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Samsung to pay royalty to Microsoft on Android Use

With Android infringing several of Microsoft’s patents, Microsoft  has a huge leverage in the mobile space. HTC had agreed to pay Microsoft $5 on every device it sells with Android. The price was low after HTC agreed to release as many Microsoft Windows 7 based devices eauivalent to its Android devices.

Now Microsoft is after the bigger target i.e Samsung, in the last few months Samsung has clearly emerged as a leader in Android Devices and Microsoft is demanding Samsung to pay $15 per device sold. But after negotiations figure might be quite lower. Unlike Apple who is suing Samsung, Microsoft can benefit a lot by Samsung.

In the past Microsoft’s major weakness has been the hardware its mobile operating system runs,  it had very few options like Motorola and HTC , but Samsung will be a great addition to the list along with Nokia. Microsoft is expected to settle for a lower fee if Samsung accepts on releasing more Windows 7 devices and using some of its services as default in Android based device.

Linked to the negotiations are licensing for Windows 7 as well. Within a few days we will know the outcome.

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Nokia N9 (Meego) Review and comparison

Nokia N9 is Nokia’s new smartphone, with 3G network of High Speed Uplink Packet Access of 5.7 Mbps and High Speed Downlink Packet Access of 14.4 Mbps, its dimensions are 116.45 * 61.2 * 12.1 mm, with a screen size of 3.9 inches, 16:9 FWVGA (854 * 480) pixels AMOLED display, capacitive touch screen, gorilla glass display, 16.7 million colors, and weighs 135 g. Its OS is MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan with 1 GHz Cortex A8 Processor.

Though much has been talked about the Meego OS, the phone itself is designed to perfection. Probably a Elop let Nokia team take one last gasp for the open source world. But if Meego does become more successful, there is always a chance Meego might appear in some of Nokia’s future devices.

The phone has 8 MP camera with Carl Zeiss Optics, wide angle lens, dual LED flash, digital shutter, continuous auto focus, 4x digital zoom and video camera with 720 pixels resolution at 30 frames per second, stereo sound recording, and etc., The internal memory is of 16 or 64 GB, 1 GB RAM and no external card slot.The 8 MP camera is comparable to 2011 top notch smartphones and on the lines of Samsung Galaxy S2 and Apple’s soon to be released iPhone 5.

Its other features include NFC (Near Field Communication – for easy pairing and sharing), Wi-Fi WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth v2.1 with EDR, GPRS, EDGE, High Speed USB 2.0 with micro USB connector for data transfer and charging, 3.5 mm Audio Video connector, messaging through SMS, MMS, IM, Push, Email, HTML 5 support for web applications and fast video playback, RSS reader, TCP/IP support, Live multitasking view, Java Script support, Share photos online through Facebook, Flickr, and Picasa, Video and photo editor, Document editor’s, MP3 and MP4 player, Key Applications like Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Ovi store, Maps, Track and Protect, Nokia Link for easy synchronization of photos, videos, and music, Preloaded games like Angry Birds Magic with NFC support, Galaxy on Fire 2, Real Golf 2011, and etc., The phone has 1450 mAh Li-Ion standard battery with talk time power of 7 h and standby time of 450 h, 4.5 h of video playback time and 50 h of music playback time. It comes in three colors such as Cyan, Black and Magenta

Nokia N9 Specifications :

3G Network :  High Speed Uplink Packet Access of 5.7 Mbps and High Speed Downlink Packet Access of 14.4 Mbps

Dimensions :

When compared to other top phones here is the dimension comparison

Nokia N9 – 116.45 x 61.2 x 12.1 mm
Iphone 4 – 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm
Samsung Galaxy S2 – 125.3 X 66.1 X 8.49 mm
Blackberry Torch – 111 x 62 x 14.6 mm

Display Screen : screen size is of 3.9 inches, 16:9 FWVGA (854 * 480) pixels AMOLED display, capacitive touch screen, gorilla glass display which also adorns iPhone 4 and Galaxy S2, 16.7 million colors

Weight : 135 g
The phone is much lighter than iPhone 4 which is 161 g and comparable to Galaxy S2.

OS and Processor : MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan with 1 GHz Cortex A8 Processor. Nokia might  have missed a trick by not going dual core here, but 1 GHZ is more than enough any of current Generation phone.

Camera : 8 MP camera with Carl Zeiss Optics, wide angle lens, dual LED flash, digital shutter, continuous auto focus, 4x digital zoom and video camera with 720 pixels resolution at 30 frames per second, stereo sound recording, and etc.,

Memory : 16 or 64 GB, 1 GB RAM and no external card slot

Other Features : NFC (Near Field Communication – for easy pairing and sharing), Wi-Fi WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth v2.1 with EDR, GPRS, EDGE, High Speed USB 2.0 with micro USB connector for data transfer and charging, 3.5 mm Audio Video connector, messaging through SMS, MMS, IM, Push, Email, HTML 5 support for web applications and fast video playback, RSS reader, TCP/IP support, Live multitasking view, Java Script support, Share photos online through Facebook, Flickr, and Picasa, Video and photo editor, Document editor’s, MP3 and MP4 player, Key Applications like Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Ovi store, Maps, Track and Protect, Nokia Link for easy synchronization of photos, videos, and music, Preloaded games like Angry Birds Magic with NFC support, Galaxy on Fire 2, Real Golf 2011, and etc.,

Battery : 1450 mAh Li-Ion standard battery with talk time power of 7 h and standby time of 450 h, 4.5 h of video playback time and 50 h of music playback time

Colors : Cyan, Black and Magenta. May not be the best choice in terms of colors other than black. But this also makes the phone unique among competition.

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Apple sues Samsung for copying its Innovation

Apple in a bid to threaten competitors from mimicking the ‘i’ devices,  have files a litigation against Samsung for Patent Violation, Copying design , User Interface and Style of its iPhone and iPad. Unlike many other patent suits unlike against Nokia and HTC this time it is more Vague, but nevertheless once again proves that US patent system is growing trolls than innovation.

Apple has complained about shape of the devices, packaging and icons being copied from Apple. Some of the complaints include copying the the “rectangular shape, the rounded corners, the silver edges, the black face, and the display of sixteen colorful icons”, “rectangular handheld mobile digital electronic device with rounded corners” and “rectangular handheld mobile digital electronic device with a gray rectangular portion in the center, a black band above and below the gray rectangle and on the curved corners, and a silver outer border and side”.These are all covered in the US registration Apple has filed for its trade dress registration (Similar to patents but for look and feel).

Ridiculous wordings aside some of Samsung’s Galaxy line surely include a resemblance to iPhone/iPad. But then again Samsung had its F700 and LG had Prada before Apple’s iPhone hit the market. And industry in General has moved and Apple itself have taken many of the features from various existing devices. If having rounded icon was a problem, Apple should be the infringer, because there were many other devices which had icons.

Coming back to icon design Apple has Dress registration for all its icons –

U.S. Registration No. 3,886,196 covers an icon that is green in color with a white silhouette of a phone handset arranged at a 45 degree angle and centered on the icon that represents the application for making telephone calls

U.S. Registration No. 3,889,642 covers an icon that is green in color with a white silhouette of a speech bubble centered on the icon that represents the application for messaging

And the registrations for its music,Photos,Contacts which all have elements which are generally used in the industry. Going by the nature of trade dress registrations, Apple wouldn’t have been able to launch a phone if Nokia,Blackberry et all had filed registrations diligently.

Apple also claims that Samsung has infringed 10 of its most outrageous patents (Maybe half Apple’s patents are of this nature). The list of infringed patents include the following

7,812,828 (the “’828 patent”) Ellipse Fitting For Multi-Touch Surfaces

7,669,134 (the “’134 patent”) Method and Apparatus For Displaying Information During An Instant Messaging Session

6,493,002 (the “’002 patent”) Method and Apparatus for Displaying and Accessing Control and Status Information in a Computer System

7,469,381 (the “’381 patent”) List Scrolling and Document Translation, Scaling and Rotation on a Touch-Screen Display

7,844,915 (the “’915 patent”) Application Programming Interfaces for Scrolling Operations

7,853,891 (the “’891 patent”) Method and Apparatus for Displaying a Window for a User Interface

7,863,533 (the “’533 patent”) Cantilevered Push Button Having Multiple Contacts and Fulcrums

D627,790 (the “’D790 patent”) Graphical User Interface For a Display Screen or Portion Thereof

D602,016 (the “’D016 patent”) Electronic Device

D618,677 (the “’D677 patent”) Electronic Device

With the nature of lawsuits in the mobile and Software space over patents , Microsoft’s battle with i4i assumes more significance to reduce the number of irrelevant and blatantly Generic patents. Also will increase the need for refining the patent law especially related to Software and Communication.