UPDATED 13:37 EDT / DECEMBER 23 2011

This Week in Mobile: Patent Rivalries Abound, Device Updates Fall Flat

Everyone in the tech scene knows how crucial it is to secure your position in the mobile arena. It’s the post-PC era and it won’t be too long before everything goes mobile. As for the tech titans who are biting each other’s head off to get an edge in the game, they’re just being competitive.

HTC gets away with a slap on the hand

So the first piece of bad news comes from HTC.  According to The Wall Street Journal, the International Trade Commission has found substantial ground to confirm Apple’s allegations of HTC smartphones infringing one of their patents. The ruling leaves HTC is banned from shipping affected smartphone in the US, starting April 2012. This isn’t only going to hurt HTC, but Android too, since the Taiwanese brand is the company’s second largest manufacturer of Android phones.

On the up side, the ruling wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been, and HTC’s already rolled out a update that circumvents the infringed patent.

More lawsuits for all

And as HTC licks its wounds on the sideline, Microsoft is putting itself in a better position for owning more of the mobile space in the future. Every major competitor that gets wiped out of the way means a new spot is open for them, so why not? While Apple’s busy suing its competitors, Microsoft bolsters licensing agreements on the backend and steadily improves its device line-up and software integration. Meanwhile Apple’s beginning to lose its grip on its patent warfare strategy, as Samsung bans are being lifted in the US and Australia, and losing key lawsuits in Germany.

Moving away from the Apple-Samsung skirmish, Google also has its version of hell. Everybody just seems to love suing Google– from Apple to Oracle, Microsoft, eBay and now, British Telecom. BT said that its resulting patents have been infringed by Google’s search engines, Android system, Google+ social network, eBooks, Maps, Offers, Docs, Places, Gmail, Doubleclick advertising management system, AdWords advertisement listing program and other services.

Privacy prevails

And one more thing to be really upset about, Carrier IQ, a provider of mobile service intelligence solutions for the whole of the wireless industry, is currently dealing with a whistle-blowing Android app developer Trevor Eckhart, who accused CarrierIQ of tracking users’ web activity to the extent of using key loggers. Carrier IQ refuted that while the software receives a huge amount of information, his findings didn’t show signs that this information is being processed, stored or forwarded. In fact, the data is used by carriers to determine consumer behavior.

Amazon Kindle Fire sets tablet market ablaze

Ok, enough of the bad news. Amazon Kindle Fire basks in the glory of selling over 1 million Kindle devices sold a week for the past three weeks. Apple sure faces great competition from Barnes & Nobles’ Nook which ‘sells at $199 and Amazon Kindle with a basic version is priced at a meager $79. Right now, Amazon is rocking Millennial Media’s Mobile Mix Report and it’s success also speaks much of Android’s success being the operating system within.

Intel plans a comeback, and other news

Then there’s Intel announcing big mobile plans at CES for 2012. They’ve been lagging behind in the mobile market, and their shares in handsets and tablets are relatively meager. Not one to miss out on an emerging market, they are planning to make a comeback at CES next year.

Meanwhile, there are rumors running saying Cupertino acquired Israel-based flash memory startup Anobit for $400-$500 million. Even Israel’s prime minister congratulated Apple with an update on Twitter. However, no confirmation has come from the alleged companies involved in the deal.

And lastly, we have appMobi releasing a new HTML5 SDK to solve rampant audio and animation problems. appMobi is a known advocate of HTML5 and open web.


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