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]

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]

Not 24 hours after Steve Jobs told his minions that Google’s Don’t Be Evil mantra was “B.S.” (or “crap” depending on who you listen to) Google answers by pushing out an Android update to Nexus One users that includes multi-touch (and other Android goodness).

Google, up until yesterday, left multi-touch off its U.S. Android phones, presumably in deference to Apple’s multi-touch patent.

It was also rumored that Apple asked Google not to release multitouch in the U.S. to avoid the IP aggression we’ve seen it take against Palm for including multi-touch in the Pre.

I’m not saying that Google released the Nexus One multi-touch update because of Jobs’ comments, but it may have been pushed out a little sooner because of them.

More evidence of how the relationship between Apple and Google has chilled lately.

The N1 update takes the Android/iPhone battle to a new level and frankly, the ball’s in Apple’s court. Jobs promised that the next iPhone would be A+ and that Android won’t be able to keep up with it.

Them’s fighting words, Steve!

If Apple doesn’t address a majority of the items on my iPhone wishlist (background apps, voice search, improved home/lock screens, widgets, etc.) with its “A+” release we’ll know that Jobs was just trash-talking and that Android has clearly taken the lead in the smartphone wars.

Note: Impatient Nexus One owners can force the firmware update by following this technique. It preserves your data and apps and doesn’t require root access.

[via ZDNet]

Apple and Google, once close allies, are battling on a growing number of fronts

SMARTPHONES

Apple has ridden the iPhone to 14% of the smartphone market in three years. Google’s original plan to let hardware partners make phones running its Android software has garnered only a sliver of the market. So Google, risking the ire of Android phonemakers, is launching its own Nexus One phone.

MOBILE SOFTWARE

The 125,000 apps iPhone users can download bolster the popularity of Apple devices and give it influence over how people use their phones. Rather than use Google’s search, iPhone users can fire up the New York Times app for news or Yelp for local restaurants. Google is well behind with 18,000 Android apps.

ADVERTISING

Google’s core business is advertising, with virtually all of its revenue coming from the text ads that pop up alongside search results. Apple aims to break into the mobile advertising business Google has been eyeing by creating new ways to advertise within apps on the iPhone and other Apple devices.

PERSONAL COMPUTERS

Apple still gets almost 40% of its revenue from Mac computers running its operating system. Now Google is developing Android to run competing machines and has designed a separate operating system, Chrome OS, for simpler computer Web surfing. Both companies will soon back tablets, too.

ENTERTAINMENT

While Apple has become the world’s largest music retailer, Google just began using its search engine to direct people to Apple rivals to play and buy songs. Google owns YouTube, and Apple is adding more video to iTunes, reportedly including a push to offer cable-like subscriptions to shows from CBS, ABC, and others.

ACQUISITIONS

Apple and Google, with $23 billion and $22 billion in cash and short-term securities, respectively, are competing increasingly for the same startups. Google won out in bidding for the ad service AdMob, then Apple outbid Google for the music site LaLa Media last year. Apple is adding people and processes to better compete for deals.

[via BusinessWeek]

The smartphone market seems to be shoe-in: Apple has momentum in the space reminiscent of its takeover of the MP3 player market years prior with the iPod. Despite this momentum, the discerning media planner working on mobile for something six months out should take note — Google’s Android is poised to crash Apple’s party.

Why? Three reasons:

Android Clones:
While the iPhone had Chinese imitation devices, Android will literally have a clone army. The open-source system will live on a handful of devices by the end of this year, and dozens of devices by the end of 2010. So while the system seemed to languish when the only Android device was the G1, with phones like the HTC Hero and myTouch 3G, Android will traverse carrier networks and handset manufacturers.

Specialized Versions:
Android can be customized, and many of the handset manufactures are doing just this. HTC has built the Sense UI, a prettier and contextually aware revamp of the Android operating system, and Motorola is working on their Android-based UI “Blur.” With the ability to customize the flavor of Android for devices, it creates a competitive marketplace among handsets to vie for custom features while expanding the overall Android market share. While the iPhone has to try to juggle between enterprise users, multimedia users and social network users, Android can have a tailored version for phones segmented to each individual market niche.

Killer Apps:
There’s been some controversy lately about Apple’s AppStore rejection policies. A number of Google applications were rejected from the phone. On one hand, this hurt Google’s ability to roll out those services, but it also gave Android a handful of killer apps.

Google Voice is an extremely powerful concept — it allows users to unbridle their phone number from telecoms, using Google to route calls to a single number to any number of phones. It does the same for text messages and turns voicemails into text. If Google Voice routed to a VoIP service running on a carrier data network, it could overnight replace the need for voice and text message packages.

Google Latitude, meanwhile, is a location based social tool which allows location reporting to run in the background and send location data to contacts a user specifies. Each of these pack a ton of potential utility in a single application, which the iPhone doesn’t have.

Apple’s position in the market is too well-rooted to be driven away without a very tough fight. But Android is very much poised to stifle the iPhone’s growth while extending its own roots. Keep an eye on the friendly green robot — behind that guise he’s waiting patiently, and planning carefully.

[via AdvertisingAge]

AT&T admits to deal with Apple over VoIP services

by Chloe Albanesius

Apple has not rejected the Google Voice iPhone app, but it does have serious concerns about its ability to usurp existing iPhone capabilities, Apple said in a Friday filing.

AT&T, meanwhile, denied any involvement in Apple’s decision regarding the Google Voice app, but it did admit that AT&T and Apple have an agreement whereby Apple will not take steps to enable an iPhone to make VoIP calls without AT&T’s consent.

“Contrary to published reports, Apple has not rejected the Google Voice application, and continues to study it,” Apple wrote in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). “The application has not been approved because, as submitted for review, it appears to alter the iPhone’s distinctive user experience by replacing the iPhone’s core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own interface for telephone calls, text messaging, and voicemail.”

Apple’s comments come after the FCC asked Apple, AT&T, and Google to answer specific questions regarding Google Voice. The agency’s probe was prompted by reports that popular third-party Google Voice apps for the iPhone were removed from the iPhone App Store, including GV Mobile and VoiceCentral.

In its filing, Apple confirmed that GV Mobile, VoiceCentral, and GV Dialer were removed because they fall into the same category as the pending Google Voice app.

Specifically, the Google Voice iPhone app would replace the iPhone’s “Phone” icon on the bottom of the home screen, which prevents voicemails from being stored on the iPhone and disables Apple’s Visual Voicemail, the company said. The SMS function of the Google Voice app does the same thing.

The app also transfers a user’s contacts database to Google servers, and Apple said it has “yet to obtain any assurances from Google that this data will only be used in appropriate ways.”

As a result, Apple is still “pondering” Google’s application.

[via PCMAG]

Transmedia launches its Glide Engage microblogging and collaboration application for the T-Mobile G1 smartphone, based on Google’s Android mobile operating system. Transmedia CEO Donald Leka said Apple’s inconsistent iPhone App Store policies and the fact that Glide Engage will compete with Apple’s MobileMe and iTunes store mean Transmedia has to be careful about what it launches on the iPhone.

Transmedia CEO and Chairman Donald Leka isn’t buying the recent talk about the Apple iPhone being superior to the T-Mobile G1 based on Google’s Android mobile operating system. Leka uses both the iPhone and the G1 and said he finds the G1 superior for Web browsing.

Weighing that fact and Apple’s unpredictable iPhone App Store policies regarding competing applications, Transmedia Aug. 18 launched the first mobile version of its Glide Engage social networking and mobile collaboration application for the G1 smartphone. Glide Engage does a lot, but most notably it enables microblogging up to 1,400 characters, a stab at Twitter’s 140-character cap for messaging.

Transmedia’s choice of the G1 as the launch pad for Glide Engage is significant because it flies in the face of some developer anecdotes that the G1 is an inferior device to the iPhone. Although Apple has sold millions of iPhones, the device is supported by an App Store marred by inconsistent policies that have led to the expulsion of some applications.

In the most high-profile case, Apple allowed some third-party Google Voice call management applications to run on the iPhone, but yanked them from the App Store. Apple also rejected Google’s submission of a Google Voice application for the iPhone App Store.

Transmedia has supported the iPhone since its inception two years ago, letting iPhone users create Microsoft Word and PDF documents, edit photos and other tasks from the Glide Operating System. But business is business, and Leka believes the best business is to go with the G1 first.

Leka told eWEEK the Google Voice issue, currently under investigation by the Federal Communications Commission, the open-source nature of Android, and the G1’s nimble Web browsing were a few of the reasons he and his staff chose to release Glide Engage for the G1 first.

“The Android phone is just a great Web phone,” Leka told eWEEK. “I carry an Android phone and I carry an iPhone, but for Web browsing I just find the Android phone to be a better Web browsing phone.”

However, he admitted another reason that proves more pragmatic than philosophical. Glide Engage aims to compete with Apple’s MobileMe service, which pushes e-mail, contacts and calendar events over the air to all Apple devices, and potentially down the road with Apple’s iTunes store and social networking plans.

“We’re a small company, so we can’t release something that Apple arbitrarily rejects and then we’ve lost our development dollars,” Leka told eWEEK, adding that he wants to establish a foothold for Glide Engage in the mobile market before submitting an iPhone version for approval to Apple.

Glide Engage is a rights-based social networking and macro- or micro-blogging service. The fat character cap on the app’s microblogging feature means people can use it to share documents, images and other files.

In describing this capability, Leka also claimed Glide Engage is a bit like “bringing Google Wave to the Android platform before Google does it,” because it lets users start with a post, then add editable links to documents and photos. Users can also easily upgrade their microblogging collaboration to a video conference on the fly.

Glide Engage is also integrated with the Glide OS’s productivity and collaboration application suite and file storage solution, allowing users to create and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

Glide Engage, which features 10 gigabytes of free storage, can be downloaded here for the G1, but will eventually be rolled out for RIM’s Blackberry, the Palm Pre, Symbian and Windows Mobile. That doesn’t mean the app will never grace the iPhone.

Leka said a version of the Glide Engage application for the iPhone is nearly complete and will be submitted to Apple for approval.

The mobile version of Glide Engage comes a week after Transmedia rolled out the desktop version, which can be downloaded here.

[via eWeek]

Jason Calacanis writes a long but thoughtful article on why he is done with Apple and their monopolistic practices. He’s not alone as many other devoted iPhone users are speaking out as well like Michael Arrington of TechCrunch and Peter Rojas of GDGT.com and the founder of Engadget.

Summary: About six years and $20,000 ago, I made the switch to Apple products after a 20-year love affair with Microsoft. That love affair started with the humble PCjr and ended with an IBM ThinkPad. From DOS to the first version of Windows (the run-time version that only loaded one program), and on to Windows 95 and XP, I dealt with the viruses, driver incompatibilities and other assorted quirks of Microsoft’s wildly open ecosystem.

The Love Affair Ends

Steve’s a great guy, and the love affair has been wonderful, but I’m starting to look past him and back to Microsoft for a more healthy relationship that is less–wait for it–anti-competitive in nature.

The Case, The Five Parts

I’d like to discuss four major issues around Apple’s current product line that I believe are stifling the industry, consumer choice and pricing. Instead of just giving a simple solution to the problem, I thought long and hard about the opportunities for Apple to be less controlling and more open. For example, if the iPhone was available on more carriers, Apple would sell many, many more units, which would inevitably lead to people switching from Windows desktops to Macs (which is what happened with the iPod).

1. Destroying MP3 player innovation through anti-competitive practices

There is no technical reason why the iTunes ecosystem shouldn’t allow the ability to sync with any MP3 player (in fact, iTunes did support other players once upon a time), save furthering Apple’s dominance with their own over-priced players. Quickly answer the following question: who are the number two and three MP3 players in the market? Exactly. Most folks can’t name one, let alone two, brands of MP3 players.

2. Monopolistic practices in telecommunications

Apple’s iPhone is a revolutionary product that has devolved almost all of the progress made in cracking–wait for it–AT&T’s monoply in the ’70s and ’80s. We broke up the Bell Phone only to have it put back together by the iPhone. Telecommunications choice is gone for Apple users. If you buy an Apple and want to have a seemless experience with your iPhone, you must get in bed with AT&T, and as we like to say in the technology space, “AT&T is the suck.”

3. Draconian App Store policies that are, frankly, insulting

Like lemmings, we fell for your bar charts extolling the openness of the iPhone App platform and its massive array of applications. We over-paid for your phone–which you render obsolete every 13 months, like clockwork–and then signed our lives away to AT&T. The way you pay us back is by becoming the thought police, deciding what applications we can consume on the device we over-paid for!

4. Being a horrible hypocrite by banning other browsers on the iPhone

Opera is a fantastic browser built by a company in Oslo, Norway. In fact, a decade ago, I had a speaking gig there and got to interview the CEO of the company for Silicon Alley Reporter. (Sidebar: Man, do I miss being a journalist. I wish I could split 50% of my time being a journalist and 50% of my time being a CEO.) For over a decade, Opera has been making lighting-fast, lightweight and quirky browsers. Long before Apple launched Safari, with the goal of designing the fastest browswer on the Web, Opera was already there.

5. Blocking the Google Voice Application on the iPhone

Apple took Google’s innovative and absurdly priced phone offering, Google Voice, out of the App Store and is currently being investigated by the FCC for this action. This point is similar to the browser issue, in that Apple wants to own almost every extension of the iPhone platform. How long before Apple decides to ban a Twitter client in favor of an Apple Twitter-like product? Seems crazy, I know, but by following Apple’s logic you should not be able to use Firefox or Google Chrome on your desktop.

In Summary

I’m not a huge fan of government involvement in business, so I would rather see Apple resolve these issues for themselves.

[Read Full Story Here]

“HEY APPLE!!!…F-U” -Love, Google

Apple rejected Google Voice almost two weeks ago, removing it from the app store. Now under investigation by the feds, AT&T has pointed the finger at Apple for the rejection. In an exciting move, Google is moving its rejected application online in an effort to essentially negate any attempts by Apple to police the application.

You will be able to link to it with a shortcut icon on your home screen. The specially crafted iPhone-shaped web page will offer all the features of the original app. They could be accomplishing this with HTML 5 app caching. In other words, in a move akin to flipping the bird to Steve Jobs, Google has essentially highlighted a way for app developers everywhere to easily publish their rejected content.

The move could usher in a new era of freedom for iPhone users. Freed from what Apple dictates are fit and proper apps, the phone’s true potential could finally be achieved. Rejected apps like eBook readers (rejected en masse over piracy concerns) could simply move online. As the New York Times’ Dave Pogue puts it, “What’s Apple going to do now? Start blocking access to individual Web sites?”

Google’s decision to defying Apple is an exciting development. And one thing’s for sure — Apple’s likely not happy and is likely trying to scheme how to stop them.

Android users on the other hand have had seamless Google Voice service as soon as they download the app from the Market.