Google Has Had Enough: Files Lawsuit To Ban Multiple Apple Products

 

I knew this day would come. I can’t say that I hoped for it, but in all honesty, it was inevitable. Apple has been very busy lately in doing all it can to ban as many Android devices as it can, and HTC, Samsung, and Motorola have all recently got a small taste of the Apple juice lately. But something has changed: Google now owns Motorola, and aren’t wasting any time in defending their new acquisition, as they are now seeking a sales ban on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac computers in the US. This time, it’s personal, and contains a twist that could potentially make this particular lawsuit a very dangerous one for Apple.

This is the first case that Google has signed off on in defending their new hardware company, meaning that there’s no more lurking in the background providing support. This is full on Google with their law team directly involved. This isn't Google watching from the sidelines, but instead, they are calling this one play by play. But Google and Motorola were clever, as this isn't a lawsuit that focuses on silly topics such as icons or square shaped tablets.

Google and Motorola are claiming patent infringement for non-standard essential patents. To put it simply, Google-rola has filed a case for a patent that courts cannot legally force companies to license, meaning that if they win this case, Apple could be forced to completely stop using the technology in their devices.

We don’t have confirmation on exactly which patent (reportedly "wifi related") is in question here, but we do know that Motorola attempted to reach licensing agreements with Apple (since 2010), which Apple apparently refused. Motorola stated that:

“We would like to settle these patent matters, but Apple’s unwillingness to work out a license leaves us little choice but to defend ourselves and our engineers’ innovations”.

(UPDATE: (FOSS Patents is reporting that one of the non standard essential patents in question is for a "sensor controlled user interface for portable communication device", but does not directly specify a wifi related patent. There is still one more non standard essential patent in question, but the specifics of this patent aren't clear at this time. I will contact FOSS Patents and ZDNET (source) for new developments).

This is a big one for Google and for Apple. This isn’t just an OEM that Apple is dealing with now. This is one of the most powerful (if not THE most powerful) movers and shakers in the world. If this comes to trial, Apple could really have its hands full, and might even be forced to rely on Microsoft for backup. **shudders**

The patent wars involving Android and Apple have now reached new heights, and with Google in the center, I have a feeling that things could get very very ugly for the companies that have sought to ban Android products. That being said, you never know how this case could go with the state of the current patent system. 

Additional souces: Bloomberg and Mobilenapps

P.S - I still can't believe this article has gone SO viral. We didn't even break this story, and as you can see, I wrote it over a week ago ! Thank you so much for helping spread it around, and I will do my best to update it with more information as I receive it. If you happen to get your hands on information that's not so public yet, let me know so I can update the article!

Picture credits: Vimeo.com (edited by myself)

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Apple pays $60M for iPad trademark in China

IDG News Service - Apple has agreed to pay $60 million for ownership of the iPad trademark in China, as part of a settlement with a little-known Chinese firm called Proview that had tried to ban sales of the tablet in the country, according to a local court.

The Guangdong Province Higher People's Court announced the settlement on Monday, and stated that the legal dispute had been put to rest. Following the payment to Proview, Chinese authorities transferred the "IPAD" trademark to Apple.

The two companies have been locked in a legal dispute to determine ownership of the iPad trademark, with Apple claiming to have bought the iPad trademarks for China from Proview in 2009.

Proview, a PC and display vendor now facing possible bankruptcy, however, argued that the company had never officially sold the iPad trademarks to Apple. The Chinese company filed complaints and lawsuits, demanding that local authorities stop sales of the iPad in the country because of trademark infringement.

The Guangdong court was originally expected to rule on the case. But Apple and Proview were in recent months in talks to settle the dispute, at the initiative of the court.

Apple did not respond immediately to a request for comment. The company's latest version of the iPad has yet to be sold in the country, despite clearingregulatory checks. Analysts have said the legal dispute over the iPad trademark could be delaying the product's sale.

Proview had wanted as much as $400 million in settlement from Apple in order to help clear its debts. Eight banks have taken over Proview's assets and are owed $180 million.

Li Su, the head of the consultancy representing the eight banks, said Apple initially wanted to pay only a few million dollars for the iPad trademark. But over time, Apple negotiated in good faith, realizing the dispute would linger in Chinese courts unless a settlement was reached, he added.

"Some may feel that Apple had help from Chinese leaders by spending a lot of effort on public relations," he said, noting how Apple's CEO Tim Cook visitedChina in March and met with government officials.

"But I think Apple was acting in good faith," Su added. "Apple only needed to pay a small amount to resolve what could have been a major inconvenience," he said.

Su said he did not know how the $60 million received from Apple would be spent.

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Apple iPhone 5 will put Samsung Galaxy S III to shame: Foxconn CEO

NEW DELHI: The smartphone war between Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy series is set to heat up further with a top official associated with the company that assembles the iPhone saying that Apple's next offering, iPhone 5, will put Samsung GalaxyS III to shame.

"Consumers should wait for the iPhone 5 because it will put the Samsung Galaxy S III to shame," a report published in Focus Taiwan quoted Foxconn CEO Terry Gou as saying in China Times.

Foxconn assembles iPhone and other Apple products.

According to the report, Gou did not divulge details of the iPhone5 but talked about the new partnership with display manufacturer Sharp during Foxconn's annual shareholder's meeting.

Gou also claimed that Sharp's cutting-edge display manufacturing facilities in Sakai City, Osaka, Japan will give Foxconn a three-year lead on Samsung.

"With (Foxconn's) marketing and manufacturing strengths and Sharp's key technologies, the two will be able to defeat their arch-rival Samsung," the report in Focus Taiwan added.

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Ex-Googlers Launch Avocado, An App For Couples Backed By Baseline, General Catalyst, And Lightspeed

There’s a growing market for mobile apps designed to help couples stay closer. The phenomenon first came to my attention with thelaunch of Pair at Y Combinator’s most recent demo day. But since then, I’ve seen a whole bunch of new apps popping up, all seeking to offer up a tight little social network for two. The latest such app to launch is Avocado, which was created by a couple of former Googlers looking for a way to get closer and better organize their life together.

Avocado, available on the iPhone and Android mobile devices for $1.99, was created by ex-Google employees Chris Wetherell and Jenna Bilotta, who first met while working on Google Reader during their 20 percent time at the search giant. Key to the app is the user experience, which is designed to mimic the way that couples actually interact with each other.

It allows couples to create to-do lists and cross items off, upload pictures to share with one another, and send private messages to each other. It also lets users create and send “quick notes” to one another, over and over again, as well as “quick faces,” which swap out common emoticons for unique facial expressions of each partner.

The app is named as such because avocado trees, Wetherell tells me, only bear fruit when they grow near each other. Avocados also grow in pairs. Oh, also because “avocado” was the name of one of his computers while he worked at Google.

The Avocado team tries to differentiate itself with identity verification and advanced encryption, to ensure that users are who they say they are when they sign up. Couples have to provide a shared password to connect with one another, which is designed to keep impersonators from logging in and pretending to be someone that they’re not.

Not only are Wetherell and Bilotta founders, of course, but they’re also users — and the app has helped them get through the process of a major house renovation. Nowadays they conveniently use the app to create and manage bug reports.

The two tell me that work on the app began before the influx of social apps for couples really took hold, and the two have been a little surprised by how quickly competition has sprung up — particularly since all the major couples apps have emerged over just the last six months or so. But Wetherell said that the move to more intimate applications is only natural, as maturing platforms like Facebook and Twitter lack functionality to provide real private sharing.

To prepare for that competition in the nascent couples app space, the two closed a $1.3 million round of seed funding earlier this year, which included participation from Baseline Ventures, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Ventures, FeedBurner founder Steve Olechowski, and TV director Greg Yaitanes. The team has already hired a couple of developers, but they’re looking to hire a few more.

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Apple sells 3 million new iPads in 3 days

(USA TODAY) - It was "the strongest iPad launch yet," says Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing.

The first iPad in 2010 sold 300,000 on its first day, and it took 28 days to get to 1 million. Apple didn't announce initial iPad 2 sales in 2011, but estimates ranged from 400,000 to about 1 million during its first weekend on sale.

By contrast, Apple sold 4 million iPhone 4S smartphones in the first weekend last October.

Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee, calls the 3 million haul for the new iPad "bigger than I expected, a big number."

Wireless carrier AT&T also said Monday that the company set a "single-day record" for iPad sales and activations on March 16, the day it went on sale.

The new iPad - which starts at $499 for a Wi-Fi-only model with 16 gigabytes of storage - has received a mixed reaction online, where consumers have questioned just how big an improvement the new sharper screen is and the speed of the faster 4G cellular network. There are scattered reports that the new iPad is prone to overheating after about 30 minutes of use. Apple declined to comment.

But those concerns didn't stop consumers from snapping them up.

Wu says the new features are "huge upgrades, enough to drive incremental buyers."

Shipments for online sales are backed up two to three weeks, and in-store stock is hit and miss.
A clerk at an Apple Store in Seattle said iPads that connect to the AT&T network were sold out, while a store in downtown New York City also had run out of AT&T iPads in black.

Details about iPad sales for Verizon Wireless were not immediately available.

In its release, Apple said it would expand iPad sales Friday to 24 new countries, including Italy, Greece and New Zealand. The iPad went on sale last Friday in 11 countries, including the United States, Canada and Australia.

As happens with most new Apple releases, lines formed outside Apple Stores the night before it went on sale as consumers looked to be the first on their block with the new device.

In Los Angeles, Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, who regularly joins the line for new products, was part of the consumer rush - spending the night outside an Apple Store.

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iPhone 5 -

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Steve Jobs or Dennis Richie ?

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For carriers, the iPhone is a bittersweet drug

Could the wireless carriers actually be addicted to the iPhone?

By now, it's well understood that the iPhone is a double-edged sword for the wireless carriers. On one side, Apple's smartphone is a pricey device to carry, requiring an unusually high subsidy that carriers must pay to keep it affordable enough for the masses. On the other, it leads to more loyal customers who pay more each month.

Furthermore, the telecom companies get to wrap themselves in the hip vibe that Apple brings to its products and partners, and can you put a price on being cool?

Apparently, you can, and it's a steep one. The dilemma for the carriers is that with each successful quarter of iPhone sales, there is a corresponding hit to their profit as a result of the extra subsidies paid out, as illustrated by Verizon and AT&T's fourth-quarter results. (Sprint Nextel hasn't reported yet, but will likely see a similar impact.)

While the carriers have argued that the short-term hit will lead to longer-term gains, the desire for constant upgrades--and the subsidies that go with it--blunt any benefit they get in the long term. Customers who own iPhones aren't just content with their current model; they will re-up as soon as possible. There lies the problem: a never-ending loop of subsidy payments that the carriers can't get out of, largely because the iPhone has become so key to their growth.

"At this point, the iPhone is like a drug, and the carriers are hooked," said Craig Moffett, an analyst at research firm Sanford C. Bernstein. "The question isn't whether it's worth it. It's whether they can get by without it. "

The 'new normal' 
Moffett said he is concerned that while more people will use smartphones, there will really never be a any real rebound in profit from iPhone customers because of the constant upgrade cycle.

"Is the iPhone margin effect transitory, or is it a 'new normal'?" Moffett said. "The fallacy is the idea that the iPhone upgrade cycle is a one-time event."

The demand for the iPhone is staggering. Verizon, for instance, said on Tuesday it activated 4.3 million iPhones, or more than half of the smartphones sold in the period. Most of those activations came from existing customers; Verizon added 1.2 million net new contract customers.

All of that came at a cost. After taking out one-time items such as pension-related costs, the company earned 52 cents a share, two cents shy of Wall Street expectations. Excluding income tax, depreciation and amortization, earnings fell 1.1 percent from its year-earlier period. A year ago, when Verizon didn't have the iPhone, it saw 5.5 percent growth.

Verizon, however, was upbeat about the customer growth driven by the iPhone, acknowledging that margins would fluctuate in the next few quarters.

"The sales volumes in the fourth quarter exceeded our expectations, but obviously will create more opportunity for growth in 2012," Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said during a conference call on Tuesday.

AT&T, meanwhile, said today it activated 7.6 million iPhones--a vast majority of customers choosing the iPhone 4S--but only added 717,000 net new contract subscribers. AT&T's results over the past few years illustrate Moffett's concerns. Since getting the iPhone and moving to a subsidy model, the company has seen lower margins, he said. Its fourth-quarter wireless margins dropped by a third from a year ago.

Like Verizon, AT&T remains bullish on its ability to derive more longer term value out of its iPhone customers.

"All in, I continue to be a big-time bull on the smartphone category and the iPhone in general," AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said during a conference call today. "I'm not shying away from this market."

While acknowledging some of the margin pressure, Stephenson said he sees the smartphone as a platform to sell more services, including tablets and other connected devices.

Others aren't so optimistic. Morgan Stanley analyst Simon Flannery said he expects average revenue per user growth to slow for the wireless carriers. Beyond data, the companies face pressure from shrinking revenue on the voice and text message side of the business.

Sprint, meanwhile, has more at stake than anyone else. The company has basically bet its financial future on the success of the iPhone, reportedly committing to pay Apple $20 billion for 30 million iPhones for the next four years.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse and his leadership team have been nothing but ecstatic over getting the iPhone, with one executive likening it to getting a seat at the cool kids' table.

But with three national carriers (and one regional one) carrying the iPhone, how exclusive is this club?

"Sprint decided to mortgage its entire future just to make sure it has the me-too status of saying they had the iPhone for sale," Moffett said.

Factoring in capex 
Further complicating the actual cost of the iPhone is the amount of capital expenditures needed to ensure the network is up to par when it comes to handling iPhone and other smartphone traffic. Carriers tend not to break out their network expenses in regards to specific devices, but there's no question the companies have spent a significant amount bolstering their infrastructure.

AT&T said it is still working on boosting coverage and improving the quality of service in major markets such as New York and San Francisco. The company said it made 150,000 improvements to its network last year.

Before it got the iPhone, Sprint executives coyly said they were prepping to handle any major influx of traffic from such a marquee device.

While Android devices have been shown to be major bandwidth hogs in recent years, the introduction of the iPhone 4S and the voice-command feature Siri has proven to be a data hog of its own. Because Siri constantly pings Apple's servers for information, the iPhone 4S has been shown to use twice as much data as the iPhone 4.

Remember, the iPhone runs on the carriers' 3G service, necessitating further investment there even as the carriers turn their attention and most of their resources to the faster, more efficient 4G networks.

Consumers are already seeing some of the steps the carriers have taken to offset the impact of the iPhone. AT&T was the first to move to a tiered pricing, and recently raised the price of its smartphone data plans, although it also lifted its limits too. Sprint, meanwhile, eliminated a slew of customer-friendly perks such as early upgrades, while enacting higher early termination fees and a shorter window for product returns.

Tangible and intangible benefits 
Of course, the iPhone brings its share of advantages to a carrier.

Sprint's flagship Manhattan store prepping for the launch of the iPhone 4S back in October.

(Credit: CNET/Marguerite Reardon)

Some are obvious. The device's ability to win over new customers and retain existing ones has been proven over and over. That has remained the case even after AT&T lost its exclusive hold over the iPhone. AT&T's answer has been to offer up the older models for a heavily discounted price, expanding the potential base of iPhone customers.

Without the iPhone, neither Verizon or AT&T would have been able to show the impressive customer growth that they did.

Perhaps the biggest benefit is in reduced customer turnover, known in industry parlance as churn. Sprint's Hesse has long complained that the availability of the iPhone at its two bigger rivals was a primary contributor to why he couldn't keep his subscribers. His belief is that by getting customers to stay on longer, he'll be able to eventually turn a profit on them.

It's a risky tightrope Hesse is walking on. In addition to the hefty iPhone subsidies Sprint has committed to paying, the company is building out its 4G LTE network, two moves that are expected to depress margins for the company over the next two years.

Because the iPhone was only available on one carrier for so long, there was an air of exclusivity about it that aided both Apple and AT&T. Verizon and Sprint, however, won't be reaping those benefits, since the iPhone no longer has the cachet of a hard-to-get device.

Still, some analysts maintain the iPhone will pay dividends in the long run. Robert W. Baird analyst William Power said Verizon could be poised for further earnings growth this year. Verizon on Tuesday backed its per-share earnings forecast for 2012.

And with all of its potential drawbacks, T-Mobile USA, the only national carrier not to get the iPhone, desperately wants to have it. At a press conference during the Consumer Electronics Show, T-Mobile CEO Philipp Humm acknowledged the lack of the iPhone had hurt the company's ability to keep subscribers. But the carrier is hoping to get the phone soon; Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray told CNET that the next version could technically support T-Mobile's unique spectrum.

The only undisputed winner here is Apple. On Tuesday, the company reported a massive gain in profit, with quarterly earnings more than doubling to $13.06 billion, thanks to strong sales led by the iPhone 4S. Unlike the carriers, its margin only increased, rising to 44.7 percent from 38.5 percent a year ago.

The carriers, meanwhile, are falling over themselves paying for the privilege of selling the iPhone. While everyone is lauding Apple for its blowout quarter, no one's getting excited for the carriers' financial performance.

Updated at 8:32 a.m. PT: to include an additional comment from AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson.

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A new gorgeous iPhone concept we wish was from Apple

Apple makes beautiful things, but sometimes Apple fans can make them even more beautiful. This new iPhone SJ concept from ADR Studios in Italy (the same folks whocreated that iCam mock-up) is a perfect example.

Designer Antonio De Rosa has really outdone himself this time, with an edge-to-edge capacitive screen on a super-thin all-glass body, surrounded by a lightweight polycarbonate band where the antenna would be on the current iPhone 4S. Since we’re operating in the world of make-believe anyway, De Rosa thew in a 10 megapixel rear shooter and an A6 processor, which, though not yet real, should eventually pack quite the processing punch. The SJ, in case you were wondering, does indeed stand for “Steve Jobs.”

I think this tops any concept designs I’ve seen thus far, even if it is a tad far-fetched (what kind of battery life could a device that thin possibly have?). What do you think of this fictional beauty?

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Apple’s Museum That Never Was: Why Does Stanford Keep it Secret? [VIDEO]

Where does the world’s largest collection of Apple-related history live? In a fascinating archive owned and operated by Stanford University.

But good luck actually finding the trove of hardware, software, recorded interviews, revealing documents, candid photos and internal videos. Everything is stored in a secret Bay Area location away from the Stanford campus.

Unceremoniously housed in boxes that occupy some 600 feet of shelving in a climate-controlled warehouse, the archive contains gems such as handwritten early sales records of the Apple II, a $5,000 loan agreement that helped the fledgling company get off the ground, and a 1976 letter in which a printer warns a friend about a young “joker” named Steve Jobs.

Mashable has reached out to Stanford for more information on why this bonanza of Apple-geek gold hasn’t been made more available for viewing by the general public, but so far has not heard back from university representatives.

The storage warehouse’s undisclosed location is understandable, as it’s easy to imagine obsessed fans trying to break in for peeks — or pieces — of their own. But the lack of more public viewing seems unusual. As a private university with an endowment of more than $16 billion, dearth of funding isn’t a plausible reason.

The Associated Press was recently granted a rare visit to the secret space — but only after agreeing not to divulge its location. Given the swell of public interest in Apple’s story since Jobs’ death in October, could a public museum now be in the works?

The bulk of the collection was originally intended for an Apple corporate museum that never got built. Appledonated the materials to Stanford in 1997, soon after Jobs rejoined the company. The university has since acquired more than 20 additional collections from former Apple employees, executives and business partners to complement the company’s original donation.

The Stanford archive also includes documentation of Apple’s 1985 removal of Jobs as CEO, as well as his subsequent return to the position, which would spark the company’s transformation from a struggling corporation into an international business behemoth.

But the Stanford collection doesn’t just tell the story of one company. The rise of Apple with Jobs at the helm parallels the modern maturation of the technology industry all the way through its ubiquity today.

“Apple Computer is an iconic company in Silicon Valley,” Stanford curator Henry Lowood recently told a university publication. “And by iconic I mean that it’s more than just historically important. It symbolizes a lot of things that we’ve come to associate with Silicon Valley.”

Located in Palo Alto, in the heart of Silicon Valley, Stanford has had a long relationship with Apple and its famous co-founder. In a 1985 interview with Playboy magazine, Jobs praised the availability of “fresh made” LSD on the campus during his youth, and in 2005 he gave a now-famous inspirational commencement speech to Stanford’s graduating class.

What is Apple’s historical legacy to you? Would you like to see the Stanford archive made available for public viewing? Let us know in the comments.

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Apple’s First iPhone Was Made in 1983 [PICS]

The first iPhone was actually dreamed up in 1983. Forget that silly old touchscreen, this iPhone was a landline with full, all-white handset and a built-in screen controlled with a stylus.

The phone was designed for Apple by Hartmut Esslinger, an influential designer who helped make the Apple IIc computer (Apple’s first “portable” computer) and later founded Frogdesign. The 1983 iPhone certainly fits in with Esslinger’s other designs for Apple. It also foreshadows the touchscreens of both the iPhone and iPad.

Images of the 1983 iPhone have been circling the web for a while but there has been renewed interest in Apple’s early designs and history thanks to a peak inside Stanford University’s massive trove of Apple documents. The archives are a close-guarded secret but Stanford is starting to grant access to select journalists and organizations. The archives were donated in 1997 after Steve Jobs rejoined the company and document much of the design and personnel changes that took place in the 1980s.

SEE ALSO: Apple’s Museum That Never Was: Why Does Stanford Keep it Secret? [VIDEO]

The 1983 iPhone is just one of many prototypes buried in Apple’s past. There’s even a device that looks eerily similar to an iPad. Despite the phone’s age, it actually looks like a cool concept that could easily be updated into a modern consumer product by replacing simple stylus screen with an iPad-like interface.

Mashable has reached out to Stanford to get a private look into the material. Stay tuned for more, but in the mean time, take a look at some pics of the iPhone that never was.

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