Google and ASUS had to cut a few corners to sell their Nexus 7 at $199. The tablet has no rear camera, support for cellular data, or expansion via microSD card slot, and comes with an SD front facing camera. Despite all these things, the tablet is still being sold at a loss to gain traction.
It's been a pretty big day in mobile space, with two of the big guns both showcasing new products and innovations to be released in the near future. Motorola's "On Display" event saw a glut of new devices slide into the fold, including the DROID RAZR HD, RAZR MAXX HD and RAZR M Android smartphones, while the Nokia and Microsoft partnership saw the birth of a couple significant new Lumia devices, as well as more details regarding Windows Phone 8.
According to a report over at Reuters, Apple's head honcho Tim Cook and Google CEO Larry Page have been discussing possible ways to resolve patent issues between their two respective companies. The pair (Apple and Google, that is), make up the majority of the mobile OS market, and in light of the recent ruling in favor of Apple over Samsung, the Cupertino outfit and the Android maker are said to be "keeping the lines of communication open."
A new report claims that both iOS and Android smartphones are currently outpacing any previous consumer technology, with worldwide sales driving huge user adoption. A quick glance at any social network, technology blog or even the man in the street will show that smartphones are big business and gaining traction rapidly. Everyone seems to have either an iPhone or an Android phone these days, and mobile analytic firm Flurry has done what it does best - take a lot of numbers and extrapolate them into an interesting collection of facts.
The disagreements between Apple and Samsung had been bubbling away for quite some time, with the the companies first coming to blows relating to alleged patent infringements approximately 18 months ago. It isn't any secret that the two companies have been locked in a San Jose courtroom in California, with their legal teams presenting evidence and testimony to the judge and nine jurors in an attempt to show that they have been wronged in some way by their rivals in the smartphone and tablet market.
When Google eventually took the plunge and pushed out the Chrome browser to the iOS App Store during the second day of their I/O conference in San Francisco, it answered the prayers of thousands of iPhone and iPad users who had been longing for a worthy competitor to the native Mobile Safari browser which Apple ships with the operating system. Chrome for iOS immediately jumped to the top of the App Store download charts and has remained there ever since with users loving the simple and elegant design with great features such as the Chrome Omnibar and gesture integration.
It wasn't that long ago when we brought you some information regarding Nikon possibly releasing a point-and-shoot camera that stepped away from the norm with the inclusion of the Android mobile operating system. It seemed like a rather unnecessary move for a company like Nikon to go down the route of producing hardware that contains Android, but with camera phones becoming increasingly more capable of capturing fantastic images on the move, it would seem that these companies need to do something to remain relevant.
Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets mean big business across the world, which in turn means that apps which are developed and submitted to marketplaces like the iOS App Store and Google's Play Store for Android are also capable of turning up large amounts of money for the developer as well as the operating system owner. We already know that Apple turns over a substantial amount of money from their 30% cut of App Store sales, which is enough for them to break even and provide an app economy that effectively doesn't cost them a dime to run.
There hasn’t been much news coming out of San Jose in the last few days, but that doesn't mean that the Apple vs. Samsung case isn't still bubbling away like a hot cauldron behind those large doors that stand so proudly in front of Judge Lucy Koh's courtroom. Apple has already had their turn in the legal spotlight with their appointed counsel presenting the fundamentals of their case to the judge and overseeing jury, and now it's time for Samsung's legal eagles to step into the limelight, it seems that they are taking a rather bizarre approach to defending themselves.
Considering it has been bubbling away and growing in size for the last eighteen months, it is going to be extremely interesting to see how the Apple vs. Samsung patent case progresses and ultimately pans out. It appears that both sides have fairly credible evidence to present to Judge Lucy Koh and the selected jury, but one of the most interesting parts of the case from an outsider’s point of view is the level of information that the companies have been forced to leak into the public domain as part of their own defense.
