Posted on June 18, 2009, at 9:14 am .
Motorola and RIM have been in legal disputes for a long time. Back in February of 2008, RIM claimed that Motorola refused to license some of its patents “on a fair and reasonable basis”, mainly in rebuttal to an initial litigation by Motorola. RIM also accused Motorola of using 9 of RIM’s patents without permission, a complaint in response to Motorola claiming RIM is using 7 of theirs.
A magistrate judge recently ruled that Motorola patent-infringement claims against RIM will be put on hold while the U. S. government reviews the patents.
At RIM’s request, the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office is taking a second look at 10 Motorola patents. Judge William Sanderson said in Dallas on June 15 that the civil suit was “still in its infancy” and it would help to have an additional review by the patent office before it goes further with those claims.
[Via]
Posted on February 18, 2009, at 8:51 am .
Recently, major mobile phone manufacturers such as Nokia, Motorola and Samsung agreed to produce a standardized charger for the industry. The companies will be switching to mini USB, the same standard charger as the BlackBerry. I know exactly how that meeting went:
“Guys, we need a standard char…McDonnel! Pay attention, we’re having a meeting here.”
“Sorry sir, my BlackBerry died and I’m looking for the charger.”
“Here you go McDonnel. I borrowed this from Frank in HR.”
“Wait a minute…”
[Via]
Posted on January 12, 2009, at 12:35 pm .
If even a year ago you had told me that in early 2009 Palm would be resurgent and Motorola would inching ever closer to the deadpool, I would have slapped you like a young Cary Grant and sent you to the looney bin. Well, make room for me too, because it seems like the whole world has gone looney tunes.
Our friends at Phone Scoop are reporting that Motorola’s handset division is expecting a large round of layoffs as soon as this week. While Moto’s set top box, networking equipment and enterprise device businesses will not be affected, up to 50% of the entire handset operation may be gone. Phone Scoop is also reporting that Motorola will not have a booth at CTIA in Vegas this April, and is looking to launch only a dozen handsets per year, all based on Google’s Android OS.
Sad times for a company that used to define cellphone cool with the RAZR, and had a decent BlackBerry competitor in the Moto Q. Here’s hoping that putting all their eggs in the Android basket will save the company.
|via PhoneScoop|
Posted on December 26, 2008, at 2:09 pm .
This isn’t really the news anyone wants to hear during the Christmas season, but it appears as though Motorola needs a holiday lesson about the value of sharing. RIM filed suit with Motorola on Christmas Eve, alleging that the mobile phone company has improperly blocked their attempts to hire current and laid-off Motorola employees. The suit, filed in state court in Chicago on Tuesday, comes three months after Motorola alleged that RIM violated an agreement reached in February that the two companies would not solicit each other’s employees. RIM has asked for a court order to invalidate the agreement, saying in its complaint that the pact had expired in August and was no longer enforceable.
“RIM entities continue to grow and hire new employees within the United States and globally against a backdrop of recent public announcements by Motorola that it has and will continue to make massive layoffs,” said RIM’s lawsuit.
RIM is also seeking unspecified damages for what it called “unfair competition” practices by Motorola. Motorola spokeswoman Jennifer Weyrauch-Erickson declined to comment on the lawsuit.
|via Reuters|
Posted on August 29, 2008, at 8:58 am .
Indian carrier BPL is now offering BlackBerry Connect on a wide variety of handsets, including the Moto Q9h and the Nokia Communicator. BlackBerry Connect brings all of the back-end goodness like push email, data security and personal information syncing of BlackBerry to other platforms like Symbian and Windows Mobile. Clearly BlackBerry services are picking up at a decent clip again since that security mess awhile back, and I think we’re all pretty glad to see it.
(via EFYTimes)
Posted on August 26, 2008, at 8:04 am .
The latest report from mobile advertising agency AdMob ran through some numbers based on the four billion ads they’ve served up. As you can see, Nokia remains top dog in mobile browsing activity, capturing a solid 34% of the global share thanks primarily to heavy adoption in Africa and Asia, followed up closely by Openwave (AKA WAP) at 29%. BlackBerry took a sad little 3% slice of the pie, right along side Motorola, Palm’s and Apple’s browsers. The BlackBerry 8300 and BlackBerry 8100 are still on the American Top Ten handsets list, though the top four spots are taken by Motorola. Even internationally, the Pearl does alright, getting 9th. place. In terms of geography, Indonesia has seen about ten times more traffic than last year, and Asia on the whole has seen a significant increase in activity.
(AdMob via Electronista)
Posted on August 11, 2008, at 10:12 am .
Strategy Analytics (hey, we know those guys!) recently published a report saying RIM has captured a solid 10% of American cellular sales in the last quarter. A total of 41.9 million handsets were shipped, which is up 5.3 percent from last year, making it an expanding market that’s getting harder to fill. Motorola still maintains lead position, with LG, Nokia and Samsung hot on their heels. Those are a lot of competitors to chew through, but RIM’s continued upward trend could earn them an even bigger slice of the pie over time, especially if Motorola’s new boss can’t turn things around and Nokia fails to provide a solid alternative to BlackBerry Connect. LG remains the number two dog right now, and with the likes of the Keybo floating around, it’s easy to see them as a potential BlackBerry competitor.
(via Reuters)
Posted on July 10, 2008, at 8:04 am .
If there are any Windows Mobile lovers out there outside of that one cricket in the corner, you’ll be happy to hear that BlackBerry Connect will be supporting the Motorola Q9h in Asia-Pacific. The Windows Mobile 6 device has enjoyed BlackBerry services abroad since December, but clearly there were some localization issues to iron out. With BlackBerry Connect, WinMo users can get their push e-mail fix, and access a lot of the standard BlackBerry features – it even plugs into the BES and has all the usual IT policies and security standards in place. Interested? Head on over to the Motorola BlackBerry Connect site for your download.
Posted on March 27, 2008, at 8:19 am .
Vettro, the developer of asset-tracking software, has recently teamed up with IRTH, to bring underground GPS tracking to BlackBerry and Motorola mobiles. Vettro’s 360 platform includes an electronic white lining technology which has yielded some impressive results.
Based on a recently published company report, the use of the GPS-based mobile white lining functionality alone reduced the average notification area for locate requests by over 89.42% and eliminated over 8% of outbound locate tickets. The report conservatively estimates a potential cost savings of over $120 million nationally in the damage prevention process through use of the mobile application.
By working tightly with IRTH’s One Call system, this new deal will help underground workers quickly find out if it’s safe to dig without busting up gas and electric lines.
Posted on January 14, 2008, at 9:29 am .
RIM’s stock has been taking a bit of a dip lately due to worries of a recession in the US, causing Canaccord Adams to drop their target price from $145 to $110 and downgrading the stock to “hold” status. The stock saw a pretty nice jump after the last quarterly results, and cruised over $100 for awhile, but is cooling off at around $93 right now. RIM was far from alone, as Motorola, Nokia, Palm and Apple all saw declines recently as well.
