Samsung Claims iPad Mini, iPad 4, New iPod Touch Also Infringe Patents 124
A reader writes "Here we go again. Korean electronics giant Samsung has added three new Apple products to the list of products that the company claims infringes on its patents. In a filing to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Samsung has added the iPad mini, the new iPad 4, and the fifth-generation iPod touch to an existing lawsuit that covers devices such as the iPhone 5, iPad 4, and earlier iPod touch devices. According to the filing, Samsung believes that 'good cause exists' to add these three devices to the original infringement claim, 'because Apple's new products were not yet available when Samsung submitted its original contentions on June 15, 2012 or its first motion to supplement its infringement contentions on October 1, 2012.'"
And the winner is RIM (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyone noticed that while Apple and Samsung are fighting each other in court, RIM stock is going up? Of course nobody will say that an obsolete, buggy device on an unreliably network is infringing on their patents. Quite brilliant: let the big boys beat each other down and step up as the safest choice for nervous enterprise customers.
Re:And the winner is RIM (Score:5, Interesting)
Interesting, but not relevant. I work for a corporation that just standardized on the iPhone (against my recommendations). RIM was never even at the table. Sales, Marketing and even IT guys just don't want to be seen with a BB device anymore - they all want either an iPhone (mostly) or a Samsung GIII (minority). That's it. Its more about cool factor and being seen with the device, even in the business world.
As part of the evaluation, we spoke to close to a dozen other companies that recently went through the same process, and pretty much got the same response - that the users overwhelmingly refused to have anything to do with a RIM product, and wanted the flashy new iPhone or GIII.
Sigh (Score:2, Interesting)
I remember when patents were for cool inventions designed to solve a real-world problem.
Re:what comes around (Score:2, Interesting)
Since Apple introduced the iPhone 5 its stock dropped $140, about 20%, or $132 billion of shareholder value evaporated. Could this have something to do with forgetting to innovate while putting all its energy into litigate?
Re:And the winner is RIM (Score:3, Interesting)
Sorry but you're offering nothing more than a meaningless anecdote.
Looking at the actual Q3 figures, RIM is shifting 2 Blackberrys for every Windows Phone, and Apple is only shifting 2.6 iPhones for every Blackberry, which given Apple's high sales figures doesn't exactly put RIMs sales in too bad a light. You've also got to consider that the the smartphone market has seen explosive growth in recent years, so RIM is still shifting far more devices now, than it was prior to the iPhones release in 2007. It's shifting more than twice as many devices now than it was then, even though it hasn't kept it's marketshare up due to failing in the consumer arena.
But to focus on your anecdote, I'd question the wisdom of any company who basis their purchasing decision on users simply wanting to have a flashy phone, rather than wanting to actually get work done and be productive. Of the companies I know still using Blackberrys they do so because:
1) They still offer the best battery life
2) They still offer the best enterprise integration
3) They still offer the best hardware for typing out e-mails and so forth
4) They're still more durable than all Apple and most Android smartphones
My previous employer also looked at iPhones but didn't go with them largely because of battery life, it was an engineering firm and they made many sales to companies like Codelco in Chile, and they may fly from there straight to another country, like say, Dubai, and follow this pattern for a number of weeks. When you're in the middle of the Atacama you don't get chance to charge every 5mins, you go to the airport and sleep on the plane so no fancy hotel room where you can charge overnight, and then you end up somewhere where it can be +50c, but oh dear, guess what? The likes of the iPhone are only rated to work, and I quote from Apple's website:
Operating ambient temperature: 32Â to 95Â F (0Â to 35Â C)
Nonoperating temperature: â'4Â to 113Â F (â'20Â to 45Â C)
Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)
It can get below -4c in the Atacama quite easily too, oh, and you can easily be over 3000 m altitude to boot. Travelling to some tropical places, or particularly dry places and you'll even breach the humidity limits. All of which the sales guys at the old place I worked used to do, some could breach all these limits within a couple of days.
Look, it's great that where you work your sales and marketing guys get to play the hipster and run round with their shiny phones, but the fact remains that RIM still holds an enviable chunk of the business market - seeing as most their sales are business whilst most of Apple's sales are consumer, I'd say that RIM likely far and away still hold a much bigger portion of the business market than Apple (though undoubtedly less than Android now).
I'm not even a fan of RIM, I'm a fan of Android and I own a Galaxy Nexus, and Nexus (both of which I fucking love and would highly recommend by the way), but it gets tiresome to read these sorts of anecdotes which basically amount to "My dad says RIM is not cool anymore". That's great, but the figures are still nothing to be scoffed at even now, RIM is still important in business, and there are still damn good reasons why some companies still choose Blackberrys regardless of your assertions about sales guys not wanting them because they're not cool - guess what, some sales people do actually work for a living, and hence need a device that can support that and allow them to be productive whatever environment they're in. The businesses still using Blackberrys are the business who care about actually getting things done rather than using company funds to enlarge a sales, marketing, or IT guy's ego.
I'm not saying RIM necessarily even has a bright future, but this isn't about anecdotes or partisan fanboyism, it's about the facts - the cold hard numbers, and right now RIM is still a major player in business, and Blackberrys still have a number of advantages depending on your business needs. The idea that they've somehow vanished from the business world is just completely false.