Hasta La Gadget!

The wrangling over patents has shifted its focus to Motorola today, which took a blow in court over standards-essential patents and how much the company is entitled to over them. Specifically, the now Google-owned Motorola Mobility sought billions from Microsoft over its use of the patents, but a judge has put the kibosh on that, dropping the figure substantially.

Such a ruling has impact outside of this particular legal spat, potentially laying a foundation for future issues regarding how much a company can receive financially for patents that are standards essential, such as the h.264 and wireless patents involved in this case. Microsoft uses some of Motorola’s patents, and for that use Motorola sought more than 4 billion dollars.

U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle, Washington gave his ruling on Thursday, saying that rather than the billions it wanted, Motorola Mobility is actually owned more in the range of $1.8 million annually from Microsoft for its use of the patents. The judge went on to elaborate on this decision, explaining why the rate is so much lower than what was being sought.

Dozens of entities all have, for example, wireless standards-essential patents, and the cost of paying the wanted rate out to each of them for using the technology would result in wireless networking costs exceedingly high. Needless to say, Microsoft was satisfied with the decision, but Motorola was less enthused, giving a rather generic statement that it licenses its patents at rates similar to other companies in the same industry.

[via AllThingsD]

Judge to Motorola: You’re asking too much for patents is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Samsung‘s first quarter financial numbers are in, revealing a net profit increase of $6.4 billion alongside a slow down in growth, which is being attributed to increased competition in the low and mid-end smartphone market. Such quarterly profits represent a 42-percent increase over the first quarter of 2012, however, and many analysts are saying that Samsung is still on the top, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Once again, smartphone sales were the driving force behind Samsung’s success in a market polarized between iOS and Android, with Apple being the Korean company’s biggest competitor. Samsung didn’t reveal how many smartphones it shipped during the quarter, but estimates are putting the number at about 70 million devices, which would likely allow the company to retain its top position in the smartphone market.

Quarterly earnings were up again, with Q4 2012 coming in at 7.04 trillion won, a figure that was eclipsed by last quarter’s 7.15 trillion won. The South Korean company saw an overall sales increase of 16.8-percent, with cell phones and telecommunications devices representing just under three-quarters of its profits, with its mobile division seeing a slight rise in operating profit margin.

As we saw with T-Mobile earlier this week, Samsung has suffered delays in getting its GALAXY S 4 flagship handset out to carriers on time, resulting in delayed and pushed back launch dates. The problem is said to be caused by high demand and inventory issues, but that doesn’t bode well when the company is relying so heavily on the phone to drive it to another quarter of success.

[via Wall Street Journal]

Samsung’s Q1 financial report shows rising profits despite growth slowdown is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Since its March 26 unveiling, T-Mobile has been aggressively pushing the plan changes it has made, alterations that it says make it America’s “Uncarrier.” Such claims were challenged in Washington, where the state Attorney General’s Office initiated an investigation into the carrier’s advertisements. The investigation resulted with T-Mobile being accused of making deceptive statements about its plans.

The issue at play is that T-Mobile makes claims that seem to be contradicted by the fine-print in its uncarrier plans, which are promised to have no restrictions and yearly contracts. Such is the case with plans that aren’t accompanied by a cell phone, but not with plans where the customer gets a phone, which they are required to keep under T-Mobile service for two years or pay the device’s full retail price upon dropping the service.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said of the matter: “In our view, those advertisements were quite deceptive.” And one of the attorney’s working the investigation, Paula Sellis, expounded on that, saying: “You had to dig very deeply to understand what the terms of the program were, and you had to put two and two together.” T-Mobile doesn’t agree with their conclusion, as you might expect, but has agreed to change its advertisements and to offer customers a refund.

Says T-Mobile:

As America’s Un-carrier, our goal is to increase transparency with our customers, unleashing them from restrictive long-term service contracts — this kind of simple, straightforward approach is core to the new company we are building. While we believe our advertising was truthful and appropriate, we voluntarily agreed to this arrangement with the Washington AG in this spirit

According to Tech Hive, no customers complained about T-Mobile’s claims and services, with the investigation being prompted by the advertisements the carrier put out. For its part, T-Mobile has to pay $26,046 in costs and fees, has agreed to make its consequences of cancellation, true costs, and terms more clear, and to train its staff within the next 21 days to provide this information. Those who subscribed to one of the uncarrier’s plans by today are eligible for a full refund upon service cancellation.

[via Tech Hive]

T-Mobile settles “uncarrier” deceptive claims dispute with refunds and ad changes is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Amazon released its Q1 2013 quarterly earnings today, and the company reported a 22% increase in revenue to $16 billion, compared to the same quarter last year where they scored $13.18 billion. As for net profit, the company saw a 37% drop year-over-year down to $82 million, compared to $130 million in Q1 2012.

The company met its revenue expectations, however, with a guidance of between $15 billion and $16.6 billion that they set back in January. As for a breakdown of where the retail giant’s money came from, the US remains to be Amazon’s largest market, with $9.4 billion of sales revenue being from the US, with the rest of world ringing in at $6.7 billion.

As for expectations for the next quarter, Amazon is predicting revenues somewhere in the $14.5 billion and $16.2 billion range, or to rise between 13% and 26% compared with the same quarter last year. As for their operating income, they’re expecting another loss in the range of -$340 million and $10 million, compared to $107 million a year ago.

Amazon recently debuted 14 pilots from original series that they’re planning on running. However, only a few will make it through. According to the company, the shows that make it through will be entirely picked by the viewers based of feedback. All of them are available now to stream for free.

Amazon profits drop to $82 million, revenue up 22% in Q1 2013 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

As it stands right now, Verizon holds 55-percent of Verizon Wireless, with Vodafone holding the other 45-percent. According to some sources who spoke to Reuters, Verizon is looking at buying out Vodafone‘s stake to take full control of Verizon Wireless. Assuming Vodafone is approached by Verizon, nothing says it will need to sell, however, or that it will be interested in doing so.

Says the sources, Verizon has not yet approached Vodafone, but has instead hired advisers and are looking into the possibility. If the proposal is offered, it is said to involve $100 billion in a combination of cash and stocks ($50 billion from financing, the rest in shares), with Verizon being ready to “push aggressively” to have the deal go through.

Back in 2004, Verizon almost scored Vodafone’s stake in Verizon Wireless when the company was trying to purchase AT&T Wireless, something that would have necessitated the sale of its stake. That purchase didn’t go through, however, and as a result Vodafone retained its Verizon Wireless stake. If the proposal is made, some analysts expect that Vodafone will demand more.

One such reason is the large tax bill Vodafone could be faced with if it sells it stake, estimated to come in at about $20 billion, reducing the value of Verizon’s offer. The sources have a different take on that, however, saying that the way the proposal is made would reduce the tax burden to about $5 billion instead, possibly less. Nothing official has been said on the matter.

[via Vodafone]

Verizon considering Vodafone stake buyout, says sources is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.