Weekly Review: Samsung-Apple Legal Battle Intensifies

When Apple and HTC decided to put aside their legal differences and reached a 10-year cross licensing agreement, it seemed as though the patent infringement tensions once heightened by Steve Jobs could finally be put to rest. Samsung, though, does not appear interested in refraining from the war that was started by the Cupertino company. Stating that the iPhone would not have been possible without its patented LTE technology, the Korean giant stressed it will not be resorting to the type of truce formed between HTC and Apple, in turn asking that the court reveal the terms of the two companies’ settlement. Around this time, Peter Chou, CEO of HTC, notably spoke against allegations regarding the royalty payments to Apple—rumored to be $8 USD per Android smartphone. Whether there is truth to this statement, we will see in the periods to come.

To add to all existing courtroom tensions, Samsung also recently added the iPad mini to the list of Apple products that supposedly infringed its LTE patents. While the Korean company appears confident about triumphing in this department, from what the records of the US Patent and Trade Office reveal, Samsung’s relevant LTE patents do not necessarily outnumber—nor outmatch— those owned by the Cupertino tech giant. As far as quality patents go, given that Apple has itself been able to obtain its fair share of patents covering LTE connectivity, the Korean company’s rebound from its previous courtroom defeat is not necessarily a guaranteed outcome.

In other news, Intel's CEO, Paul Otellini, recently made the shocking announcement to retire in 2013, which is a lot earlier than expected. Some theorize that this decision has something to do with the company’s struggle to compete with ARM’s mobile processing chips, a situation which may be difficult to overturn even after the release of “Medfield,” Intel’s mobile-specific processor. The difficulty experienced by the company is among the reasons why some speculate Apple will eventually dump Intel in favor of designing its own processor chips. As Otellini gets ready to retire next year, another additional rumor that’s been circulating concerns Intel’s decision to re-invest in ARM-based chip designs --while possibly breaking away from X86 processors.

In the holiday-shopping department, a highlight worth noting this week is the Black Friday sales. On this day, various vendors have already begun to launch their Christmas product promotions, with targets apparently set for the year-end shopping season. The iPad is once again the number one item for children, and for the second straight year, retained its popularity among the teenager and adult segments. The “post-PC era” is signified as iPad shipments officially surpassed those of PCs during the week. 

On a final note, there's been some interesting news regarding a recent blunder from Google. In Android 4.2, the month of December appears to be missing from the calendar. It's good that only a few mobile devices operate on the newest Android so far. Otherwise, Android users may have a hard time “skipping” on Christmas while entering a new year.