Apple Scores A Victory

A court imposed a temporary ban on the sale of Samsung Electronics’ latest computer tablet in Australia on Thursday, delivering rival Apple another legal victory in the two firms’ global patent war.

Resolution of the case could take months — unless Samsung takes the potentially risky option of an expedited hearing — which, in the fast-moving industry, could mean the new Galaxy tablet is never launched in Australia. The Galaxy is the hottest competitor to Apple’s iPad, which dominates global tablet sales.

“The ruling could further extend Apple’s dominance in the tablet market as it widens a sales ban of Samsung’s latest product,” said Lee Seung-woo, an analyst at Shinyoung Securities in Seoul.

Whilst the ruling is a blow for Samsung, the Australian market is not large. A more important legal battle starts later on Thursday, when a Californian court begins hearing Apple’s bid to ban sales of Galaxy products in the United States.

The two technology firms have been locked in an acrimonious battle in 10 countries involving smartphones and tablets since April, with the Australian dispute centering on touch-screen technology used in Samsung’s new tablet.

The Federal Court in Sydney, in granting the temporary ban, ruled Samsung had a case to answer on at least two of Apple’s patents. The ban applies on sales of Samsung’s Galaxy 10.1 tablet until the same court rules on the core patent issue.

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WebOS Lives

HP is aiming to keep WebOS alive by putting it on printers.

The firm has discontinued its WebOS devices such as the Touchpad tablet and Pre 3 smartphone but WebOS will appear on new products, according to Pocketlint. The operating system (OS) will come on the Designjet line of HP printers.

An HP spokesperson said, “HP is currently investigating using WebOS on its Designjet range of professional printers.”

It’s likely that the OS will come on consumer printers at some point in the future, too. The following statement also hints that it could appear on products other than printers.

“HP is 100 [per cent] committed to producing print solutions that meet our customer needs and we will continue to drive innovation to ensure our products and solutions meet market demand. We built our printing franchise based on being OS agnostic – we have been and will continue to be agnostic to meet our various customer needs. As webOS plans develop we will continue to evaluate how and if we incorporate it into our future products.”

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HP’s PC Division Decision This Month

HP will decide on the future of its PC business this month, according to a statement from its newly installed CEO.

While it was under the Apotheker captaincy the firm announced rather shocking plans to dump the PC business. Okay, it didn’t explicitly say that, rather it said that it would consider selling it or spinning it off, which apparently meant something else to HP than it did to normal people.

According to Bloomberg, new HP CEO Meg Whitman sprinkled a little more colour into the HP PC business tapestry, and in a conference call said that the firm is almost ready to say what its plans are.

It’s likely that shareholders and the board are still reeling from the suggestion, but the extra time will give HP room to decide on what it wants to do with the still profitable, but boring hardware arm.

While it was under Leo Apotheker’s rule the firm had given itself the deadline of the end of the year for a decision, but presumably sick of people asking her, “what are we going to do with the PC business?”, Whitman has bought the decision forward.

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Will Oracle Buy HP?

Word on the street is that Oracle has threatened to buy its sworn enemy HP. According to the Times of India, HP directors are terrified that their falling shares would make the company vulnerable to a bid from Oracle. Apparently this was the reason for the sudden sacking of Leo Apotheker.

Oracle has considered informally whether to approach Hewlett-Packard, but it’s unlikely to make a bid any time soon. But to make sure HP has hired Goldman Sachs to help it prepare for any possible moves by activist investors, one person said.

If Oracle were to make a hostile takeover it would be with the sole aim of getting rid of a lot of people who have hacked Larry Ellison off. It might even result in Mark Hurd returning to the company.

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Most Tegra 2 Tablets Will Get ICS

Sources have confirmed that most Tegra 2 tablets you know will get Ice Cream Sandwich. We are still sniffing around to find out if the ICS is going to end up as Android 4.0 but it will bring phones and tablets much closer and should ship in October or November.

Many Asus, Samsung, Toshiba, Lenovo, Sony and any other Android 3.x compatible tablets on market will have a chance to get the new one. The upgrade will come as manufacturers get it ready and customized for its tablets but most tablets will ship with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, probably early next year at the latest.

This is good news for many who were brave to buy the first generation of tablets not based on Apple’s architecture and it will help Google to gather even more momentum for 2012. 2012 looks like a year when Google will be ready for real war against Apple, but at the same time, Android supporters fear that Windows 8 will get a lot of attention when it ships in late 2012.

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Verizon Sides With Samsung Not Apple

Verizon Wireless, the biggest U.S. mobile operator, has taken a legal stand against Apple Inc’s request to prohibit the sale of some Samsung Electronics models in the United States.

“The requested injunction of certain Samsung products will harm Verizon Wireless and U.S. consumers,” Verizon said in a court filing dated September 23.

“It also has the possibility of slowing the deployment of next-generation networks — such as Verizon Wireless’s — contrary to the stated goals of the U.S. government,” it said.

Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Plc.

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Samsung’s New Chip Line To Boost Flash Memory

Samsung Electronics, the world’s No.1 memory chip maker, said it began mass production at a new $10 billion chip line, as it seeks to raise its profile in the booming flash memory chip market fueled by robust demand growth in mobile products.

Samsung’s new production line, its first in about five years, will help the company sharply lower production costs of the chips and could exacerbate oversupply in the market, stifling smaller rivals.

Apple Inc, the maker of popular iPhones and iPads, and Sony, which joined the crowded tablet market last month with two new devices, buy flash memory chips from Samsung.

The cost-competitive facility will make it difficult for its major customers to shift away to other suppliers.

Apple, Samsung’s biggest customer locked in a series of patent legal battles with the South Korean firm, is trying to reduce sourcing from the emerging competitor.

“The new line won’t have any immediate impact on the supply side, as it will take some nine months to fully raise capacity run rates, but it shows Samsung’s attempt to take more share in the flash chip market,” said Song Myung-sup, an analyst at HI Investment & Securities.

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Is HP Going To Court?

HP and its top executives have been accused of misleading investors before a slump in its stock price.

HP is facing a class action lawsuit filed by Robbins Geller Rudman and Down alleging that CEO Leo Apotheker and CFO Cathie Lesjak misled investors before making announcements that included the possible spin-off of its PC business, dumping WebOS devices and the purchase of British software outfit Autonomy.

Those announcements, all made in one afternoon, led to a 20 per cent drop in HP’s share price the following day. That, according to Reuters, was the largest one day decline in HP’s share price since 1987.

The lawsuit against HP does not specify damages but it serves to highlight the growing concern at the way Apotheker is leading HP. The firm’s announcement that it was considering leaving the PC business was a shock to many, but its decision to dump its WebOS devices was perhaps the biggest shock of the lot.

While HP’s PC business was always seen as a low margin operation, WebOS was viewed as a core part of HP’s future strategy. The firm kept banging on about slipping WebOS into as many devices as possible, however all that talk evaporated, just like HP’s Touchpads when it sold them off at fire sale prices for a massive loss.

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Analysts Expect Flood of Cheap Tablets This Fall

Analysts are predicting that a whole slew of $200 to $300 tablet computers will hit the market this fall, prompting the essential question: Which device will come out on top?

Several analysts are betting on Amazon.com to be at the top of the pile with an expected $299 Android-based tablet introduced sometime in October. The reason it will do
well is only partly because of the low price, which is below the market-leading iPad 2, starting at $499.

But analysts also expect Amazon to offer content for its 9-in. tablet thats comparable to or even exceeds the content that Apple can offer for the iPad. Amazon will make money on the content it sells, which is expected to more than make up for any loss it incurs in selling the tablet at a price below the cost of making it.

“Amazon has an ecosystem like Apple, with its own app store that offers music, movies and videos, and a bookstore,” said Bob O’Donnell, an analyst at IDC. “Not only would you get a cheaper device [than the iPad], you would get the integrated Amazon experience. That’s what makes Amazon’s tablet the most interesting and where other [Android] tablets will be challenged.”

In effect, Amazon’s approach will be to entice buyers with a much lower price, “but have all the services of Apple,” O’Donnell said.

Other Android tablets with which Amazon would likely compete include a $199 Lenovo IdeaPad A1 tablet announced Thursday, the cheapest 7-in. Android tablet from a top device maker. Another contender is the original Samsung Galaxy Tab, which is being sold on Amazon for $279.99, after having first appeared late in 2010 for $600.

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iPad Expected To Dominate Until 2013

Apple’s iPad will maintain its dominance of the tablet market through at least 2013, research firm IHS iSuppli said today.

El Segundo, Calif.-based iSuppli bumped up its iPad sales forecast for 2011 from an earlier estimate of 43.7 million to 44.2 million, citing Apple’s ability to solve its supply issues and the blunders by rivals, including Hewlett-Packard.

“Apple has resolved the iPad supply issues,” said Rhoda Alexander, senior manager of tablet and monitor research in an interview today. “It was never a demand problem.”

Earlier this year, Apple struggled to produce enough iPad 2 tablets to meet a surging demand for the new device. Those problems have been addressed, and Alexander said that Apple is in the cat bird’s seat for the second half of the year.

“All the momentum in the media tablet market is with Apple right now,” she said. “The competition can’t seem to field a product with the right combination of hardware, marketing, applications and content to match the iPad.”

iSuppli also boosted its forecast for overall tablet sales this year from 58.9 million to 60 million units, meaning the iPad will account for nearly three-fourths of all tablets sold in 2011.

That dominance will continue through 2013, said Alexander, noting that iSuppli previously expected Apple to fall under the 50% share mark in 2012.

“They’ve taken every lesson they’ve learned with previous products and applied them to the iPad,” said Alexander. “Their whole production process is a marvel to watch.”

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