Story first appeared on ABC News -
The two biggest — and bitterest — rivals in the smartphone market will have to endure another bruising trial after a federal judge ruled that jurors miscalculated nearly half the $1 billion in damages it found Samsung Electronics owed Apple Inc. for patent infringement.
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh wiped out $450 million from the verdict and ordered a new trial to reconsider damages related to 14 Samsung products including some products in its hot-selling Galaxy lineup jurors in August found were using Apple's technology without permission. Koh said jurors in the three-week trial had not properly followed her instruction in calculating some of the damages.
She also concluded that mistakes had been made in determining when Apple had first notified Samsung about the alleged violations of patents for its trend-setting iPhone and IPad.
"We are pleased that the court decided to strike $450,514,650 from the jury's award," Samsung spokeswoman Lauren Restuccia said.
Koh didn't toss out the jurors underlying finding that two dozen Samsung products infringed patents Apple used to develop its iPad and iPhone products. The new jury will be tasked with only determining what Samsung owes Apple.
Apple declined to comment on the Koh's ruling, which still did leave Samsung with a bill to just under $599 million. The judge said the tab will probably increase after the appeals of both companies are resolved.
Apple is seeking more damages and Samsung a complete dismissal of the case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Washington, D.C.-based court that handles all patent appeals. The new trial to recalculate the damages could also increase the award.
Still, the ruling was the second significant setback in Koh's courtroom since the headline grabbing verdict was announced.
In December, Koh refused to order a sales ban on the products the jury found infringed Apple's patents. She said Apple failed to prove the purloined technology is what drove consumers to buy a Samsung product instead of an Apple iPhone or iPad. Samsung says that it is continues to sell only three of the two dozen products found to have infringed Apple's patents.
After a three-week trial closely followed in Silicon Valley, the jury decided that Samsung ripped off the trailblazing technology and sleek designs used by Apple to create its revolutionary iPhone and iPad. Jurors ordered Samsung to pay Apple $1.05 billion.
Apple filed another lawsuit last year accusing Samsung's newer line of products of continuing to use technology controlled by Apple. Koh has scheduled trial in that case for early next year. She has implored both companies on several occasions to settle their difference with little success.
Apple filed its patent infringement lawsuit in April 2011 and engaged legions of the country's highest-paid patent lawyers to demand $2.5 billion from its top smartphone competitor. Samsung Electronics Co. fired back with its own lawsuit seeking $399 million.
The jury found that several Samsung products illegally used such Apple creations as the "bounce-back" feature when a user scrolls to an end image, and the ability to zoom text with a tap of a finger.
Samsung has mounted an aggressive post-trial attack on the verdict, raising a number of legal issues that allege the South Korean company was treated unfairly in a federal courtroom a dozen miles from Apple's Cupertino headquarters. Samsung alleges that some of Apple's patents shouldn't have been awarded in the first place and that the jury made mistakes in calculating the damage award.
Samsung has emerged as one of Apple's biggest rivals and has overtaken it as the leading smartphone maker. Samsung's Galaxy line of phones run on Android, a mobile operating system that Google Inc. has given out for free to Samsung and other phone makers.
Apple and Samsung have filed similar lawsuits in eight other countries, including South Korea, Germany, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, Britain, France and Australia.
Showing posts with label smartphone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label smartphone. Show all posts
Monday, March 4, 2013
Friday, June 15, 2012
Nokia Cuts Costs and Jobs
Story first appeared in The Associated Press.
Nokia Corp. will lay off 10,000 jobs globally and close plants by the end of 2013, the company said Thursday, in a further drive to save costs and streamline operations.
Nokia said it will shut down some research and development projects, including in Ulm, Germany, and Burnaby, Canada, and close its core manufacturing plant in Finland - in Salo - where it will only maintain research and development operations.
These planned reductions are a difficult consequence of the intended actions the company believes that it must take to ensure Nokia's long-term competitive strength. They are increasing the focus on the products and services that consumers value most while continuing to invest in the innovation that has always defined Nokia.
Nokia also gave an updated outlook, saying that competitive industry dynamics in the second quarter would hit its smartphone sector to a somewhat greater extent than previously expected and that no improvement was expected in the third quarter.
The company's share price plunged more than 7 percent to €2.05 ($2.63) in morning trading in Helsinki.
Although the Finnish cellphone maker said it plans to significantly reduce its operating expenses, it will continue to focus on smartphones as well as cheaper feature phones and intends to expand location-based services.
Nokia also announced that private equity group EQT VI had agreed to acquire Vertu, its global luxury phone brand, but that the Finnish company would keep a 10 percent minority shareholding. No financial terms were announced.
Nokia said that two members of its top leadership team will leave - the head of the struggling mobile phones unit and the head of the markets sector.
The loss-making company has been struggling against fierce competition from Apple Inc.'s iPhone and other makers using Google Inc.'s popular Android software, including Samsung Electronics Co. and HTC of Taiwan. It is also being squeezed in the low-end by Asian manufacturers making cheaper phones, such as China's ZTE.
In April, Nokia announced one of its worst quarterly results ever, blaming tough competition for a €929 million net loss in the first quarter as sales plunged, especially in the smartphone market. Boston-based Strategy Analytics said Nokia had significantly lost market share to Samsung, which pushed it out as the world's largest seller of cellphones by volume, grabbing a 25 percent global market share against Nokia's 22 percent.
Last year, Nokia was still the world's top cellphone maker with annual unit sales of some 419 million devices, but in the last quarter of the year it posted a net loss of €1.07 billion, a marked reverse from the 745 million profit a year earlier.
It has fared even worse in the smartphone sector against Samsung and Apple by dropping to third place in the first quarter of the year, dropping to 12 million units against Samsung's 44.5 million and Apple's 35 million.
Nokia is significantly increasing its cost reduction target for devices and services in support of the streamlined strategy announced today. With these planned actions, Nokia believes its devices and services business have a clear path to profitability. Nokia intends to maintain its strong financial position while proceeding aggressively with actions aimed at creating shareholder value.
Last year, Nokia announced more than 10,000 layoffs, aimed at cutting operating expenses by €1 billion ($1.31 billion) by 2013.
Nokia Corp. will lay off 10,000 jobs globally and close plants by the end of 2013, the company said Thursday, in a further drive to save costs and streamline operations.
Nokia said it will shut down some research and development projects, including in Ulm, Germany, and Burnaby, Canada, and close its core manufacturing plant in Finland - in Salo - where it will only maintain research and development operations.
These planned reductions are a difficult consequence of the intended actions the company believes that it must take to ensure Nokia's long-term competitive strength. They are increasing the focus on the products and services that consumers value most while continuing to invest in the innovation that has always defined Nokia.
Nokia also gave an updated outlook, saying that competitive industry dynamics in the second quarter would hit its smartphone sector to a somewhat greater extent than previously expected and that no improvement was expected in the third quarter.
The company's share price plunged more than 7 percent to €2.05 ($2.63) in morning trading in Helsinki.
Although the Finnish cellphone maker said it plans to significantly reduce its operating expenses, it will continue to focus on smartphones as well as cheaper feature phones and intends to expand location-based services.
Nokia also announced that private equity group EQT VI had agreed to acquire Vertu, its global luxury phone brand, but that the Finnish company would keep a 10 percent minority shareholding. No financial terms were announced.
Nokia said that two members of its top leadership team will leave - the head of the struggling mobile phones unit and the head of the markets sector.
The loss-making company has been struggling against fierce competition from Apple Inc.'s iPhone and other makers using Google Inc.'s popular Android software, including Samsung Electronics Co. and HTC of Taiwan. It is also being squeezed in the low-end by Asian manufacturers making cheaper phones, such as China's ZTE.
In April, Nokia announced one of its worst quarterly results ever, blaming tough competition for a €929 million net loss in the first quarter as sales plunged, especially in the smartphone market. Boston-based Strategy Analytics said Nokia had significantly lost market share to Samsung, which pushed it out as the world's largest seller of cellphones by volume, grabbing a 25 percent global market share against Nokia's 22 percent.
Last year, Nokia was still the world's top cellphone maker with annual unit sales of some 419 million devices, but in the last quarter of the year it posted a net loss of €1.07 billion, a marked reverse from the 745 million profit a year earlier.
It has fared even worse in the smartphone sector against Samsung and Apple by dropping to third place in the first quarter of the year, dropping to 12 million units against Samsung's 44.5 million and Apple's 35 million.
Nokia is significantly increasing its cost reduction target for devices and services in support of the streamlined strategy announced today. With these planned actions, Nokia believes its devices and services business have a clear path to profitability. Nokia intends to maintain its strong financial position while proceeding aggressively with actions aimed at creating shareholder value.
Last year, Nokia announced more than 10,000 layoffs, aimed at cutting operating expenses by €1 billion ($1.31 billion) by 2013.
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Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Don't Sell Your Old Smartphone
Story first appeared in The Detroit Free Press.
Thinking of selling your smartphone or laptop computer? If you have a BlackBerry or an iPhone, go right ahead.
If you were planning to sell an Android phone or a computer running Windows XP, however, you may want to think again, according to a McAfee identify theft expert.
The expert recently purchased 30 electronic devices from Craigslist -- mostly smartphones and laptops -- to see how effective normal people are at removing personal information from their gadgets before selling them.
After he got the devices home he, did some digging around in the phones and computers himself and then sent the machines to a forensics expert to see what personal data he might glean.
Fifteen devices revealed no information about the previous owner's identity, no matter how thoroughly the experts looked. But as for those other 15 devices -- they coughed up plenty of private data.
The expert was able to get bank account information, Social Security numbers, court documents, credit card account log-ins and a host of other personal data off those devices with not much effort.
And the worst part? Most of those devices had already been "wiped" by their previous owner -- meaning all personal files had been deleted and the user had restored the device's factory settings as per the manufacturer's instructions. The data is still there after following manufacturer protocol.
So, what's the difference between the devices that still reveal personal information after being wiped and those that don't?
It came down to the type of device that was sold and what kind of operating system it was running.
BlackBerrys were totally impenetrable. Resetting to factory settings on a Blackberry totally wiped any and all personal data from the machine. Similarly, he was unable to get data off devices running iOS such as the iPad and the iPhone. Devices running Windows 7 that are wiped by their owners also got his vote of confidence.
As for smartphones running the Android system and computers running Windows XP, it is recommended that people don't sell them at all.
You don't want to sell your identity for $50. Either put the device in storage indefinitely, or put holes in the hard drive to make certain that the information cannot be pulled.
For more technology and electronics related news, visit the Electronics America blog.
For national and worldwide related business news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For local and Michigan business related news, visit the Michigan Business News blog.
For healthcare and medical related news, visit the Healthcare and Medical blog.
For law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For real estate and home related news, visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For organic SEO and web optimization related news, visit the SEO Done Right blog.
Thinking of selling your smartphone or laptop computer? If you have a BlackBerry or an iPhone, go right ahead.
If you were planning to sell an Android phone or a computer running Windows XP, however, you may want to think again, according to a McAfee identify theft expert.
The expert recently purchased 30 electronic devices from Craigslist -- mostly smartphones and laptops -- to see how effective normal people are at removing personal information from their gadgets before selling them.
After he got the devices home he, did some digging around in the phones and computers himself and then sent the machines to a forensics expert to see what personal data he might glean.
Fifteen devices revealed no information about the previous owner's identity, no matter how thoroughly the experts looked. But as for those other 15 devices -- they coughed up plenty of private data.
The expert was able to get bank account information, Social Security numbers, court documents, credit card account log-ins and a host of other personal data off those devices with not much effort.
And the worst part? Most of those devices had already been "wiped" by their previous owner -- meaning all personal files had been deleted and the user had restored the device's factory settings as per the manufacturer's instructions. The data is still there after following manufacturer protocol.
So, what's the difference between the devices that still reveal personal information after being wiped and those that don't?
It came down to the type of device that was sold and what kind of operating system it was running.
BlackBerrys were totally impenetrable. Resetting to factory settings on a Blackberry totally wiped any and all personal data from the machine. Similarly, he was unable to get data off devices running iOS such as the iPad and the iPhone. Devices running Windows 7 that are wiped by their owners also got his vote of confidence.
As for smartphones running the Android system and computers running Windows XP, it is recommended that people don't sell them at all.
You don't want to sell your identity for $50. Either put the device in storage indefinitely, or put holes in the hard drive to make certain that the information cannot be pulled.
For more technology and electronics related news, visit the Electronics America blog.
For national and worldwide related business news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For local and Michigan business related news, visit the Michigan Business News blog.
For healthcare and medical related news, visit the Healthcare and Medical blog.
For law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For real estate and home related news, visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For organic SEO and web optimization related news, visit the SEO Done Right blog.
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