Microsoft wins third German patent victory over Google Motorola technology

Microsoft wins third German patent victory over Google Motorola technology

Microsoft has won a third victory in Germany over Google's Motorola unit in the ongoing patent wars between the two companies.

A German court ruled that several Motorola tablets and phones infringe a Microsoft patented method for apps to handle different kinds of user input, such as on-screen letter and numeric keyboards, handwriting and drawing interfaces, and voice recognition, according to the BBC.

Samsung, HTC and others smartphone makers have licensed the technology from Microsoft, but Motorola had resisted. Google now faces additional sales restrictions on its products in Germany unless it makes significant changes to its Android operating system (OS).

Commentators believe it may be easier for Google to pay a licence fee than to issue a software update for its Android OS.

"We're pleased this decision builds on previous rulings in Germany that have already found Motorola is broadly infringing Microsoft's intellectual property," said David Howard, Microsoft's deputy general counsel.

"We will continue to enforce injunctions against Motorola products in Germany and hope Motorola will join other Android device makers by taking a licence to Microsoft's patented inventions."

Google said in a statement that it is waiting for the court’s written decision and is evaluating its options, including an appeal.

Samsung becomes first to unveil Windows Phone 8 handset

Samsung becomes first to unveil Windows Phone 8 handset:

Samsung announced a new range of products under the name Ativ last night, making it the first manufacturer to reveal its Windows Phone 8 mobile device.

The Ativ S smartphone was unveiled at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, beating Microsoft’s major partner, Nokia, which is due to launch its own device at a press event in New York next Wednesday.

Samsung’s version houses a 1.5GHz dual core processor, comes with a choice of 16GB or 32GB memory – with support for a microSD card – and two cameras, a forward-facing 1.9MP and a rear-facing 8MP shooter.

The device itself measures in at 137.2mm x 70.5mm, with a 4.8” HD Super AMOLED display, is 8.7 mm thick and weighs just 135g, making it a similar build to Samsung’s Galaxy S III flagship mobile, but with less power inside.

It is not clear when the device will hit the shelves but rumours from the trade show floor claim the end of October is a likely launch date.

As well as the Ativ S smartphone, Samsung also unveiled a new tablet device based on the upcoming Windows 8 light version known as Windows RT. The Activ Tab will have a 10.1” display but weigh 570g and measure 8.9mm in thickness, making it both thinner and lighter than the latest Apple iPad.

It will run on a 1.5GHz dual core processor, come with either 32GB or 64GB memory – as well as support for up to 64GB on a microSD card – and have two cameras, the forward-facing 1.9MP and the rear-facing 5MP device.    

“Samsung is a highly-valued partner and it’s great to see this investment in a global brand for its Windows-based tablets and phones,” said Nick Parker, corporate vice-president of original equipment manufacturers for Microsoft.

“This gives us an increased opportunity to inspire our customers with excitement and confidence as they enjoy Windows experiences across their beautiful Samsung devices, including entertainment scenarios, mobile productivity and cloud services.”

Acer sees sales stall

Acer sees sales stall

Acer saw sales stalll in its second quarter, down 2.2% compared to the first three months of the year.

The Taiwanese company said it didn’t expect revenue to pick up until its fourth quarter.

But Acer will start shipping products for the launch of Microsoft Windows 8 in August and September, therefore anticipates revenues to rebound, and consequently expects third quarter revenues to be about the same as the second quarter, said the company.

The company also said a one-time tax settlement of NT$410m affected its income.

The news follows record sales from Chinese rival Lenovo, which saw a  44% year-over-year in its latest results.

Andrew Buss, service director analyst at Freeform Dynamics said the results reflect a tumultuous last few years at the company.

“Acer had a policy of pile it high and sell it cheap, which worked in the boom time but when the downturn happened it was  left with a lot of stock it had to write off,” he said.

“Also the lower end of the market, which it has typically targeted, has cannibalised by things like iPad, as people look to purchase tablets instead of netbook and lower cost PCs.  

“Alternatively Lenovo has focused on the mid- to upper end of the market and only recently moved into the consumer space.”

Buss said Acer should see an increase in sales with the release of Windows 8, but shouldn’t rely on that as a long-term strategy to improve sales.

Nokia fuels hopes of phone launch ahead of Apple:

Nokia  said on Wednesday it will hold a joint media event with Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) in New York on September 5, boosting hopes that it will unveil its long-awaited Windows smartphone upgrade before rival Apple Inc (AAPL.O) rolls out its next iPhone.

The Finnish company gave no details about the September event, but Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said earlier on Wednesday the company would unveil soon a new smartphone using Microsoft's latest smartphone software known as Windows Phone 8.

The joint event with Microsoft will occur a week before Apple is expected to unveil its own hotly anticipated iPhone 5.

Nokia has been fighting for survival after ceding vast ground to rivals Apple and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) in recent years. In 2011 it forged a software alliance with Elop's former employer, Microsoft, which also fell behind in smartphone software.

Both Nokia and Microsoft are pinning their hopes on the next Windows-based phone to challenge Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy smartphone.

Nokia has not commented on specific plans for its Nokia World trade show event in Helsinki on September 5 and 6.

Elop did not deny a September launch when he spoke to reporters earlier on Wednesday. He said only that Windows Phone 8 smartphones would be released in the "relatively near term."

Nokia shares, which have been trading near all-time lows, rose sharply in Helsinki after Elop's comments and gained 3.4 percent to close at 2.0760 euros in Helsinki on Wednesday. Its U.S. shares closed up 6 percent at $2.64 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Also on Wednesday, Standard & Poor's downgraded Nokia's credit rating to BB- with a "negative" outlook.

Elop, who was brought in from Microsoft two years ago to lead Nokia's fight against Apple and Samsung, said he was sticking to his strategy of using Microsoft software despite the limited success of Windows phones so far.

Nokia decided in early 2011 to ditch its home-grown Symbian software in favor of software from Microsoft.

"I don't think about rewinding the clock and thinking about competing elsewhere," he told reporters in Oslo.

"In today's war ... (between) Android, Apple and Windows, we are very clear, we are fighting that with the Windows phone," said Elop, who was in Oslo for a meeting with Telenor ASA (TEL.OL) Chief Executive Jon Fredrik Baksaas.

Nokia lost 1.53 billion euros in the second quarter and sold just 4 million Windows phones in the period, well short of Apple's sales of 26 million iPhones and Samsung's 50 million smartphones.

Nokia shrugged off S&P's downgrade, saying it had sufficient liquidity and was saving money. S&P cut Nokia's rating in April to BB+ -- junk status -- meaning conservative investors like pension funds will consider it too risky to hold.

Microsoft reports first loss since 1986

Microsoft reports first loss since 1986

Microsoft reported its first operating loss since the company went public, during its results call last night.

The software giant made some revenue gains in the fourth quarter of 2012, rising 4% year-on-year to $18.06bn, but it also reported an operating loss of $492m, equivalent to $0.06 per share.

The main culprit for the loss was online advertising service aQuantive. Microsoft bought the firm back in 2007 for $6.3bn in an attempt to compete against Google’s massive advertising revenues, but the acquisition never paid off and the company suffered a write-down of almost $6.2bn for the impairment of goodwill – touting the business as more profitable than it was.

On top of this, Microsoft also had to defer $540m of revenue related to an upgrade offer on its Windows operating system (OS), again leaving it out of pocket.

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, did not want to dwell on the figures showing the first loss for the company in 26 years, but wanted to reassure investors the launch of Windows 8 in October would put the firm back on track.

“We’re fast approaching the most exciting launch season in Microsoft history,” he said. “Over the coming year, we’ll release the next versions of Windows, Office, Windows Server, Windows Phone, and many other products and services that will drive our business forward and provide unprecedented opportunity to our customers and partners.”

Peter Klein, chief financial officer (CFO) at Microsoft, added: “We are focusing our resources in strategic areas that will deliver shareholder value and long-term growth opportunities.”

Although the Windows and Windows Live divisions suffered, other areas within Microsoft shone during the quarter. The server and tools business grew by 13%, due to more sales of its SQL Server and System Center products.

“Our enterprise business is firing on all cylinders and we couldn’t be more excited about the wave of innovation and new releases that position us well for the coming years,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer (COO) at Microsoft.

Microsoft confirms Windows 8 OS release in October

Microsoft has confirmed its Windows 8 operating system (OS) will launch in October.

The announcement was made at the company’s worldwide partner conference by Windows CFO Tami RellerReller also confirmed the RTM version of the OS would be ready for August.

For those looking to buy a PC or laptop running the current Windows 7 OS, Reller confirmed they would be able to update to Windows 8 Pro for $14.99.

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, said the OS was a key part of what he called the most important year for Microsoft, beating even the founding of the company or the launch of the PC.

“This year is really unparalleled,” Ballmer said. “The core of Microsoft is reinventing itself for the modern era. It will be the best year ever.”

The launch date also revealed when the first Microsoft Surface tablet will hit the shelves, as the ARM-based model is set to be released at the same time Windows 8 goes to market.

However, Ballmer didn’t make any huge predictions for tablet sales, claiming that, of the 375 million PCs he expected to ship with the latest OS, only “a few million” copies would be running on the portable devices.

Focus has now turned to the Office announcement due tonight, which is likely to be an updated version of the productivity suite.

Will Microsoft turn things around for Nokia?

A 19% drop in sales, a 39% fall in smartphone shipments and just four million Lumia devices shipped – compare with Apple, which sold 35 million iPhones in its last quarter – left the company’s CFO admitting the performance was “not acceptable.But CEO Stephen Elop has taken a forward-looking approach to the figures, still hopeful his former employer, Microsoft, will be the answer to Nokia’s woes.

“We established a preferred position with Microsoft right from the beginning… and we have a very close and very communicative relationship,” he said.

As a follow up to Nokia’s commitment to Windows Phone 7 (WP7), ditching its Symbian platform last year in favour of Microsoft’s software, Elop now believes the release of the Windows Phone 8 mobile operating system, and the accompanying Windows 8 tablet and PC versions, will be the ticket to big sales and a resurgence of popularity for the Finnish manufacturer.

The idea is that as customers get excited by the Windows 8 launch, due in October, they will want to spread that experience across all their devices, be it the Xbox or laptop at home, to their smartphone on the move.

“Windows Phone 8 will become familiar to people because of Microsoft's huge advertising campaign,” said Elop. “It will have a halo effect for Nokia.”

Carolina Milanese, research vice president at analyst firm Gartner, agreed it could have the desired effect.

“The roll out of Windows 8 on tablets and PCs will certainly help raise awareness of Metro [the user interface used by Windows Phone and Windows 8] among consumers and the marketing push on Windows 8 will rub off on Windows Phone 8, both in awareness with consumers and appeal to developers,” she said.

“Right now Nokia has to be focused. Working with Microsoft gives them financial support on platform evolution and marketing.”

But Nokia has misplaced its faith in Microsoft before. The dedication to WP7 hasn’t yet led to the third ecosystem both companies were planning on in the mobile market, to take on the might of Apple and Android. Instead it has been a costly investment that has far from paid off, with relatively limited interest from consumers.  

When Elop took charge of Nokia in 2010, the company sold 28 million smartphones and was the largest phone manufacturer in the world, based on device shipments. But smartphone sales have fallen by almost two-thirds since the commitment to Windows Phone and Samsung is now topping the table as the highest-selling phone maker.

As Milanesi said, the added marketing dollars and focus that Microsoft will bring the company will be a massive boost while it tries to make savings internally – including 10,000 job cuts and the closure of both an R&D centre and a factory in Finland. But Microsoft will be thinking about number one, and with the launch of Surface, its own hardware for the tablet version of Windows 8, and the desire to get the operating system on as many laptops and PCs as possible, Nokia will not be its top priority.

Also, Nokia won’t be the only manufacturer creating handsets running Windows Phone software. Even with its special relationship with Microsoft, the likes of HTC and other manufacturers will be just as important in making sales and spreading the word of Windows 8 as Nokia, as well as receiving the boost from Microsoft’s marketing.

One of the few glimmers in Nokia’s results was its steady feature-phone business, which grew 2% year on year and shipped 73.52 million devices and, while having much lower margins than high-end smartphones, still keeps the high shipment volumes Nokia will need to keep its head above water.

As smartphone prices come down and emerging markets look to bigger, brighter handsets, feature phones may start to dwindle. But, while the market is still there, should this not be something to invest heavily in, rather than throwing money at high-end iPhone competitors that rarely win the battle? Or maybe the focus should be on Nokia's low-end smartphones and making them a competitive alternative to feature phones?

Elop should beware of putting all his eggs in the Microsoft basket. It may pay off in the end but it is a risk Nokia might not be capable of taking if they want to see many more second quarters.

Dell Offers Quickstart Data Warehouse Appliance

It's a small step, but in bundling Microsoft's SQL Server 2012 database with its own data-integration software on an appliance, Dell is moving closer to becoming a business intelligence vendor and not just a hardware supplier.

The Dell Quickstart Data Warehouse Appliance 1000, announced and made available Wednesday, is aimed squarely at midsize firms as it tops out at five terabytes of user data. By bundling and preconfiguring the software to work with Dell PowerEdge servers, the vendor says it's making data warehousing easy.

"Limited IT resources and budgets have mostly prevented mid-sized organizations from building data warehouses and realizing the insights they need," said Dell's Ben Linder, executive director, data warehousing and business intelligence, in a statement. "Dell now offers the mid-market a comprehensive, robust, affordable, and simple data warehouse solution."

Data warehouse appliances are nothing new, and they've been available from data warehousing market leaders Oracle and IBM for several years. Microsoft has partnered with Dell, HP, and others suppliers to provide preconfigured hardware for Microsoft SQL Server-based data warehouse deployments.

Dell described the Quickstart Data Warehouse Appliance 1000 as going "a step beyond" typical appliances in that it includes data-integration capabilities from Dell Boomi, the software-as-a-service vendor Dell acquired in 2010. Dell said it's also providing start-up services and training with the appliance to get customers up and running, and it will follow up with quarterly health checks to ensure ongoing success.

The base price for the appliance is $69,990, including Microsoft Windows R2 SP1 Enterprise Edition, Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Data Warehouse Appliance Edition, and a one-year subscription to Dell Boomi. It also includes the required server and storage hardware to support 5 terabytes of user data and the support services mentioned above.

It's unclear just how "bundled in" Dell Boomi can be given that it's described as a "lightweight, subscription-based data integration service." Responding to email questions, a Dell spokesperson told Information Week that the subscription-based software includes a library of data connectors, visual integration tools, and a run-time execution engine.

As for query and analysis, what most people think of when the hear "BI," Dell said it recommends that those tools be run on a separate server. Even though Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is preinstalled and configured as part of the appliance, the appliance license does not include access to SQL Server Integration Services, Analysis Services, or Reporting Services.

"If customers already have SQL Server licenses on other servers, they can use those with the Quickstart Appliance," said a Dell spokesperson.

Microsoft confirms that Dell's new appliance is the first to be based on Microsoft SQL Server 2012, which was released in April. As such it's the first appliance to feature new SQL Server 2012 capabilities including the x Velocity In-memory Column Store, which is said to speed queries and optimize data compression.

Dell's push into data warehousing and business intelligence is part of a larger push into the enterprise software market, which was given a boost last week when Dell announced its $2.4 billion acquisition of Quest Software. Quest's portfolio includes BI, database-management, and Hadoop-related software that could find its way into future Dell data warehouse appliance bundles.

HP first mounted a push into business intelligence with its 2006 acquisition of the Knights bridge BI consultancy, but that initiative seemed to stall when HP's failed high-end Neoview data warehousing platform was abandoned in late 2010. In early 2011, HP acquired the Vertica database, and it subsequently introduced HP Vertica Analytic System appliances built on HP software.

HP's appliance is a much higher-end, big-data-scale offering compared to the Dell Quickstart Appliance 1000. In fact, despite all the hype about big data, the vast majority of enterprises manage less than 10 terabytes of data.

Dell is starting with the broadest base in the market, and it told Information Week that it will announce another member of the appliance family later in the year. So look for a bigger appliance and, perhaps, a deeper, more BI-capable software bundle.

Samsung building a Windows RT tablet....

Samsung building a Windows RT tablet, sources say

Samsung is building a tablet based on Windows RT for release sometime in October, according to unnamed sources who spoke to the Bloomberg news service.

Samsung joins Acer and Asus, among other device makers, to build the touchscreen Windows RT tablets running chips based on the ARM specification.

Microsoft hasn't named specific Windows RT tablet manufacturers, although it has repeatedly said since February that ARM chips for Windows RT machines will come from Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Nvidia.

Hewlett-Packard recently said it would not build, at least initially, a Windows RT tablet, and would focus on the Windows 8 versions, which run on x86 chips from either Intel or AMD. The decision was based on feedback from customers, HP told Bloomberg.

At Computex in early June, Asus showed a Tablet 600 running Windows RT with a 10.1-in. touchscreen, 2GB of RAM, and an Nvidia quad-core Tegra 3 chip. While the Samsung Windows RT tablet is expected in October, Acer has said it won't ship Windows RT tablets until the first quarter of 2013.

Microsoft still hasn't set a timetable or price for its 10.6-in. Surface tablet running Windows RT that it designed and will build on its own. Microsoft also announced a Surface tablet running Windows 8 Pro.

(Microsoft and Samsung had no comment on the report of a Windows RT tablet being built by Samsung).

Microsoft signs two patent licensing deals...

Microsoft signs two patent licensing deals covering Android, Chrome...

Microsoft said that two more companies had signed patent agreements covering their Android and Chrome devices, under the company's IP (intellectual property) licensing program that already has more than 1,100 licensing agreements.

The software giant said it would receive royalties from the two deals but did not provide details.

The agreement with Coby Electronics, a maker of Internet TVs, tablets, and other consumer electronics, provides broad coverage under Microsoft's patent portfolio for Coby's products running the Android or Chrome platform, while the patent agreement with Aluratek provides coverage under Microsoft's patent portfolio for Aluratek's e-readers and tablets running the Android or Chrome platform.

Microsoft said the program launched in December 2003 was developed to open access to Microsoft's research and development investments and its patent and IP portfolio, though some critics claim Microsoft views it as a revenue stream. A number of companies including Samsung have signed up for Microsoft's Android licensing program, but Motorola Mobility, now owned by Google, has not signed.

Microsoft claims Android infringes some of its patents, hence the requirement for these licensing agreements.

One holdout, Barnes & Noble settled patent litigation with Microsoft over its Android-based Nook e-reader in April as part of a broader alliance with Microsoft. Barnes & Noble and a new subsidiary set up with Microsoft under the terms of the alliance will pay Microsoft royalties for its Nook and table products.

Motorola and Microsoft have legal disputes in a number of countries, including one over patent infringement by the Xbox before the U.S. International Trade Commission. A court in Munich ruled in May that Motorola infringes on a Microsoft patent relating to SMS messaging.