Apple Drops 4G iPad Label in Australian, UK Markets
Today’s mobile news roundup features Apple dropping 4G ad in Australia, Nokia stepping up on patent claims, and an early look at the HTC Desire C.
Apple gives in to Australian demands
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) filed a case against Apple for their misleading ads regarding the 4G capabilities of the new iPad, to which Apple replied that they were not at fault, failing to reach an agreement with the commission.
But no matter how tough Apple is, they gave in to the ACCC’s demands nonetheless, stating that since not all networks use the term 4G to refer to their high speed networks, they dropped the 4G labeling on their new iPad advertising in Australia and UK. The new iPad, previously labeled as “WiFi+4G”, is now known as “WiFi+cellular.”
Patent trolling Nokia
Nokia previously filed a total of 45 patent claims against HTC, Viewsonic, and BlackBerry maker RIM for allegedly using their technology to enable hardware capabilities such as dual function antennas, power management and multimode radios, as well as to enhance software features including application stores, multitasking, navigation, conversational message display, dynamic menus, data encryption and retrieval of email attachments on a mobile device.
Reports are now suggesting that Nokia may soon be after other smartphone vendors using the Android platform.
“It’s clear from last week’s press release about actions against HTC, RIM and Viewsonic that we are taking new steps, moving beyond essential patents to other patents for which we have no obligation to license at all,” Nokia spokesman Mark Durrant said in an email.
Out of the 45 patent claims filed by Nokia, 41 are “implementation patents” or proprietary innovations which have not been deemed essential to any standard, and which Nokia is not obliged to license.
“This is why we have flagged this as a next step for us,” Durrant said. “Our activity to date has been primarily focused on licensing our essential patents and we have around 40 licensees for them (and of course, we also have licensees to standards essential patents from many other companies).
“These actions are primarily around implementation patents, which represent the majority of the patents in our portfolio (we have around 10,000 patent families, of which only around 1,200 have been declared as essential to one or more patents).”
HTC Desire C sneak peak
The HTC Desire C has been prematurely spotted days before it launched. The HTC Desire C is a 3.5-inch handset with a 480×320 screen, 600Mhz processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, and a five megapixel camera, and runs on the Ice Cream Sandwich. It’s smaller than previous HTC handsets with three capacitive Android buttons ported from the HTC One.
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