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Businesses Patents The Courts Apple

Apple's Beef With Nokia Gets Intense, All Withings Products Pulled From Online Store (recode.net) 118

Posted by msmash from the fighting-back dept.
In less than a week after Nokia sued Apple for patent infringement in courts around the world, saying that Apple has refused to license its patents, Apple has pulled all Withings products from its stores. Earlier this year, Nokia bought Withings, which makes Wi-Fi scales and other digital health and fitness gear.
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Apple's Beef With Nokia Gets Intense, All Withings Products Pulled From Online Store More

Apple's Beef With Nokia Gets Intense, All Withings Products Pulled From Online Store

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  • Wanna bet on who wins this particular game of Mutually Assured Destruction?

    • Re:Long ago in a galaxy far far away: Patent Wars (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 26, 2016 @03:34PM (#53556667)

      Lawyers.

    • Last time Samsung won, but Apple got bailed out by Obama [wsj.com]. Which has the unfortunate side-effect of encouraging companies to play chicken in the game of MAD because they might get a last-minute reprieve even after they've lost.

  • Can't you see? (Score:4, Funny)

    by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Monday December 26, 2016 @03:20PM (#53556597) Journal

    Can't you see how courageous Apple is to do this? *cough*

    • Seriously, the "courageous" meme is already super old. Try and be original.

      • Try and be original.

        A sentiment better communicated to Apple's C-levels.

        • It already has been a million times over but maybe you don't pay attention to tech news.

          • Purposefully excluding features and making stuff as thin as possible (even over the objections of your more loyal customers, most of whom at this point would just prefer a better battery) doesn't really count as innovation, sorry.

            Speaking as someone who paid $300 to import a Sharp Zaurus in 2006 and later owned a N900, I can tell you that the iPhone in particular was not revolutionary. It was a massively overpriced, under-spec'ed phone lacking major features (3G and MMS), but Apple was smart enough to u
            • Or maybe you're agreeing with me in which case, no, I don't read a lot of tech news when it comes to Apple. But it's hard to avoid.

              • Re: (Score:1)

                by Adam C ( 4306581 )
                Aye, I remember when the iPhone came out

                I was quite surprised to see Apple inventing the smartphone when I'd been using an HP Jornada PocketPC phone for some time at that point which was cheaper and could do far more than the iphone of the time,

            • Whatever dude. If you can't see how Apple completely changed the cellphone industry and what people expect from phones, there's not hope for you. Enjoy your pos Zaurus.

              • They "changed" it because they had an ultra-loyal fanbase that would scream endlessly about their products (primarily iPods in those days) to non-techies to the point where they could simply charge 2x for a middling product. Android was right around the corner, Apple or no Apple, and Nokia was obviously going to put Maemo on a phone (it was out on PDA devices prior to the iPhone 1) just as soon as they figured the battery life out (little did they realize that people would simply adjust to the reality of ch

                • lol...you realize that the reason there's "always on internet" for cellphones is because of Apple, right?

                  • Uh, what? I had internet in 2006 and it was EDGE speed, just like the iPhone 1. I don't know what you mean by always-on. You could leave apps running and they would stay connected and the 'EDGE' logo would stay on screen as long as you were within range of a tower. Not sure what you call it, but I call that always-on.

                    • ROFL...yeah, you had that if you were willing to pay a shitload of money for it. The prices for online access were outrageous. Keep in mind AT&T had to do massive system upgrades to support the iPhone. Why? Because the internet on the cellphone up till that point was a fucking joke. Please don't try and deny it.

                      Also, the iPhone had Wifi. Suck on that.

                    • ROFL...yeah, you had that if you were willing to pay a shitload of money for it.

                      As I recall, T-Mobile had a perfectly usable option that was a $6 add-on. YEAH ROFL SO EXPENSIVE!!!! Granted, one generally didn't use it to stream video (I don't think the iPhone 1 had a Youtube app at launch, either... and Youtube was only like a year old at that point), but it was snappy enough.

                      Keep in mind AT&T had to do massive system upgrades to support the iPhone.

                      Not for bandwidth they didn't. Their routing may have sucked, I don't know. As far as I can recall, the real problems didn't pop up until the iPhone 3G finally came out.

                      Because the internet on the cellphone up till that point was a fucking joke.

                      As I just pointed out, streaming video was s

      • Seriously, the "courageous" meme is already super old. Try and be original.

        Seriously, telling people that memes are "already super old" is super old. Try and be creative (since you can't be original).

        PS- all your memes are belong to us.

  • But at least Nokia is not chicken.

  • Abuse of position (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Richard_at_work ( 517087 ) on Monday December 26, 2016 @03:21PM (#53556605)

    And if this isn't abuse of Apples position, demonstrating exactly why Apples walled garden should be illegal, what is?

    And no, I don't care that Apple doesnt have "a monopoly", this is anti-competitive and Apple shouldn't be allowed to do it

    • You can have whatever temper tantrum you want, but since a 'walled garden' and random snit fits by the Apple owned Apple store has nothing to do with antitrust law you've got nothing but angst here.

      Enjoy.

      • Please demonstrate where I mentioned "antitrust law"...

        Why can't we have a discussion on abuse of position without twats like you snarking in and saying "it has nothing to do with antitrust, so Apple is fine".

        Abuse of position and anti-competitive behaviour DOES NOT require violation of antitrust law. Apple doing this is wrong, and something should be done about it.

        • Please demonstrate where I mentioned "antitrust law"...

          Why can't we have a discussion on abuse of position without twats like you snarking in and saying "it has nothing to do with antitrust, so Apple is fine".

          Abuse of position and anti-competitive behaviour DOES NOT require violation of antitrust law. Apple doing this is wrong, and something should be done about it.

          You implied it, you utter and complete moron.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          Abuse of position and anti-competitive behaviour DOES NOT require violation of antitrust law. Apple doing this is wrong, and something should be done about it.

          Last year, Amazon stopped selling the Apple TV because "it doesn't support Amazon Video". Except Amazon refused to write an app for the Apple TV (it exists for iPhones and iPads, but not AppleTV).

          So perhaps we should sanction Amazon too?

          It's just a crappy IoT thing that Apple stopped selling. I'm sure you can find it at Best Buy if you really really r

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Holi ( 250190 )
            "It would be anti-trust if Apple removed the apps from the App Store,"

            or removed products from their physical stores?
      • apple owned apple store is completely and totally operated under anti-trust laws. no idea if they have breached any of those here but being apple owned and operated doesn't excuse them from the requirement to not engage in anti competitive behaviour.

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by Anonymous Coward

          apple owned apple store is completely and totally operated under anti-trust laws.

          The question is, should companies selling apps be at the whims and mercy of one or two companies (like Apple and Google)? It is abuse of position because only two companies control access of apps to mobile platforms. It would be great if multiple retailers had something similar to App store and Google Play and were allowed to sell apps to the consumer.

          • Some carriers and some phone manufacturers have their own app stores. I don't think any consumers really want to use them though. Steam has branched out to beyond games as well.

          • apple owned apple store is completely and totally operated under anti-trust laws.

            The question is, should companies selling apps be at the whims and mercy of one or two companies (like Apple and Google)? It is abuse of position because only two companies control access of apps to mobile platforms. It would be great if multiple retailers had something similar to App store and Google Play and were allowed to sell apps to the consumer.

            You are completely free to start your own Mobile Device Company. Hell, you can even Fork Android. There's half the battle won already!

            Stop whining and start building your own phones, or STFU.

            • It doesn't work that way. There is a significant barrier of entry in order to be able to compete with google or apple app stores and hence the legal onus is on them to ensure they are not misbehaving, it is not good enough to say someone could just start their own.

              • It doesn't work that way. There is a significant barrier of entry in order to be able to compete with google or apple app stores and hence the legal onus is on them to ensure they are not misbehaving, it is not good enough to say someone could just start their own.

                Sorry. It works EXACTLY that way in a free market.

                Apple started with two guys in a garage, financed by the $1500 sale of a VW Microbus.

                Google started with (IIRC) two guys in a dorm-room. One at least was a fairly poor Student from Russia, maybe both.

                What's YOUR excuse? As I said, the OS has already been written for you. You can call up Qualcomm and Samsung and buy all the special-purpose silicon, RF stuff and touchscreen hardware you need. They will also provide you with reference designs and pre-buil

        • apple owned apple store is completely and totally operated under anti-trust laws. no idea if they have breached any of those here but being apple owned and operated doesn't excuse them from the requirement to not engage in anti competitive behaviour.

          I don't think you understand that Term of Art.

    • Re:Abuse of position (Score:4, Insightful)

      by CanadianMacFan ( 1900244 ) on Monday December 26, 2016 @04:52PM (#53557003)

      Since when is a store a walled garden? If Amazon or Walmart stopped selling Withings products would you be complaining?

      Only the physical products are no longer available through the Apple Store and their physical locations. You can still get the applications in the App Store which you normally associate with the walled garden.

      I don't agree with Apple's business practice but please try to get your facts right.

    • You're actually saying that Apple shouldn't have control over what they stock in their stores? WTF is wrong with you?

    • And if this isn't abuse of Apples position, demonstrating exactly why Apples walled garden should be illegal, what is?

      And no, I don't care that Apple doesnt have "a monopoly", this is anti-competitive and Apple shouldn't be allowed to do it

      You are simply too stupid to be allowed to breathe.

  • All the Withings products have been replaced by Withoutings.

  • I have a Withings scale and it's not that great. It's nice that it uploads the data but it isn't that accurate. I had an old, basic digital scale that only measured weight and it was far more consistent than the Withings.

  • Apple is a real patent bully (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    they rely entirely on their size to avoid paying patents that they definitely owe to companies that do REAL innovation.

  • They should have spun off a patent troll division and assigned their rights.

    You cannot sue large companies for patent infringement while you are a practicing entity that has a Technology product or service

    THE OTHER COMPANIES WILL RETALLIATE AGAINST YOU.

    Either by filing their own Patent lawsuits Or by interfering with your marketing or your business.........
    OH yeah, And if you or a company you own partners with them to sell your products, then it's really dumb to sue them.

  • crybaby (Score:3)

    by SuperDre ( 982372 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2016 @05:07AM (#53558865) Homepage
    This is typical behaviour of a crybaby which Apple is.. If you use the patents, pay for it, Apple sue's other companies for using it and expects them to pay, so why not do it yourself..

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