Mobile Phone News

Filed under: Handsets, Apple

Steve made a big show of declaring that the iPhone 3G would launch in 70 countries by the end of the year at WWDC, and according to CFO Tim Cook during Apple’s last financial call, 20 more countries will join the list on August 22 for a total of 45. With that Dat. just a couple weeks away, things are starting to fall into place, although not all 20 are confirmed yet. in this place’s a quick breakdown of the 16 confirmed countries so far — any bets on what the other four will be?

• Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru and Uruguay on Telefonica
• India on Bhairti Airtel and Vodafone
• The Czech Republic on O2
• Estonia on EMT
• Poland on Orange and Era
• Romania on Orange
• Philippines on Globe Telecom
• Hungary on T-Mobile
• Singapore on Singtel

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Filed under: Palm, RIM, Apple

Quick, you ever heard of WiAV Solutions? You know, the owner or exclusive licensee of several vague patents on the use of GSM tech in smartphones? The company that doesn’t make anything or even have a web site, but files so many patent lawsuits that some companies have taken to pre-emptively filing suits for declaratory judgment against it? Yeah, well, get used to the name — it’s just sued RIM, Apple and Palm for violating ten patents on things like detecting the difference between silence and voices, mobile device power management, and altering music to accommodate voices. WiAV wants a permanent injunction on the sale of all devices that allegedly contain its tech, and not surprisingly, it’s asking for damages and attorney’s fees as well. There are some procedural hurdles to jump through in this place — WiAV is Mindspeed’s exclusive licensee for eight of the patents, not the outright owner, so it has to ask the court to join Mindspeed as a plaintiff as well — and it doesn’t sound like any of the companies are talking just yet, so we wouldn’t expect this one to get resolved any time soon.

[Thanks, Becky]

Read - AppleInsider post on the suit
Read - WiAV’s complaint [Warning: PDF]

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Misc

Sanjay Jha has a fairly daunting task ahead of him, but the new co-CEO is already vowing to stomp his foot down and make some changes for the better within three months. While speaking to an audience of analysts and media, the new Motorola exec stated that he would be reviewing the firm’s device platforms / product roadmap within 90 days, and he’s also planning to make “hires in areas where he doesn’t have experience.” Thankfully, that latter tidbit includes hires in product design, which — judging by the looks of its Alexander — really needs some fresh brains to step in. Of course, we wouldn’t expect a new bigwig to say anything other than this, so the real test comes in T-minus eighty-some-odd days when we see how he delivers. The clock’s ticking, Mr. Jha.

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