News tagged ‘U.S.’

The Argentinean government has temporarily blocked sales of certain electronics including Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry. Such measures were attempted in order to stabilize the country's ailing economy, to slow rising inflation and correct the disparity between the pesos and U.S. dollar, while suggesting that companies must build plants in the country to resume sales.

In order to continue smartphone sales in Argentina, Apple must build a plant or partner with a local company to manufacture the iPhone. RIM is reportedly looking to partner with an existing plant so that it can continue sales in the region. Other handset makers like Motorola, Nokia and Samsung have already moved or built plants in Argentina's Tierra del Fuego free zone after the government passed the Internal Revenue Law of 2009, which added a 20.48 percent tax to the existing 21 percent VAT for certain imported electronic devices.

According to Argentinean site Fortunaweb, iPhone and BlackBerry sales comprised 60 percent of the total market in October. And to strengthen the Argentinean economy, the government made decision to support local manufactures, banning some electronics manufactures from sales in this country. The Economist reported in December article that "a slowing year-to-year GDP blamed on decreased demand for agricultural commodities and huge government subsidies have caused the country to enact tighter controls on capital flight".

According to a new study released by market research firm Distimo, despite the proliferation of handsets running Google's Android OS, which now accounts for 53 percent of the mobile smartphone market, Apple's U.S. App Store remains the top marketplace for mobile downloads. But Chinese App Store sales continue to grow and may even bypass Apple's U.S. App Store numbers in 2012.

Over the course of 2011, Apple's iPhone app sales saw a steady decline month-to month, though Distimo blames the lull on the later than usual release of the iPhone 4S. The lowest point of the year occurred in September when anticipation for the 4S was highest, and was followed by a spike upon the handset's debut. Peak revenue for the U.S. App Store came a little over a month after the newest version of Apple's smartphone was released. The same "anticipation effect" was seen in app sales for the iPad, as downloads declined in January and February only to pick up steam after the iPad 2 was released in March.

China now demonstrates a strong increase in downloads through 2011 and may surpass the U.S. App Store in 2012.

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Early today, we have reported that the U.S. judge declined to issue a preliminary injunction barring Samsung from selling several of its Galaxy smartphone and tablet devices in the United States. We have also mentioned the court order that had been redacted and which revealed that Apple had licensed one specific iOS interface patent to both Nokia and IBM. Now Reuters reports how this court order came to light.

In her 65-page ruling denying Apple's request for a preliminary injunction against Samsung, Koh attempted to redact nearly two dozen sentences or short fragments. But because of a formatting characteristic in the prior electronic version, the redacted material can be viewed by copying text from the PDF and pasting it into another document.

In the court order Koh cites as part of her rationale Apple's admission that Samsung is more likely to take market share from other Android manufacturers than it is from Apple.

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Late last week, a U.S. judge Lucy Koh declined to award a preliminary injunction over Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets in the United States. The Judge admitted that Samsung infringed some of Apple's patents, but she declined to issue a ban, because of a lack of evidences.

In her ruling, Koh wrote that for some of the smartphones, "Apple has established a likelihood of success on the merits at trial."

Koh added that Apple would likely prove Samsung infringed one of its tablet patents. However, Apple had not shown that it was likely to overcome Samsung's challenges to the patent's validity, Koh wrote.

Apple must demonstrate both infringement and validity to succeed in its lawsuit.

Interestingly, Apple has licensed to third parties one key iOS patent covering the "scrollback" feature displaying the linen texture when elastically scrolling beyond the end of a document or webpage. Licenses for the patent were obtained by Nokia and IBM, and Apple offered a license to Samsung.

Apple asserted this patent against Samsung as part of its failed attempt to get an injunction against Galaxy devices, and the court order denying the injunction includes general discussion of how past licensing behavior affects the decision of whether or not to grant an injunction. The discussion is nestled among two redacted statements shown to The Verge that confirm the '381 patent was licensed to IBM and Nokia, and that Apple offered a license to Samsung in November of 2010 as part of settlement negotiations.

The fact that Apple has been willing to gain profit from a license offered to other companies undermines its argument that it is being irreparably harmed by Samsung's alleged infringement.

Nikkei Business reports that Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo has reached a basic agreement with Apple on releasing an LTE-capable (able to connect to long-term evolution 4G high-speed data networks) iPad in the summer of 2012 with an LTE iPhone to follow in the fall.

Earlier this month it was reported that executives with the wireless carrier were said to have visited the U.S. in mid-November to talk with Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, but DoCoMo was hesitant to agree to Apple's demands on unit volume and its refusal to allow the carrier to add its own applications to the device.

Nevertheless, NTT DoCoMo has denied the report in a press release, stating there is "no basic agreement" in place with Apple.

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According to findings released on Tuesday by Nielsen, Apple remained the largest smartphone manufacture in the Unites States in the third quarter. While smartphones sales continue to grow in the U.S., accounting for 56 percent of all cellphone sales in the prior quarter, Apple’s market share has reached 30%. Apple's third quarter performance was followed by HTC with a 20.3% share.

As for mobile platforms, Android and iOS dominate with a 71.1% share, holding 42.8% and 28.3% respectively. About a half of all mobile users in the United States owns a smartphone. During the prior quarter 56% of all handsets purchases were smartphones. The third place still belongs to RIM's BlackBerry platform with 17.8% that was followed by Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform, HP's Palm/webOS, Symbian and the fledgling Windows Phone.

App downloads in the third quarter saw that Google and Apple have the largest share. 83% of all downloads were made through Android and iOS devices. But Google has recently expressed dissatisfaction by the situation with app downloads, and hinted at upcoming changes that would bring its online store more in line with Apple's.

Chair Entertainment launched a sequel of its Infinity Blade in Apple Stores. The original version became the first iOS game running on the Unreal Engine and also the best-selling iOS game with 1,6 millions downloads just in four days after its release.

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The well-known market research firm comScore today released data on U.S. sales for Black Friday. The report shows that customers spent $816 million, up 26% over last year's numbers. Apple’s online store became the fifth most-visited online retailer in the country on Black Friday behind Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, and Target.

Fifty million Americans visited online retail sites on Black Friday, representing an increase of 35 percent versus year ago. Each of the top five retail sites achieved double-digit gains in visitors vs. last year, led by Amazon. Walmart ranked second, followed by Best Buy, Target and Apple.

“Each of the top online retailers generated significantly greater Black Friday activity compared to last year,” added [comScore chairman Gian] Fulgoni. “Amazon.com once again led the pack, with 50 percent more visitors than any other retailer, while also showing the highest growth rate versus last year. However, it is telling that the top multi-channel retailers also showed strong growth in visitors, demonstrating the importance of the online channel to the retail industry as a whole.”

The Wall Street Journal’s sources confirm that Sharp will indeed produce display parts for the upcoming Apple’s iPad 3.

Apple Inc. is adding Sharp Corp. as a maker of screens used in the next-generation iPad, people familiar with the situation said Thursday, as the U.S. consumer electronics company moves to diversify component suppliers for its products.

Apple is also investing in Sharp's panel manufacturing factories in Japan. According to sources, Apple wants to ensure that Sharp will able to produce enough panels to satisfy Apple’s needs. Sharp already supplies panels for the iPhone and can be supplier of panels for the next-generation iPhone that is expected to be launched next year.

We should admit that Sharp was expected to be Apple’s new source of iPad screens. Moreover, the recent analyst report notes that production of iPad 3 screens already started and that Apple and Sharp have developed a new technology to allow a thinner high resolution display for the next iPad.

Last week the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office opened an exhibition devoted to Steve Jobs. The exhibition honoring Apple’s co-founder includes 30 giant iPhone-like display panels that demonstrate the front pages from over 300 patents that bear Jobs' name as inventor or co-inventor.

“This exhibit commemorates the far-reaching impact of Steve Jobs’ entrepreneurship and innovation on our daily lives,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO David Kappos. “His patents and trademarks provide a striking example of the importance intellectual property plays in the global marketplace.”

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Earlier this week, Disney Chairman and Chief Executive Bob Iger received more than $84,000 in stock for joining Apple's board of directors. According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Iger received 75 shares of common stock and 142 restricted shares that will vest in February of 2012. It amounts $84,376 in cash.

This week Apple announced that Iger became member of Apple’s board of directors. He will serve on the company's audit committee. His compensation for joining Apple's board is comparable to what others who joined received in the past. For example, Andrea Jung, who joint Apple’s board in 2008, received 77 shares of common stocks.

Iger’s relationships with Apple have quite long history. In 2006 he was responsible for acquisition of Pixar. Moreover, he is a Disney CEO. He was one of the first people who expressed condolences to Jobs’ family after he passed away. "With his passing the world has lost a rare original, Disney has lost a member of our family, and I have lost a great friend," Iger said.

The first smartphone with Ice Cream Sandwich, Galaxy Nexus, was released in the UK this week (launch in U.S. coming soon) and website AnandTech has benchmarked the new Galaxy Nexus vs. iPhone 4S.

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In October research company Nielsen conducted a new survey among 3,000 U.S. children at the age from 6 to 12 ahead of 2011 holiday season, and found out that the iPad is the most-wanted gift for kids, while the iPod touch ranks second and the iPhone comes in third. 44 percent of kids are interested in getting an iPad, 30 percent want an iPod touch, while 27 percent prefer to get an iPhone.

Apple's popularity among children is likely driven by gaming, as the most popular applications on iOS have consistently been games since the App Store first debuted. The iOS lineup beat out a number of popular gaming machines in the survey, including the Nintendo 3DS, Kinect for Xbox 360, and the Sony PlayStation 3.

The iPad dominates among teenagers: 24 percent of those polled said they are interested in buying an iPad in the next six months. Apple's iPhone is in the seventh place with 15 percent, while iPod touch is in twelfth with 8 percent.

Last week it was reported that Sony was actively working on changing the way users view and interact with content on its TV sets, with company’s CEO Howard Stringer acknowledging that they was seeking the way to compete with Apple’s ecosystem that is planned to include TV sets in the near future.

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Bloomberg reports that Samsung has won an early trial date of March 2012 for its case against Apple in Australia. Noteworthy, the judge accepted that proposal over Apple's opposition that requested a trial date of August 2012.

Australia Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett today ordered that a trial on Samsung’s claims be held in March. Cupertino, California-based Apple had opposed an early trial, with its lawyer Stephen Burley saying the company needed more time to prepare the case and favored a hearing in August.

Samsung, the world’s biggest maker of smartphones last quarter, dropped its bid for a temporary injunction barring Apple from selling the iPhones and iPad 2 and instead is seeking an early hearing. The Australian trial will be a prelude for Samsung in its U.S. case before the International Trade Commission on similar claims, which Burley said will be heard in May and June.

With the trial set for March 2012 Samsung may also add to its case against Apple new devices such as iPad 3 that is rumored to be released early 2012. The case is currently targeting the iPhone 4, iPad 2, and iPhone 3GS in Australia.