Apple in soup again (for the wrong reasons)

HTC has sued Apple and claimed that iPad, iPhone and iPod infringe five patents that HTC holds. Not only that, HTC also wants Apple to stop the sale and import of these three products. HTC has filed a complaint against this at the International Trade Commission. These five patents mostly refer to power management and telephone dialer interaction with portable devices.

Anyways it is not a good news for Apple to be news for all the wrong reasons. Last it was a law suit from the adobe team against apple not letting application developers use Adobe products.

Lets see where are we heading and what come out of all these.

Apple in soup???

antitrust enforcers are taking a keen interest in recent changes thatApple Inc. made to its licensing agreement with iPhone application developers and are likely to open a preliminary investigation into whether the company's actions stifle competition in mobile devices, according to people familiar with the situation.

Apple recently revised the terms to forbid developers from using software tools other than Apple's tools to build their programs. It also banned apps from transmitting certain technical iPhone data to third parties.

Adobe Systems Inc., whose software can't be used by developers under the revised agreement, has recently escalated a public-relations war over the issue. An Adobe spokeswoman declined to comment.

Indian firm gives handset biggies run for their money

When four friends planned to diversify their IT hardware distribution business and start making mobile phones, which would specifically suit Indian consumers, did not know that after two years, they will be giving mobile handset majors; such as Nokia, Samsung and LG, a run for their money, reports Economic Times.

In the two years of span, Micromax grew to become the third-largest GSM mobile phone vendor in India, after Nokia and Samsung, with a market share of six percent. According to research firm IDC, this Rs.1,600 crore brand, which sells around one million mobiles every month, has a presence in more than 500 districts through 70,000 retail outlets. Speaking on this subject, Vikas Jain, one of the four founders of Micromax Informatics, the company that owns the Micromax Mobile brand, said, "We saw that the MNC brands were not selling phones that suited Indian consumers' requirements. This void had to be filled. So in April 2008, we forayed into the handset market."

Targeting specifically at the rural masses, the company has also started selling handsets that come with features appealing to urban consumers such as music phones, qwerty and internet-enabled handsets. "We wanted to approach the market in a different manner by first going to rural and semi-urban areas, establishing a good distribution base and then targeting the big cities," said Vikas Jain.

Recently, the company came up with a universal remote control phone, one that can be paired to household appliances like the TV, AC, to act as a remote control for them. "We have to be quick in launching new products as competitors can also copy a lot of this soon enough,"

Source: SiliconIndia