Updated: Apple said Tuesday that it is suing HTC for infringing on 20 patents related to the iPhone and pursuing a permanent cease and desist order that could derail a wide range of Android devices.

Specifically, Apple is suing HTC in a Delaware district court and the U.S. International Trade Commission for violating patents related to “the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware.” Apple didn’t detail the specific patents involved.

In a statement, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said:

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

Funny that’s what everyone in the smartphone food chain says. The ITC is going to be quite busy evaluating all the patent lawsuits against various mobile phone players.

HTC wasn’t commenting until it reviewed the complaint.

Also see: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes’ take and court documents (PDF).

• Smartphone wars: Apple fires back at Nokia; Court skirmishes heat up

For those keeping score at home, here’s the ITC’s plate:

• The ITC has launched an investigation into Eastman Kodak’s complaint that Research in Motion and Apple are infringing on its patents.
• The ITC is investigating a complaint by Motorola against RIM.
• And the ITC is investigating a complaint by Apple against Nokia.

The big question is whether Apple’s first serve against HTC will escalate into a bevy of countersuits like the Nokia patent war has. It’s unclear that HTC has the history or intellectual property to countersue Apple into a cross-licensing pact. Apple signaled that it wouldn’t let competitors run off with its intellectual property a little more than a year ago and hasn’t disappointed.

Apple vs. Android

It’s hard not to take Apple’s HTC suit as an indirect shot against Google. HTC is a big partner of Google and is launching an army of Android devices that are clearly aimed at the iPhone. Bottom line: Google’s Android encroachment is the biggest threat to the iPhone and a patent suit could be a nice way to distract HTC. Would it be surprising if Apple also sued Motorola too?

Email alerts: Smartphones, Google, Apple

Indeed, Apple’s complaint mentioned Android just as much as it does HTC. Devices targeted by Apple include HTC’s Nexus One, Dream, Magic, Droid Eris and Google G1 among others.

Should Apple be successful it could derail the marketing and importation of many Android devices in the U.S.

In a footnote to its complaint, Apple said:

The categories listed are a shorthand summary of products currently accused of infringement by complainants. These descriptions, and the examples given therein, are not intended to exclusively define or otherwise limited the categories of accused products. Respondents have announced their intention to release additional products in the future that will infringe the asserted patents.

Then as an example Apple mentions that HTC will sell the HD2 in early 2010.

It’s also notable that Apple hasn’t sued Google directly. By going after device makers individually Apple could hamper the hardware partners that Google needs to bring Android to a bevy of devices.

A look at the patents

Apple’s suit involves a bevy of patents ranging from user interface features such as scrolling and scaling to touch screen methods to power consumption to graphics.

The laundry list:

• ‘331 Patent, entitled “Time-Based, Non-Constant Translation Of User Interface Objects Between States”
• ‘949 Patent, entitled “Touch Screen Device, Method, And Graphical User Interface For Determining Commands By Applying Heuristics”
• ‘849 Patent, entitled “Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image”
• ‘381 Patent, entitled “List Scrolling And Document Translation, Scaling, And Rotation On A Touch-Screen Display”
• ‘726 Patent, entitled “System And Method For Managing Power Conditions Within A Digital Camera Device”
• ‘076 Patent, entitled “Automated Response To And Sensing Of User Activity In Portable Devices”
• ‘105 Patent, entitled “GMSK Signal Processors For Improved Communications Capacity And Quality”
• ‘453 Patent, entitled “Conserving Power By Reducing Voltage Supplied To An Instruction-Processing Portion Of A Processor”
• ‘599 Patent, entitled “Object-Oriented Graphic System”
• ‘354 Patent, entitled “Object-Oriented Event Notification System With Listener Registration Of Both Interests And Methods”

What to watch going forward

As we look ahead to the next chapter in this Apple-HTC spat the following questions pop out:

• What other Android bandmates of Google will be targeted? Motorola seems like a potential target.
• Will there be a chilling effect on the Android ecosystem?
• Will the discovery process in the HTC patent suit reveal whether there’s Apple code in Android? While HTC, a hardware company is being targeted, most of the named patents have a software component and could tie into Android.
• Does HTC have the intellectual property portfolio to countersue Apple? Let’s face it these patent suits usually turn out to bring both parties into a big co-licensing deal. Nokia, Motorola, Palm and others have the portfolios to countersue Apple. Does HTC, which was founded in 1997, have the history or patent portfolio to compete?

[via ZDNet]

Android

has been a pretty popular mobile OS for Google, and it’s been a hit with customers, developers and cell manufacturers, too. However, it’s hard to imagine that it’s this popular. Google CEO Eric Schmidt, giving a keynote at the Mobile World Congress in Spain, mentioned that Google and their OEM partners are shipping 60,000 Android phones a day.

Obviously, all those units aren’t Nexus Ones. In addition to the phone’s steep price, reports on the internet

say the phone is selling poorly. However, unlike the iPhone OS, there is a wide variety of phones shipping worldwide that carry the Android OS and some of them are pretty cheap, and appealing.

If you do the math, then by Eric Schmidt’s logic, you can expect 21.9 million Android phones to ship over the course of 365 days. While that may seem like a lot, it might not be. There were 8.7 iPhone sold in the last three months of 2009, which, would mean 34.8 million iPhones sold over the course of a year.

When comScore analyzed the smartphone OS marketshare earlier this year. They found that the iPhone OS made up 25%, while Android carried only 5.2%. You can expect this to change – though. Only one company sells and manufacturers devices that use the iPhone OS on a mobile phone. Multiple companies make Android phones and sell them at multiple price points.

Furthermore, a wave of “cheap” smartphones could be coming. We’ve seen Marvell and ST-Ericsson show off low-cost smartphone chipset platforms that are designed for Android. As you can imagine, these low-end handsets will only further expand Android’s marketshare.

Just a days before Mobile World Congress, Garmin-Asus today unveiled their nuvifone A50, the company’s first Google Android OS device.

The A50 will come loaded with location-based features, including geotags for digital photos, texts, and emails in addition to a host of Google services like YouTube, Gmail, and Google Maps.

Location, Location, Location
Garmin-Asus touts the A50 as an “Android smartphone with more location technology than any other smartphone.” The A50 will receive all location information from Garmin’s satellite, network, and terrestrial sources. All maps will be preloaded on the A50, meaning the device retains Garmin navigation even if the cell loses reception.

In addition, the device will feature additional apps for weather, traffic, fuel price, safety camera, and flight status information. Garmin did not mention pricing for these services, but there was a monthly fee for similar features on the Nuvifone G60.

City-based users can also download cityXplorer for public transit information and navigation using the A50’s e-compass.

A50 Specifications
The nuviphone A50 will have a 3.5 inch HVGA capacitive Touchscreen with an accelerometer, 4GB internal storage, microSD slot, 3 megapixel camera, and a multitouch capable WebKit browser.

The device will also sync with Exchange servers for business users. For drivers, the A50 will ship with a car mount and vehicle power cable.

Pricing and Availability
The nuvifone A50 is slated for European release during the first half of 2010. There is no word on US availability or pricing.

[via Brighthand]

The news concerning Android and its ever-swelling flock of smartphones fails to cease. Today’s tidbits include more information about Android 2.1 for the Motorola Droid and HTC Hero, as well as an update on Flash 10.1.

Android 2.1 on Droid

We heard earlier this week from Motorola that it planned to make Android 2.1 available to the Motorola Droid sometime “this week.” While we wait, Moto thought it would update us on what’s in store. According to Motorola, the Droid will not only gain multitouch in Google Maps, but also in the browser and gallery applications. On top of that, a new gallery app, new music app, new news app, and new weather app will all be included. Also on board will be Google Goggles and voice recognition and virtual keyboard enhancements. Sounds good to me. Bring it on!

Android 2.1 on HTC Hero

Remember the Hero? HTC announced its third Android device back in the second quarter of 2009. There’s an international version of the device, as well as the CDMA-toting versions offered by Sprint and Verizon Wireless (as the Droid Eris). Well, HTC has officially said that it will be offering Android 2.1 along with an upgraded version of Sense UI to the international GSM version of the Hero. Sprint and Verizon have also indicated that their version of the device will receive updates. Exact time frames were not provided.

Flash 10.1 for Android

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Adobe about Flash Player 10.1. According to Adobe, the player is on track for the delivery to consumers during the first half of the year. Adobe wouldn’t be any more specific than that. Adobe is also hard at work on developer betas for WinMo and webOS. Beta versions of the desktop client are already available for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows 7.

Flash Player 10.1 will work in concert with the native Android browser to make sure that Flash video content plays on Android devices seamlessly, just as it would on the desktop.

[via InformationWeek]

Motorola announced via its Facebook page yesterday that the Droid will be getting an over-the-air (OTA) update to Android 2.1. The new version of the Android OS (a.k.a. Eclaire), is currently running only on Google’s Nexus One.

Motorola announced the forthcoming update for later this week and apologized to Droid users for a lack of details on which functions will be included.

“Motorola Hi all – we know you are frustrated with the lack of details regarding Android software upgrades and we sincerely apologize for not being able to share info sooner. We’re happy to relay the 2.1 upgrade to DROID will start to roll out this week, and we will have more information to share on other device upgrades later this week as well,” Motorola posted on its Facebook page.

The Droid was released running Android 2.0 and has since received one OTA to version 2.0.1.

[via Wireless Week]

Mplayit, maker of the mobile app catalog that lives inside Facebook, will release a report later today that lists the top games in their collection. Tetris, The Sims 3, and Wheel of Fortune are among the winners. So are Tap Tap Revenge and Rock Band.

On Mplayit, users can rate, comment on, and recommend individual apps to their social network on Facebook and Twitter. They can browse friends’ app collections, and follow their interests.

The most interesting stat in the report is that while games account for only one in five of the 130,000 iPhone apps at Mplayit, they’re half the traffic. By contrast, games are only 30 percent of BlackBerry traffic and 20 percent of Android.

“iPhone developers are driving this phenomenon, putting out simply fantastic games that get people excited,” Mplayit founder and CEO Michael Powers said in a press release going out today. “But the developer catch-up is underway on Android.”

What about my BlackBerry? “Although BlackBerry is renowned for apps,” Powers said, “it continues to be underrated and overlooked as a games platform.”

Gaming interests vary across platforms, in ways you could probably guess. Music games like Rock Band are popular on the iPhone. Android users like games that use the phone’s GPS and camera, as well as augmented reality games like Barcode Beasties.

BlackBerry users prefer to read the Wall Street Journal on their phones. I’m kidding. Mplayit says they’re a less youth-culture oriented than iPhone and Android owners. They prefer TV and movie-related games like Deal or No Deal, and CSI Miami, and traditional card games like GT Blackjack and Aces Solitaire.

Mplayit has prepared an easy-to-read chart of the top games by phone type and game category.

[via VentureBeat]

For starters, let me just say that this is a service that I can DEFINITELY see myself using even WITHOUT the Android application. The fact that Dropbox is coming to Android is pretty awesome and if you don’t know what it is… I think you’re really going to like it.

Essentially Dropbox is syncing software. On any computer/phone to which you install Dropbox, a “shared” folder will be created. Add stuff to that folder from 1 device and it will be synced across ALL devices. The app is already out there for the iPhone and the folks at AppVee did a pretty good/helpful review/summary:

Apparently the folks at Dropbox sent out an E-Mail to their customers saying something to the extent of, “Android users have a lot to look forward to!” We followed up with them and they said they are working hard on the Android app and also said if we know any developers who might want to work on it… let them know.

The developer part makes me think a release is anything but imminent, but I can tell you as SOON as Dropbox launches on Android Market I’m going to become a customer. I have a desktop computer, 2 laptops and a phone and having documents on some and not others is a HUGE pain in the butt. I have been reluctant to find a solution but it looks like the solution may have found me!

Any current Dropbox users out there that this excites? Any future Dropbox users based on learning about the service?

FYI Dropbox pricing is as follows:

• 2GB = FREE
• 50GB = $9.99/month
• 100GB = $19.99/month

I’m unsure if the app will have to be purchased or whether it will be a free app that is only usable if you’ve already got a paying Dropbox account… or something else. But I’m eager regardless!

[via Phandroid]

Ahead of its expected Mobile World Congress debut, images and specs of Samsung’s M100s handset have been released. Most notably, the phone has a large 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen with a 854×480 resolution, a 5-megapixel camera that’s capable of recording 720p HD videos and a 802.11n Wi-Fi. It will run on an unspecified build of Android and will be offered by Korea’s SK Telecom.

The phone has an 800MHz CPU, believed to be the same ARM11 chip used in the Samsung Moment. The handset will also get a GPS sensor, T-DMB TV tuner and DivX support, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack. Samsung’s controversial TouchWiz UI is likewise part of the specs.

The M100s should be available at SK Telecom in March, though pricing is yet to be announced. [via AndroidandMe]

[via Electronista]

The App Store and controversy go hand in hand. There have been several apps which have been rejected from the App Store for the most weirdest reason and several weird one’s which have been approved, and have left people scratching their heads as to how they got in.

It looks like Apple is upping the App Store ante a bit and going all after their main challenger, Google, by asking a developer to remove the word “Android” from the app description.

The app in question is Flash in Genius, who were a finalist in the Google Android Developer’s Challenge and had mentioned about it in their app description as seen in the screenshot above. However, the folks at Apple were less than happy about this and sent a email to them which you can read below.

Dear Flash of Genius, LLC,

Thank you for submitting Flash of Genius: SAT Vocab 2.2 to the App Store.  During our review of your application, we found that your application contains inappropriate or irrelevant platform information in the Application Description and/or Release Notes sections.

Providing future platform compatibility plans or other general platform references are not relevant in the context of the iPhoneApp Store.  While your application has not been rejected, it would be appropriate  to remove “Finalist in Google’s Android Developer’s Challenge!”  from the Application Description [Emphasis added].

Please log into iTunes Connect to make appropriate changes to the Application Description now to avoid an interruption in the availability of Flash of Genius: SAT Vocab 2.2 on the iPhoneApp Store.

Regards,

iPhone Developer Program

According to the email, Apple has threatened the developer to remove the Android mention or face the removal of the app from theApp store. Agreed that Apple makes good business for developers, but this incident definitely says much about them and how they treat competition.

This makes me wonder if Apple allows their own employees to use a Nokia or Android based phone in their work environment? Or will they send employees a sack notice because they use one?

[via Techie Buzz]