Finnish cellphone maker Nokia Corp said on Friday it had extended its patent-infringement claims against Apple Inc to include the new iPad.
The latest complaint, filed in US District Court in Madison, Wisconsin, follows other lawsuits by Nokia claiming that a broad swath of Apple products violate Nokia patents. Nokia says the disputed technologies help reduce the size and cost of electronic gadgets. Apple had already responded with its own infringement claims against Nokia.
Apple has also sued Taiwan’s HTC Corp (宏達電), one of the leading producers of cellphones that run on Google Inc’s Android software, a potential challenger to Apple’s popular iPhone. Apple says HTC’s Android phones violate iPhone patents.
The legal disputes come amid increasing competition in the fast-growing market for smartphones. Tech companies are scrambling to win over the growing number of consumers buying cellphones that come with e-mail, Web surfing and scores of apps for checking the weather, updating Facebook and other tasks.
Smartphone sales rose 57 percent to 54.7 million units last quarter, and accounted for almost one in five phones sold, researcher IDC said in a statement on Friday. That compares with a 22 percent increase in the overall market.
Worldwide smartphone shipments will rise 30 percent this year to 226.8 million, representing 18 percent of all mobile phones, said Ramon Llamas, an analyst at IDC. By 2014, that number will almost double to 438.4 million phones, he said.
Nokia is the world’s biggest smartphone maker and kept its market share unchanged at 39.3 percent last quarter, though it is more dominant in Asia and Europe. In the US, it faces intense competition from the iPhone and Research in Motion Ltd’s (RIM) BlackBerrys.
Apple claimed 16.1 percent of shipments in the quarter, up from 10.9 percent a year ago, IDC said. RIM, the second-largest global smartphone maker, slipped to 19.4 percent from 20.9 percent.
HTC boosted its share to 4.8 percent from 4.3 percent and Motorola Inc rose to 4.2 percent from 3.4 percent, IDC said.
Nokia’s latest lawsuit targets the iPhone and the iPad 3G, the version of the device that can connect to the Web using cellphone networks. Nokia said the gadgets infringe on five patents related to technology that makes voice and data communications more efficient, which allows the devices to be more compact.
“We have taken this step to protect the results of our pioneering development and to put an end to continued unlawful use of Nokia’s innovation,” Nokia executive Paul Melin said in a statement.
Apple spokesman Steve Dowling declined to comment on the new case, but said the company had already filed a countersuit in December to earlier claims by Nokia. Apple claims Nokia is infringing on 13 of its patents, saying the company chose to “copy the iPhone” to recapture its share of the high-end phone market.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its materials management head, Vanessa Lee (李文如), had tendered her resignation for personal reasons. The personnel adjustment takes effect tomorrow, TSMC said in a statement. The latest development came one month after Lee reportedly took leave from the middle of last month. Cliff Hou (侯永清), senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer, is to concurrently take on the role of head of the materials management division, which has been under his supervision, TSMC said. Lee, who joined TSMC in 2022, was appointed senior director of materials management and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Thursday met with US President Donald Trump at the White House, days before a planned trip to China by the head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, people familiar with the matter said. Details of what the two men discussed were not immediately available, and the people familiar with the meeting declined to elaborate on the agenda. Spokespeople for the White House had no immediate comment. Nvidia declined to comment. Nvidia’s CEO has been vocal about the need for US companies to access the world’s largest semiconductor market and is a frequent visitor to China.
MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR: Revenue from AI servers made up more than 50 percent of Wistron’s total server revenue in the second quarter, the company said Wistron Corp (緯創) on Tuesday reported a 135.6 percent year-on-year surge in revenue for last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, with the momentum expected to extend into the third quarter. Revenue last month reached NT$209.18 billion (US$7.2 billion), a record high for June, bringing second-quarter revenue to NT$551.29 billion, a 129.47 percent annual increase, the company said. Revenue in the first half of the year totaled NT$897.77 billion, up 87.36 percent from a year earlier and also a record high for the period, it said. The company remains cautiously optimistic about AI server shipments in the third quarter,
Hypermarket chain Carrefour Taiwan and upscale supermarket chain Mia C’bon on Saturday announced the suspension of their partnership with Jkopay Co (街口支付), one of Taiwan’s largest digital payment providers, amid a lawsuit involving its parent company. Carrefour and Mia C’bon said they would notify customers once Jkopay services are reinstated. The two retailers joined an array of other firms in suspending their partnerships with Jkopay. On Friday night, popular beverage chain TP Tea (茶湯會) also suspended its use of the platform, urging customers to opt for alternative payment methods. Another drinks brand, Guiji (龜記), on Friday said that it is up to individual
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