Apple’s FRAND patent counterclaims against Samsung and Motorola

By contrast, Samsung and Motorola try to shut Apple’s products down on the basis of allegedly standards-essential patents, seeking injunctions and (in MMI’s case) an ITC import ban regardless of whether Apple might be willing to pay FRAND royalties. Contrary to making a clear distinction as Nokia did, Samsung and Motorola simply lump standards-related and unencumbered patents together as if all patents were the same.

via fosspatents.blogspot.com

Interesting read about Apple’s claims that Samsung and Motorola are abusing their FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) patents.

Especially interesting when you consider that Nokia rightly drew a distinction between the two kinds of patents, and Apple settled with them.

There Is No Plan B.

via bits.blogs.nytimes.com

The chart totals over 100% because respondents were allowed multiple choices. That’s too bad because it skews things a bit. Yes, the iPad is stomping everyone, but 94.5% has less meaning when the total comes to nearly 150%.

It’s better to look at this one column at a time, where we can determine a device’s absolute rejection (not acceptance). For example, we don’t know that 3.8% of respondents would buy a RIM PlayBook, because it may have been their second choice, but we do know 96.2% of respondents rejected it outright, since it’s not on their list at all.

I think of the beatdown like this: for each iPad competitor (column), 90% or more of respondents rejected it. In other words, nine out of 10 people wouldn’t even put it on their list as a second choice. Meanwhile, the iPad is rejected only 5.5% of the time. Put it all together and we know not only that the vast majority of respondents are interested in the iPad, but that for most of them there is no Plan B.

The Answer Is No.

 

Samsung Galaxy Tab:

Sales not as fast as expected… a Samsung executive revealed those figures don’t represent actual sales to consumers. Instead, they are the number of Galaxy Tab devices that Samsung has shipped to wireless companies and retailers

HP Touchpad: 

According to one source who’s seen internal HP reports, Best Buy has taken delivery of 270,000 TouchPads and has so far managed to sell only 25,000, or less than 10 percent of the units in its inventory.

RIM PlayBook: 

RIM has quietly cut its sales expectations for the BlackBerry PlayBook after its disappointing sales from the spring

Motorola Xoom: 

New estimates for sales of Motorola’s Xoom tablet–available since late February–are in, but even the most optimistic predictions are scarily small and pale next to the iPad 2’s first-weekend sales numbers.

Apple Crushes Everyone In Cell Phone Customer Satisfaction Ratings

via changewaveresearch.com

Surveys of consumers’ future buying habits mean very little. If consumers did what they said in surveys, products made via those surveys would be raging successes, but they’re not. Apple, perhaps famously, eschews such surveys, contending a customer doesn’t know what they want until they see it. So even though the future looks great for Apple in the article’s surveys, it means little to me.

There is, however, one type of survey that’s very important. Customer Satisfaction is not about the future, it’s about real people who own the device now, and how happy they are with it. I would argue it’s the only survey that really matters. Look at that chart. Apple crushes everyone by such a wide margin the other guys should be revamping their support policies, procedures and staff, not their product lines.

Samsung disses ARM and iPads while praising Atom and whatever tablet they can grunt out next

“…but there is an even broader market for consumers who want an iPad format but also want more functionality, more grunt, more IO… While the ARM-based processor in the iPad is a great chip it’s not designed for crunching spreadsheets and all those other things that the traditional notebook does.”

via electronista.com

So says Emmanuele Silanesu, Samsung’s Australian IT marketing manager.

The ARM processor was designed to get maximum “grunt” with minimum power draw and heat dissipation. It was designed to do what Intel’s trying like crazy to do with the Atom processor now. With only partial success, if the performance of devices with Atom chips is any indication.

Apple has a great recent relationship with Intel, so why did they pass on the Atom for their mobile devices? You think Intel wasn’t ready to give Apple a killer price? Of course they were. Apple passed because the chip’s not there yet, and they knew it.

But you go right on “crunching spreadsheets” on your Q1, Mr. Silanesu. I just hope it’s not the same spreadsheet used to determine if that Q1 would be a success.