2010/03/03

Apple sues HTC but guns for Android

Apple filed a suit against handset manufacturer HTC in the court in Delaware and the US International Trade Commission (ITC). The suit claims 20 patent infringements relating to "the iPhone's user interface, underlying architecture and hardware".

Though Apple is suing HTC it is generally thought that Apple's real target is Google's Android and they may be going after other vendors in the near future.

Though Apple is still dominant in the high-end smartphone market, Google are catching up as they give away their Nexus One phones to all and sundry and the Android OS to anyone who wants it.

Whether they win or not, they'll cause annoyance probably just make Google spend some of its cash.

2010/03/02

T-Mobile gets the go-ahead to bed Orange

The European Commission has given the approval for T-Mobile (UK) a subsidiary of Deutsch Telekom and Orange (UK) part of France Telecom to merge. The combined mobile network will be the largest in the UK with around 29.5m customers.

The joint company is expected to make large savings in both operational and capital spending.

There are conditions to the deal, they'll still have to support 3 (who use Orange for back-up coverage in the 2G space) and they will have to release some spectrum (2 x 10 MHz by Sept 2013 and2 x 5MHz by Sep 2015) which is likely to be auctioned off.

The Orange and T-Mobile branding will be maintained for 18 months, though they will be combined. If they can leverage the increased customer base and shared network resources, the new combined company may give O2 (Telefonica) and Vodafone some hard competition.

Atoms go faster (from Intel)

Intel has announced the new Atom N470 which operates at 1.83GHz (up from 1.66GHz) and is based on the Pine Trail architecture. The chip incorporates a CPU, memory controller and graphics core which as well as saving power increases the overall speed.

The chip is designed for Netbooks and could be available as early as next week.

Microsoft: “No Windows Phone 7 upgrade for Windows Mobile 6.x devices”

Microsoft: “No Windows Phone 7 upgrade for Windows Mobile 6.x devices”

Microsoft launched Windows Phone 7 to a hungry market at Barcelona last month. It now seems that current Windows Mobile users wont be in-line for an upgrade and MS are only going to target new phones.

Even the HTC Touch HD2 which has a 1GHz CPU, accelerated graphics, capacitive touch screen and 5MP camera wont fit the bill as it has 5 buttons instead of the obligatory 3 for the new reference Windows Phone 7 specification though MS has said there are other hardware issues.

Windows Mobile 6.5 will continue to be supported and there will be a 6.5.3 release which will increase usability and stability and it will be known as Windows Phone Classic aimed at the budget smartphone market and for users with legacy WinMob 6.5 applications.

Though Windows Phone 7 does look nice, will it be good enough to fend of Apple and especially Android?