com/news/tags/en_US/Oracle. A Google spokesman said the allegations are without foundation.

    BT announced that it has a total portfolio of approximately 5,600 patents and applications in the past financial year and demanded protection by patents of 62 inventions.

    The British group is the fifth largest company that sued Google for patent infringement.

    In August, Google announced that an agreement was reached regarding the takeover of https://smartphone.biz-news.com/news/tags/en_US/Motorola Mobility for $ 12.5 billion, the largest acquisition in its history, partly to protect themselves from aggressive legal attacks. Motorola is one of the largest portfolios of patents in the mobile phone industry.

  • HTC Failed With the New Smartphone Range – Sales Drop by 30%

    HTC hardly manages to attract the interest of users with the current range of smartphones, ending November with disappointing sales – 30% less than previous month. The trend is even more worrying in the context of the upcoming winter shopping season, usually marked by increase in sales and significant earnings.

    The company has not explained why the steep decline in demand for its products, but it’s easy to understand: HTC bombarded us lately with many new models, most of high quality, well built, but with an undiversified design, which simply don’t manage to attract public attention.

    Sales for November dropped to $ 1.03 billion, compared with $ 1.46 billion in October. Really worrying is the 20-percent decrease from the same period of 2010, when HTC recorded sales of $ 1.27 billion.

    Even if it’s too early to compare HTC with Nokia, it’s clear that both companies need to reinvent themselves in order to survive in the increasingly dynamic market of smartphones and tablets.

    HTC currently enjoys a large number of fans, but they are not nearly as numerous and devoted as those of some heavy competitors like Apple. In the absence of some production facilities with resources comparable to Samsung, for example, HTC cannot bet too much on models with an extravagant design, through which to seduce its users. On the other hand, the company focused more on services and custom software, but without much enthusiasm.

    Unfortunately for HTC, software features such as Sense UI begin to lose their importance as Google continues to improve the native interface of their Android operating system, so that HTC needs more than ever to focus on the product itself and not on additional features, otherwise risking taking the same way as Nokia.

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  • What to Expect from Android in 2012

    Google has shown just the tip of the iceberg with the latest improvements to the Android operating system. Users have become accustomed to expect more from the mobile operating systems and it is likely that the expectations to end in 2012.

    Software Improvements

    Latest release, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, came with the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus, being only a matter of time before other smartphones and tablets to start using it. Cameras with better software, improved graphics and perhaps a voice assistant similar with Siri might be on the launching ramp next year.

    Ice Cream Sandwich already allows users a wide enough range of voice commands. Even if the idea of assistant will not be adopted by Google, via Google Translate, they provide an idea in which direction the voice functions are moving.

    In what concerns the cameras software, Android started with a gross soft, not having too many options. The upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich brings features such as panoramic photos and zero time between shots. Future updates may include facial recognition and advanced settings options. These functions could also be included in tablets, not just for smartphones.

    Hardware Improvements

    Improvements in terms of hardware are also foreseen, especially in the range of smartphones with two processors. Starting with Ice Cream Sandwich on smartphones with dual-core processors, hardware acceleration option is automatically activated. This means that new applications for the operating system will run much faster. Also, there will also be improvements in games, in terms of graphics. Old applications will require updates in order to observe the improvements in performance.

    The number of terminals that will use Android is growing. This year Google launched android@home, a base for the operating system to be installed in smart homes. They will communicate with other devices running Android to make life easier for residents. In addition, car manufacturers have also been showing their interest since 2010 regarding Google’s OS in order to introduce it in cars’ consoles, which will allow sharing media files between smartphone and car.

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  • Sales Below Expectations For Nokia Lumia 800

    Nokia Lumia 800, although very promising at the time of launch, fails to stop the Finnish manufacturer from its sharp decline in the smart devices market.

    Despite efforts made by Nokia to promote their new model Lumia 800 and the encouraging sales figures announced at the time of launch, the reality seems to be different at all. The direction taken by Nokia Lumia 800 is actually moving toward sales far below the Finnish manufacturer's expectations.

    According to analyst James Faucett at Pacific Crest, if current trends maintain, sales figures for the Lumia 800 will not exceed 500,000 pieces sold, four times less than expected by Nokia.

    Given that the design team has done their homework, creating a very successful handset, which should easily convince the audience it is addressed, the only culprit remains its operating system – Windows Phone 7.5, still regarded with suspicion by many users.

    Nokia can only hope not to end the year with disastrous financial results. They only have the winter shopping season, which could raise again the sales figures.

    Unfortunately, at least for now, the partnership between Nokia and Microsoft does not seem to give the results foreseen by the CEO Stephen Elop, putting the company in disadvantage by using a too-new operating system, with many limitations artificially imposed and unable to convince in front of the competition presented by Google's Android and Apple's iOS.

    Despite the optimism shown by Nokia, the success that Lumia 800 enjoys in the UK cannot be entirely attributed to the design team. Orange UK recently launched a very aggressive campaign to promote Nokia’s handsets, rewarding about half of customers who have pre-ordered the phone with an xBox console completely free. As expected, the offer was very useful, even if it’s just a low-end version of the xBox console.

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  • Official: Motorola Mobility To Be Bought by Google for $ 12.5 Billion

    It's official! Motorola Mobility shareholders have approved the transaction by which the company will be acquired by Google for $ 12.5 billion, but the ball is now in the competition authorities' field, which have already opened an investigation after which they will also have to give their consent for this transaction.

    Motorola expects the deal will be completed at the beginning of 2012. In mid-August Google announced that it would buy Motorola Mobility in what is the biggest transaction in the history of web giant.

    Motorola shareholders approved unanimously the transaction, the company being convinced that competition authorities will also give their consent. U.S authorities have also opened an investigation in September in order to see if a so big transaction has or not a negative impact over the market competition.

    Motorola estimates that all approvals will be obtained before the beginning of 2012, and the transaction will be initiated at that time.

    Motorola Mobility separated earlier this year by Motorola Group, which five years ago started to have serious difficulties in mobile segment, but also because they didn’t react quickly enough to come up with competitive touchscreen devices.

    Motorola recorded in 2009 losses of $ 1.2 billion and last year earned operational profit of $ 76 million.

    Explaining why Motorola, the company in Mountain View mentioned in the press release of announcing this important transaction that this company has 80 years of history, invented the mobile phone three decades ago and in 2008 decided to use Android OS on the entire range of smartphones, being among the first large companies that have adopted this operating system.

    Google made a stock of Android adoption and says that over 150 million terminals were activated since 2007 and so far, and 550.000 are added daily.

    Android handsets are sold in 123 countries under the logos of 30 smartphones manufacturers.

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  • Kaspersky Lab In a Partnership with TAG Heuer

    Kaspersky Lab has signed a partnership agreement with TAG Heuer, the famous Swiss luxury watches manufacturer. The latter, in collaboration with ModeLabs Manufacture, launched the first luxury smartphone with touchscreen, called TAG Heuer Link, which runs Google’s Android.

    For this new smartphone, Kaspersky Lab developed TAG Heuer Mobile Security (powered by Kaspersky), a security solution, which is offering a high level of data stored in the phone.

    “Kaspersky Lab and TAG Heuer share common values, such as cutting-edge technology and an ongoing process of innovation,” said Eugene Kaspersky, President and CEO at Kaspersky Lab. “TAG Heuer Mobile Security is our first project in the luxury segment and we want to further develop this partnership.”

    The new smartphone TAG Heuer Link is a powerful communication tool, developed by Swiss engineers, assembled in France and equipped with Android OS. According to the company, TAG Heuer Link was made with quality materials and with the most advanced components used in horology and automotive industries, including diamonds and pink gold. The stainless steel used for this phone is also used to create surgical instruments and is hypoallergenic and resistant to corrosion.

    TAG Heuer Mobile Security offers a high level of protection against network attacks, malware for mobile phones and SMS spam. Besides the fact that it grants users the possibility to locate where the phone was lost or stolen, using the GPS Find function, the software offers the opportunity to store all digital files in encrypted folders and to lock or delete remotely all the files from the phone.

    Thanks to Mobile Security software from Kaspersky Lab, the owner is able to effectively manage the private contacts, to filter out the unwanted calls and SMSs by entering contacts in “black” and “white” lists and to restrict children’s access to the phone.

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  • Ubuntu Linux Mobile – An alternative to Google Android

    Google’s Android OS will soon have Ubuntu Linux for mobile devices as competitor, an operating system developed under open source and available for use for free.

    Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu Linux, revealed that after finalizing the latest version of the operating system for PCs, their efforts will be focused on extending this platform towards the most popular computing platforms currently used. Thus, in the near future we will have available Ubuntu Linux distributions for tablets, Smart TV devices and, of course, smartphones.

    In the preparation for this expansion, Canonical is currently in talks with many of the producers of mobile devices chipsets, including ARM, a leading manufacturer of processors for tablets and smartphones.
    Through this extension into the world of mobile devices, Ubuntu becomes a direct competitor to Android OS, an operating system which, ironically, is compromised even by Google creator, after the recent acquisition of Motorola, one of the major mobile phones manufacturers in the world.

    The acquisition of Motorola Mobility is not seen well by the other hardware manufacturers, because it transforms Google from simple software developer in hardware manufacturer. Thus, Android OS ends up being caught in a conflict of interests arisen between Google’s creator and the other mobile devices manufacturers. This way, Ubuntu Linux is seen as the saving solution, a free and flexible alternative, coming from a company far less intimidating than Google.

    Interestingly, the strategy chosen by Canonical is ingenious, but without a solid brand that has resonance among the users of tablets and smartphones, its success or the potential failure depends almost entirely on the partnerships concluded with the hardware manufacturers.

    The delivery of Ubuntu OS on as many devices is essential for its promotion, but it remains to be seen whether the facilities offered will be able to rise at the standards of a strong competition, such as the one provided by Google with its Android 4.0.

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  • Samsung and Google Launch Galaxy Nexus

    Samsung and Google, have launched the Galaxy Nexus, the world's first smartphone equipped with Android Ice Cream Sandwich and HD screen Super AMOLED.

    Galaxy Nexus has a 1.2 GHz processor, compared to only 800 MHz in the iPhone 4S, 4.65-inch HD screen Super AMOLED with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, while the iPhone 4S has a screen of only 3.5 inches, with a resolution of 960 x 640 pixels and a density of 326 ppi.

    Galaxy Nexus is over iPhone 4S when it comes to memory too, having 1GB RAM, double than the iPhone 4S. In addition, Galaxy Nexus comes with the NFC technology, which allows the user to use its phone as a digital wallet.

    With a thickness of 8.94mm and with a frame of 4.29mm, Galaxy Nexus offers a greater portability.

    The first smartphone equipped with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich. "Ice Cream Sandwich proves that the Android platform went further with the innovations by launching a version that works on phones and tablets. Features like Android Beam and Face Unlock show our team's innovative work and Galaxy Nexus demonstrates the power behind the Ice Cream Sandwich," said Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President at Mobile for Google.

    Ice Cream Sandwich brings a completely and entirely new appearance to the Android platform. It has a redesigned interface with improved multitasking, notifications, Wi-Fi hotspot, NFC support and an improved web experience.

    Galaxy Nexus presents software navigation buttons for the first time on smartphones with Android. Locking the screen, the home screen, phone applications and all other elements have been rethought and redesigned to make the Android platform simple, attractive and useful.

    Also, Ice Cream Sandwich comes with a new application, called People, which allows interacting with friends, family and colleagues, viewing their photos at high resolution, and following the latest updates on the statuses on Google+ and other social networks.

    Galaxy Nexus offers the possibility of synchronizing the e-mail, contacts and other data on all devices owned. Users have access to more than 300,000 applications and games on Android Market or, in some countries, they can buy and read e-books, rent movies or play movies. In the USA, users can also download music into Cloud using Music Beta from Google.

    Ice Cream Sandwich introduces innovations such as Face Unlock, which uses the face recognition function to unlock the phone. Using NFC technology, Android Beam allows users to share quickly with friends and family web pages and video applications on YouTube by simply joining the phones together.

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  • Google Supplies HTC with Ammunition for the Battle Against Apple

    The legal war Apple bears with the biggest manufacturers of touchscreen mobile devices could take a new turn, after Google, the giant behind the most popular operating system for smartphones and tablets – Android – decided to help its customers by providing certain invention patents with which the companies can challenge Apple in court, writes Bloomberg.

    Google has transferred a package of nine patents in the property of the Taiwanese manufacturer, HTC, on which the Asian company has initiated a legal action against Apple. Google declined to comment on the reasons why they had made that transfer.

    Analysts consider that the move represents a new step in the fight which now bears in courts among the big companies. Google, which has been criticized before that it stood aside, while its partners that were using Android were being hit in court by Apple, decided to take a more active role in the fight on the so-called touchscreen market, considered as one of the most competitive.

    Recently, the company that owns the most popular internet search engine has announced that it intends to expand its patents portfolio in order to protect themselves against the legal actions concerning the theft of technology. Google faces in this race a strong competition from the same Apple.

    Google's decision to transfer the patents to HTC comes shortly after Apple acquired, from a German court, a blocking in sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, on the basis of infringement of some invention patents on the hardware side. Apple has also filed lawsuits to its rivals HTC and Motorola.

    Android, the operating system developed by Google for both tablets and smartphones, has supremacy in this segment with a market share of about 50%.

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  • Apple Falls While Samsung and Android Take the Lead in USA

    Google and Samsung have managed to surpass Apple and its products, iOS, iPhone and iPad, ok the U.S. market, as the latest statistics are showing.

    Out of the 82 million Americans who own a smartphone, most devices (41.8%) are running the Android operating system developed by Google. Apple, with its IOS, ranked second with a market share of 27%, while the third place was occupied by Research in Motion (21.7%), with the operating system designed for their Blackberry.

    Interestingly, while Google gained 5.4% since April 2011, Apple's share grew by only 1%, and RIM has lost 4%. The last two places in the ranking are occupied by Microsoft and Symbian, which have 5.7% and 1.9%, respectively, of the market share.

    Samsung, market leader

    In the smartphones brands rankings, on the first place is Samsung, with a slightly increased market share compared to April 2011, from 24.5% to 25.5%. In second place is LG, which has stagnated at 20.9%, while the third place is occupied by Motorola with a decrease in the market share of 1.5%, from 15.6% to 14.1%. Apple was ranked only the fourth, with a market share increased by 1.2%, from 8.3% to 9.5%. The top is completed by RIM with a share down by 0.6%, from 8.2 to 7.6%.

    SMS, vital for Americans

    Another interesting ranking shows that the Americans are using the phone, beyond the calls, mainly to send text messages, in 70% of the cases. The percentage of those who surf the internet on their smartphone has increased from 39.1% to 41.1% and just the same as the percentage of those who download applications, up from 37.8% to 40.6%.
    The study shows, on the other hand, that 30.1% of the Americans who own a mobile phone are accessing social networks and blogs, 27.8% are playing games on the phone, while 20.3% are listening to music.

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