According to a court filing discovered by Reuters, Apple and Google’s Motorola Mobility unit have agreed to settle their ongoing smartphone patent litigation battle against each other.
In a statement, the two companies said that this agreement does not include the ability cross license each other’s patents, but rather the promise to “work together in some areas of patent reform.”
This does not include any other patent lawsuits against other manufacturers but it sure is a positive move and likely one that will benefit the end user. Nor does it stop future lawsuits.
However, in addition to agreeing to end the 20 or so patent lawsuits, both companies will help to change the legislation to try and curb the out of control patent system.
BBC News reported that Dixons and Carphone Warehouse would merge.
“Dixons Retail, the owner of Currys and PC World, and mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse have announced they are to merge in a deal worth £3.8bn.The new firm will be known as Dixons Carphone, with ownership to be split equally between the two firms’ existing shareholders.Dixons operates more than 500 Currys and PC World stores in the UK and Ireland. Carphone Warehouse operates more than 2,000 stores across Europe”
Then the news about cost savings and then job creation.
“The merger will save the companies £80m a year from the 2017-18 fiscal year onwards, Dixons said.”
“For its part, Carphone Warehouse said “significant job creation” was expected as part of the deal, “resulting in an increase of approximately 4%””
However, some existing staff will be affected. Dixons said there would be job cuts of 2% of the merged company, “as a result of the rationalisation of certain operational and support functions”.
What would be great is if this new company could create an Apple and John Lewis like shopping experience.
There is a lot to be said for consistency when it comes to pricing a phone. Take Apple, they announce a new phone (or any device) and that is the price for the next 12 months until the new model appears. Quite simply, you know where you stand. The Apple pricing model also helps maintain second hand prices.
Now lets look at the rest of the market. Samsung, Sony, Nokia and many many other companies release a new phone at a premium, often with anything from £50 to £100 extra in the first month at least. During the 12 month period the phone’s pricing can vary, often downwards. So for example the Samsung Note 3 at launch was sim free £650. Now it can be bought for under £500. In fact, my personal favourite online tech company Clove Technology is selling the Note 3 for £374.16 plus VAT. Link – http://www.clove.co.uk/samsung-galaxy-note-3
So lets take another example. The new Sony Xperia Z2. On the market for a launch price of around £550-560. Then Three UK offered it on their network for £470. And now after a few weeks Three UK are selling it at £549. WTF. How does a phone increase in value or vary by such a margin and within such a small time frame. Surely that is not right. Using Clove Technology again as an example, they have consistently offered the Z2 at £450 plus VAT. Link – http://www.clove.co.uk/sony-xperia-z2 . They also happen to offer it with one of the best deals at the moment. The deal includes a free £120 wireless speaker & noise-cancelling headphones bundle plus £80 digital content bundle. Very tempting I must say.
I just think it would be better if all manufacturers followed Apple’s example of leading with a fair price in the beginning and keeping it price accordingly.
Just one last point. Have you ever noticed that when a newer model is due to be released, the older model pricing is temporarily increased. I am sure this is partially due to trying to justify the higher priced newer model when released, so that there appears not to be such a large price differential between the old and new model.
Forbes has an excellent article detailing Amazon’s Wholesale Market approach.
“Forget the delivery drones and TV deals. Jeff Bezos’ stealthy foray into the unsexy world of B2B distribution is likely his most disruptive move yet — and it has an $8 trillion swath of the economy running scared.
In recent months global Internet retail behemoth Amazon.com AMZN -2.34% has green-lit six new original TV shows, announced an online streaming deal with HBO and tested same-day grocery delivery on the West Coast.
Up next? Possibly a smartphone. And, if billionaire CEO Jeff Bezos has his way, packages dropped off by unmanned drone.
But there’s one thing Bezos hasn’t been talking about: AmazonSupply, an e-commerce site targeting the unsexy but hugely lucrative wholesale and distribution market. His silence is especially surprising as the site has the potential to turn into the most important development in the company’s history since it started selling books. Yet Bezos has uttered only 28 words in public–ever–about AmazonSupply, describing it in passing as “an incredible category” during the company’s 2012 annual meeting.”
This article highlights just how big this sector is, and in some ways how it is more important than its retail presence.
Watch as one lucky guy unboxes is OnePlus One. Quite a lucky guy being one of the 100 winners selected. And don’t forget he smashed up his fairly decent phone to get the new OnePlus One. His face at the end says it all!
And reading the OnePlus forums, it seems the lucky 100 winners received their new phones in a plastic bag, void of the sim ejector tool and accessories. Apparently, these will be sent once produced. Not a good start, although the official retail packaging is ultra slick.
Update – the video has been made private. Thanks for Damian for letting me know. In a nutshell the guy filmed his live Unboxing to find an empty box and no phone. Just a card with a message from OnePlus.
Now in a public statement, Samsung Electronics CEO Kwon Oh-hyun said “several workers at our production facilities suffered from leukemia and other incurable diseases, which also lead to some deaths.” Kwon said Samsung would make “appropriate compensation to those who were affected and their families,” after activist groups claimed hazardous working environments caused some employees to contract lethal diseases. “We should have settled the issue earlier, and we are deeply heartbroken that we failed to do so and express our deep apology.”
Just a little too late for those who have lost their lives or are terminally ill.
PhoneArena scooped some great renders of the upcoming LG G3.
The more photos I see of this phone the better it looks. It also is meant to have a replaceable battery, micro sd card slot and be water and dust resistant. Also the built in loudspeaker is meant to rock loud.
Is this the phone for 2014? 27th May will be the day LG officially reveals all, so not long now.
The Gear 2 Neo arrived yesterday in the post, so last night it got fully charged and then synced to my S5. The process was rather simple. Download the Gear Manager from Samsung Apps. Install. Turn on Bluetooth. Open app. Press front home button to turn on the watch. Pairing process completes. And voila.
Next you are faced with 2 firmware updates for the Gear 2 Neo, which happen one after another. The Neo is the camera less version and full plastic but costs £80 less,than the full metal bezel and camera included version.
I had the original Galaxy Gear, and in my brief time I had the Gear 2 Neo it is a vast improvement from both the software and hardware. On the software side the watch runs Tizen. The hardware now has changeable straps, which Samsung has made easy with a pull spring mechanism inside the included strap.
Going back to the software, the Gear 2 Neo runs really smoothly. It has a built it music player to play back via Bluetooth headphones music direct from the watch, and many other refinements. Notifications are much better handled. S Voice on the watch is leaps ahead than on the phone. Extras from the heart rate monitor and TV remote blaster all make this a great watch….. Or do they?
First, the apps in Samsung’s app store were rather meagre vs the Galaxy Gear which whilst poor still , did have more options. Android Wear which is Google’s smart watch platform is about to go live and will offer far better app support. Developers are more likely to support this too.
Next and most fundamental, the strap did not fit me. I am a big guy and I imagine for most people it will fit just about. But to me that was an oversight.
However, it definitely was an improvement over the original Galaxy Gear so if you are a true all out Samsung fan person, then go for it.
Motorola just took the wraps off the Moto E. Its focus is the price point. It is already on sale in the UK on Pay as You Go for £79.99 via a number of places. For the geeks among us, the Moto E won’t even be on our radar. But for many this is an absolute cracker of a phone.
It is optimised to open web pages faster than the Samsung Galaxy S4. It has a micro sd card slot for media. It does not have the best of anything but it is a masterful low cost budget phone. Motorola will also offer a range of coloured back shells to help personalise the phone too. Also of note is the large battery that will give it 24 hours usage. Plus it is splashproof.
All in all an impressive budget phone which will do well in emerging markets and cash strapped people.
If you are interested, the full specs are –
Operating system – Android™ 4.4, KitKat® with guaranteed update to next version of Android.
Processor – Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 200 with 1.2GHz dual-core A7 CPU Adreno 302 400MHz single-core GPU
Capacity -4GB user storage, MicroSD slot supports up to 32GB expandable memory 1GB RAM
Google Maps apps have received a huge update in the UK by adding in directions for travel using public transportation. The app update is available now for iOS and Android, as well as on the web on the desktop, will cover almost 17,000 routes of bus, train, tram, and ferry navigation. No love for Windows Phone though.
The update will work on travel across England, Wales, and Scotland, with Northern Ireland still in the works. The update includes travel information from Traveline and National Express.
Users can now plan their routes to determine what the fastest or shortest routes will be, how many stops or interchanges they want to make, and what time the next departures leave.
With so much functionality I just cannot see the need now for third party navigation options. Can you ?
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