News tagged ‘Samsung’

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that despite the injunction prohibiting the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab tablet in Australia, several Australian retailers have ignored Apple's threats and continue to profit from demand for the barred Samsung tablet.

At least one, dMavo, said it had created a separate entity in Europe to place it outside the jurisdiction of Australian courts, with the tablets delivered to customers from Asia.

"We have a new entity established and a separate server - just to deal with the tablet orders - that is undergoing testing as of last Saturday," dMavo managing director Wojtek Czarnocki said.

"Was Apple just bluffing or do they really want to play the cat and mouse game? We're up for it."

Melbourne law firm Watermark's senior associate and patent specialist Mark Summerfield suggests, however, it would be relatively simple to extend Apple's injunction to individual online resellers because it already applies to device maker Samsung. The only thing Apple will have to do is to apply to the Australian Federal Court for further injunctions. But it would be difficult for Apple, because the company is based overseas.

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There has been concerns over the design of iPhone 4S that shares the same stainless steel and glass enclosure with iPhone 4. Because of that, some questioned if iPhone 4 has the same flawed antenna as iPhone 4.

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According to legal documents filed by Apple, the European Commission is investigating Samsung's patent litigation to determine if its use of 3G-related patents violates competition laws. Apple has argued that those patents are essential to basic device operation and must therefore be licensed under FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) terms.

Samsung has launched an aggressive, worldwide campaign to enjoin Apple from allegedly practicing Samsung's patents. Samsung has sued Apple for infringement and injunctions in no fewer than eight countries outside the United States. Indeed, Samsung's litigation campaign and other conduct related to its Declared-Essential Patents is so egregious that the European Commission recently has opened an investigation to determine whether Samsung's behavior violates EU competition laws.

Moreover, the European Commission issued a statement related to the investigation, noting that it asked both Apple and Samsung to provide it with information on patents.

The Commission has indeed sent requests for information to Apple and Samsung concerning the enforcement of standards-essential patents in the mobile telephony sector. Such requests for information are standard procedure in antitrust investigations to allow the Commission to establish the relevant facts in a case.

The legal conflict over copycat of mobile devices between Samsung and Apple continue to escalate in different countries and now Samsung requests testimonies from Apple’s designers working on iPhone, including senior vice president Jonathan Ive. Also Samsung wants to receive source code of iPhone 4S and details of agreements between Apple and Australian carriers.

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The Next Web reported that South Korea had removed a ban blocking App Store games a week before the iPhone 4S launch. Korea opened up the local App Store earlier today. The Store had been closed for about two years. Of course, such ban cannot but affect Korean game developers. The selection of available games in the Korean App Store is limited for now, but it is expected to improve quickly.

The iPhone 4S is believed to face with tough competition in the region from the local giant Samsung, especially from the latest Galaxy Nexus. But Apple will obviously achieve success, predicting huge demand for their newest smartphone. Moreover, worldwide sales of the iPhone 4S are breaking all records. In the first three days of availability Apple sold four million units.

Nevertheless, Samsung intends to target Apple with new patent suits after iPhone 4S launch in Korea, even despite the fact that all their previous attempts were unsuccessful.

SmartOffice reports that Samsung is requesting Apple to provide them with the source code for the iPhone 4S firmware. Samsung doesn’t abandon their attempt to ban the device in Australia, trying to find any loophole to achieve success. Moreover, Samsung wants to know details of subsidy agreements with all Australian carriers.

“It goes to show that since the iPhone 3G was made available in Australia in July 2008, the impact on the market for every iPhone product has been significant, and has lead to a substantial increase … in market share by revenue. If subsidies are given for the iPhone 4S, there are less to go around for my client’s products,” - Samsung counsel Cynthia Cochrane told the federal court.

As for the source code Apple denies any infringement. The Company claims that Samsung agreed to license the three wireless 3G-related patents in question under FRAND agreements. Samsung thinks that agreement doesn’t cover Apple in Australia and claims Apple denied previous attempts to extend the license internationally. But it seems that all Samsung’s attempts will be unsuccessful, because the case will be handled by Justice Annabelle Bennett, who handed out the injunction against Samsung’s Tab 10.1.

In the third quarter of 2011 Samsung gained the lead and China’s ZTE became the fourth-largest cell phone manufacturer moving Apple to fifth place. Cupertino-based company for the first time fell short of expectations and shipped 17.07 million iPhones in the third quarter, a 16 percent quarterly decrease in sales. As you remember, in June quarter Apple sold 20.34 million iPhones, which allowed the company to beat Samsung and Nokia and become the leading smartphone manufacturer in the world.

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CNET reports that LG Display and Samsung are still struggling for the opportunity to become supplier of displays for the iPad 3 that is rumored to be launched next year. Sources have claimed that Apple is planning a 2048 x 1536 display for the device, double that of the current iPad in each dimension.

But whether manufacturers can make them in volumes that Apple demands is the question. "They have production plans for 2,048x1,536 displays. Starting in November. But those are only plans at this point," said the source, referring to LG and Samsung.

"It's not a question of making just one. That, of course, can be done. The challenge is making lots of them," the source said. "This is a quantum leap in pixel density. This hasn't been done before."

Apple was said to plan the launch of the iPad 3 later this year, but it had to push the release back to 2012. The main problem for the company was display production.

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Bloomberg reports, citing research firm Strategy Analytics, that Android-based tablets increased their share in the tablet market during the third quarter.

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According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple has been dethroned by Samsung one quarter after the company became the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. As a person familiar with the situation said, Samsung shipped over 20 million smartphones in third quarter, beating Apple as well as the largest cellphone manufacturer Nokia.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung Chief Operating Officer Lee Jae-yong are said to have discussed their long-term component supply relationships during a two-hour meeting that took place earlier this week.

Lee Jae-yong, chief operating officer (COO) of Samsung Electronics said Wednesday he had discussed long-term parts cooperation arrangements with Apple Inc.'s chief Tim Cook.

The meeting took place Monday after Lee attended a memorial service for Steve Jobs, Apple's late co-founder, and as Samsung and Apple remain locked in fierce legal disputes to control the global smartphone and tablet computer markets.

Lee noted that the companies made agreement for 2012 and would like to prolong their cooperation for 2013-2014. Apple has been keen to make long-term supply agreements with component suppliers, sometimes prepaying billions of dollars in advance to secure massive supplies looking over several years and overcoming or better to say excelling its competitors.

Last month, we heard rumors that Apple had signed an agreement with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) for production of the next-generation A6 and A7 chips destined for future iOS devices. Samsung manufacture the A4 and A5 chips for Apple, but Apple seems to try to shift to TSMC because of difficult relations and legal battle between Apple and Samsung.

The Korea Times now reports that Apple will indeed primarily be sticking with Samsung for A6 production.

"Apple has been in talks with Samsung over shipment of its A6 quad-core mobile processor (AP) chips to be used in the next iPhone. It appears that Apple clearly has concluded that Samsung remains a critical business partner," an executive from an Apple parts supplier based in Korea said on condition of anonymity.

He said that Samsung has been increasing the output of the Apple-designed A6 chips in its manufacturing plant in Austin, Texas.

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Samsung made a next step in its battle with Apple and filed for a preliminary injunction against the iPhone 4S in Australia and Japan. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Japan filing that is also attempting to halt sales of the iPhone 4 and iPad 2, accuses Apple of infringements in technology and user interface patents. The patents apparently relate to “the display of a flight mode icon, the utilization of homescreen space, and an app store menu structure”. Samsung claims that in Australia Apple has infringed on patents related to wireless telecommunication standards.

A Samsung spokesperson said that the company is “now counterattacking Apple again”. Though, many believe that Samsung’s attack will certainly fail. Moreover, an Australian judge will unlikely consider patents Samsung using in the filing as enough for a preliminary injunction, because they are essential for the 3G telecommunications network. As for Japan filings, the situation here is not so obvious like in Australia. This means Samsung could seek injunctions on them and it would be up to Apple to contest their validity.

Well this is really funny. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh held up both the iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab and asked Samsung lawyers to identify which was which during a hearing to determine whether Apple will win a preliminary injunction against the Samsung device, reports Reuters.

After being asked to identify which tablet was which, Samsung attorney Kathleen Sullivan answered, "Not at this distance your honor." She stood at a podium roughly 10 feet away.

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The Federal Court in Australia has issued a preliminary ban on sales of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the country. The Justice believed that Apple had presented sufficient evidence conforming violation two of its touchscreen- and multitouch-related patents by Samsung. Previously the Korean company had agreed to delay launch of their new tablet in Australia, waiting for the Court’s decision. Samsung even offered Apple a compromise deal that would allow the Galaxy Tab 10.1 to launch with minor concessions. But Apple was not accepted that offer.

In September Apple won the proceedings in Germany, where the Galaxy Tab 10.1’ sales were also preliminary banned. The legal battle between the companies has grown increasingly fierce since it began in April of this year, when Apple accused Samsung of copying the look and feel of the iPhone and iPad. Apple reported that they had tried to solve the problem not suing to the Court, but negotiations were not successful.