back to article Nervous Samsung seeks Android Plan F. Or G, H ....

Samsung has changed its mind and may join an Korean consortium producing an open alternative to Android. The strategy shift has been prompted by Google's proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility – and reflects the vertical integration structure whereby Google both licenses Android and competes with its licensees in handsets. …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Apple injunction - Germany only, surely?

    "Apple won an injunction preventing it from selling its Android Tablet in most of Europe."

    It was a *temporary* injunction, and applied to Germany only.

    1. Jemma
      Facepalm

      Can I retrain please?

      Nope, it just got upgraded. Includes the S series phones as well now apparently. I wish I could go back in time and train to be a patents lawyer, must be great to actually be able to charge someone "To: twiddling of thumbs in court for 4 hours & energy expended thereby: $150.19"

    2. ThomH

      Absolutely, with caveats

      It's a preliminary / temporary injunction, awarded in Germany and prima facie restrained Samsung from sale everywhere in the EU apart from the Netherlands but questions of jurisdiction have led to it being enforceable only in Germany at least until the next court date.

      I haven't read the judgment myself and have seen an incredible stream of inaccurate reporting — the one that most sticks in the memory being a blog that wondered why a Dusseldorf court would think it can rule for the entire EU when Germany doesn't even currently hold the EU presidency — but I think the issue of contention is that while most of the EU has signed up for various unified intellectual property measures that would allow a final judgment to be enforced via local courts, nobody's sure where that leaves preliminary injunctions.

      Preliminary injunctions tend to be a matter of process with no real investigation into merits, so that's fair. If a claimant applies and the court decides that, supposing everything they allege is true (ie, they get the benefit of the doubt with no real investigation into the dispute) then they have a real prospect of winning the case, they'll grant interim relief. And the EU agreements seek to make rulings enforceable, rather than unifying procedure.

      Assuming German courts use that sort of test then it's not surprising Apple were granted relief and it's a massive gamble. If they lose in court they would likely end up owing Samsung for all economic losses incurred.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    IP issues with Android

    Unfortunately for Samsung, a part of ban was due to functionality that comes with Android.

    Not only is Google going to compete with its partners, it seems they are going to leave them out in the cold.

    1. John G Imrie
      FAIL

      Yaballs. Great steaming Yaballs

      Unfortunately for Samsung, a part of ban was due to functionality that comes with Android.

      s/comes/came/

      V2. something or other infringed v3.x does not

      Not only is Google going to compete with its partners, it seems they are going to leave them out in the cold.

      See above for how Google did not 'leave them out in the cold'

      You are Florian Muller and I claim my £10

  3. Vic

    Is that so?

    > Apple won an injunction preventing it from selling its Android Tablet in most of Europe.

    Did it now?

    According to the Computerworld article[1], "The patent issue can be fixed by updating the Android software on the phones to Android 3.x, Samsung said in court earlier this month and that point was also noted by the judge in the ruling." So the ban - which has no effect until the 15th of October - is easily avoided.

    But there's more.

    "The judge denied all the other grounds on which Apple tried to ban the import of Samsung products into Europe. Samsung does not infringe on two other patent claims about intellectual copyright and design, the judge ruled. Further, according to the court, Samsung does not "slavishly copy" Apple's iPad and iPhone."

    So Apple lost everything except one point, which is easily worked around. This is no victory for the polo neck..

    My source[2] says that the judge told Samsung what they needed to do. The headline is somewhat surprising, then - unless you're citing Florian as a primary source...

    Vic.

    [1] http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9219455/Dutch_court_bans_Samsung_Galaxy_S_SII_and_Ace_in_Europe_starting_Oct._15

    [2] I've yet to see the actual transcript, so I'm relying on someone who has.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Google and Android bashing again Mr. O?

    "Samsung has changed its mind and may join an Korean consortium producing an open alternative to Android.The strategy shift has been prompted by Google's proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility"

    I guess Mr. O has accurate sources to corroborate this sentence.

    "Of course, we only have the deputy minister's word for it. And the deputy minister may be talking through his gat."

    Oh, i see. No accurate sources...

    "Historically Samsung has become a licensee of every open initiative going: Symbian, Windows, Java ME, SavaJe and LiMO. More recently Bloomberg reported it was leading the (presumably short) queue of potential licensees of HP's WebOS, too."

    Humm... (1)

    "But Samsung's reported change of heart is noteworthy. It illustrates how hard Google will find it to keep Android "independent" while it owns one of the biggest Android customers."

    Err...proofs please? Oh wait, the deputy's minister right? Humm...(1)

    "Samsung has already felt the sharp end of the mobile industry's patent wars. Apple won an injunction preventing it from selling its Android Tablet in most of Europe."

    Guess what, the major telecom here where I live (europe) announced the Tab 10.1 this Monday...tsc tsc...very sharp for Samsung indeed...

    (1) Mr O, stop it please, its becoming ridiculous. Your bash against Google and Android its hilarious. No, Nokia will not succeed with Windows, no, Samsung will not pick up WebOS and no, Samsung its not nervous about Google buying Motorola. Why? They built loyal costumers at expense of Nokia (at home we have Samsung droids only now), and they are making TONS of money from Android. There are thousands of apps for Android, do you know how hard is to build a developer base? Look at the Bada market, there are plenty of apps yes, but are the potential costumers aware of that?

  5. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Unhappy

    0 - Apple lost (and so did we)

    At the very best possible interpretation Apple managed a pyrrhic victory. Only one claim was upheld, all the rest were thrown out. If Samsung does nothing at all the ban would come in around the middle of October, but Samsung have already said that will replace the only application that infringes, so therefore the ban won't come into effect.

    Where we all lose is that it seems a pure software patent has crept into Europe via the back door.

  6. bazza Silver badge

    Wheels coming off the Android band wagon?

    Or is a wheel bearing just beginning to squeak?

    It's clear now that patent wars are more or less the most powerful commercial tool these companies have. Apple are indeed doing quite well on this front, despite the fact that there seems to be little about an iSomething that is obviously novel and without precedent. So even if Samsung do go down some other path, what's to guarantee that the end result will be fireproof from a patents point of view?

    The whole patent system, principally in the US, is clearly the major issue here. It must surely be pushing up costs, and that gets passed on to the consumer. Will the US political system ever work that out?

    If the patent situation in the US gets much worse it could result in non-US companies abandoning the US market, even though it is large. Afterall, there's 5.8 billion people elsewhere. The result would be an unintended policy of isolationism, and that really won't be any good at all for the US population.

    Why does Apple sue Samsung anyway? Doesn't Samsung manufacture Apple's ARM processors?

  7. Andus McCoatover
    Windows

    Is everyone in Korea called "Kim"?

    Another hit on Nokia.

    1. Francis Boyle Silver badge

      It's compulsory

      It saves confusion.

    2. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

      Nah

      There are plenty of Parks and Lees too.

    3. dssf

      Korean Surnames...

      I ran across this a month or so ago:

      https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/List_of_Korean_family_names

  8. Bumpy Cat
    Go

    Bada then

    I have a Samsung Wave running Bada, and I'm generally pleased. It looks just as good as Android or iOS and I have no complaints about how it runs. There's even a moderately busy app store (oops, do I owe Apple royalties for saying that?).

  9. JamesMcP

    Time to license WebOS and some patents

    I think Samsung needs to call HP and get a price on WebOS and the Palm Smartphone Patent.

    Why bother developing Bada when there's a completely functional mobile OS up for sale that comes with it's own patent-law nuclear weapon and at least some semblance of an ecosystem?

  10. Taemar

    WebOS...

    ...or Symbian! One of them would do. The new Symbian looks pretty shiny, and WebOS has plenty of potential.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bada 2

    Apparently, and unfortunately I can't provide an authoritative source for this, but Samsung had to cripple the Bada firmware to stop it reading AAC tags because Apple wouldn't play ball. Way to go, Apple. Not. I'm much more likely to replace Itunes than I am my phone. I think that the Itunes 10.4 might have something to do with: Thou shalt only play music on Apple devices. As this fucked up a large part of my collection of music and all my audio books I decided to give the Bada 2 RC firmware a try and it is amazing. Looks a lot more like Android, for better or worse, than before but with great attention to detail including voice recognition. Samsung is pretty close to being the same kind of full-stack vendor that Sony and Philips once were.

  12. John Sanders
    Linux

    Their own platform?

    Good luck with that.

  13. dssf

    Plan B idea for Samsung for the PHYSICAL aspects of the Galaxy Tab:

    Reactivate the SyncMaster 206BW 2ms 3000:1 flat panel display manufacture line and use those bezels as a Stage III Galaxy Tab, and then make it roughly 11" or 12" diagonal so it forces apple to go bigger and burn more cash and forces apple to jack up the price of the iPad or burn money subsidizing it.

    Then, make the back of the device cam-adjustable so that the USER can decide to make it palmable when used on the go, and flat when on a desk or in a docking station.

    If the users want the screen to be flush with the bezel, then engineer a way for that to happen by cams inside the body. Thus, the cams can allow the user to slightly alter the angle of the display irrespective of the curve or flat-backed settings.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Bada?

    Wonder what search engine it uses?

    1. KKaria
      Joke

      Bada

      Bada Bing Bada Bing? (In a New York accent)

      1. John 62
        Joke

        Bada

        boom

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Up Yours America

    I would welcome our Asian neighbours to develop a high-quality open-source operating system.

    I think the whole world is fed up with American politics. The Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans are quite intelligent and capable of software development. Let's follow their lead for once. I hope their legal systems don't stifle innovation as much as the west's.

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