Samsung’s Weapon Against Apple, Instagram’s Android Invasion
Today’s mobile roundup features Samsung’s secret weapon in their case against Apple, Nokia Money being discontinued, PaymentOne rebrands and Instagram’s Android invasion coming soon.
Samsung
Samsung may have gotten a break for their case against Apple with regards to their tablet dispute. Roger Fidler, a person who says he theorized the tablet back in 1994 with a video to prove it, is now serving as a paid expert witness on behalf of Samsung to prove that Samsung did not steal Apple’s iPad design since it was not their original idea and that “the idea was out in the public well before either of the two tech giants created their versions.”
In an interview with the Washington Post, Fidler stated that ‘To me it was never about the money. I was never doing things with the idea that this was going to make me rich. It never occurred to me, actually.’
Back in 1994, Fidler was an employee at the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain and he was able to convince his superiors to allow him to start up a lab in their Colorado office where forward thinkers would gather and talk about the future of journalism. The lab he was referring to is housed at the same building where Apple also had their office. Fidler claims that many clients visited both their labs during a single visit. Apple’s claim of the tablet being their original idea is now being questioned.
Nokia
Nokia Money, the Finnish phone maker’s financial service in India, will shut down in order to focus on the company’s phone business and location-based services.
“The mobile financial services business is not core to Nokia so we plan to exit the business,” said a spokesman for the company.
After launching the service just last year with plans of expanding the service to more markets, Nokia decided to shut it down. A report from Times of India stated that financial services, such as Nokia Money, “are seen as one of the major business opportunities in the wireless industry but so far have become a big business only in Kenya and the Philippines, as tight regulations and the lack of a business model have restricted take-up elsewhere.”
PayOne
PaymentOne rebrands itself as PayOne, a service that promotes “frictionless mobile lifestyle” wherein you pay for the almost anything with just your phone. The company is also re-launching their service as a One-Click mobile payments platform that can be used to pay for everything for pay-per-view movies to purchasing a mobile app.
“Different from offline and e-commerce, every added data element or keystroke required of a mobile consumer on the small screen is a serious point of friction and a measurable point of failure or falloff for a merchant,” said Joe Lynam, chief executive of PayOne.
“Requiring the consumer to enroll, pre-register, provide sensitive personal or credit card data or establish a separate user name and password to make a simple payment amounts to far too much friction for a mobile user. The new PayOne brand represents our mission to streamline and eliminate every single step, process and keystroke possible to optimize the mobile payment experience for the consumer and our partner merchants.”
Fandroids who attended the Instagram party at the South by Southwest Interactive event were thrilled with the news that Instagram will be coming to Android devices “very soon.” The announcement was made by co-founder Kevin Systrom.
During the Instagram party, Systrom showed “a glimpse of the upcoming version of the app, which is currently being tested in a private beta.”
“I’m glad to see Instagram coming to Android,” said SXSW attendee Patrick Asher, who recently picked up a new Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone. “I’m going to download it. I’m looking forward to taking more photos on this than my old iPhone.”
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