Another week, another patent dispute: Google’s Motorola unit has filed a new suit against Apple this week. Bloomberg reports that Motorola filed the complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission, claiming Apple has infringed Motorola patents with its Siri product, in addition to other features. Motorola, now owned by Google, is looking for the ITC to ban the imports of Apple products from Asia, where they are produced.
Details of the complaint are still developing, but Bloomberg notes these features as part of the suit: location reminders, e-mail notification and phone/video players. As Motorola is now a business unit of Google, this situation becomes even more interesting as Google hasn’t directly been involved with the growing number of smartphone patent battles between its Android hardware partners and Apple.
Previously, Apple had won an injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, but that didn’t stop Samsung from revising the product. The company introduced the new Galaxy Note 10.1 to the U.S. market this week, with prices to start at $ 499 for the 16 GB model. Unique to this large Android slate are two features: Samsung’s S-Pen stylus that supports pressure sensitivity and a multitasking view that can run two Android apps side-by-side on the 10.1-inch display.
Samsung is taking smart steps with its new Android tablet. Instead of being another “me too” product that competes on hardware specifications and price, Samsung is taking advantage of the momentum it has with the Galaxy Note phone. That handset raised awareness of a stylus with 10 million sales so far of the phone. And the stylus isn’t just a gimmicky add-on: Samsung continues to improve the software features that add value to the S-Pen.
Also improving this week is the Google Play store; something that’s long overdue considering a million new Android devices are activated daily. There’s nothing worse than a new customer using their smartphone or tablet only to have a poor experience buying apps or digital media.
Google added support for application updates to only download the app changes, saving time and bandwidth. And code in the new Google Play app shows upcoming support for gift card redemption and wishlists where consumers can add their favorite apps, books, magazines, movies and TV shows for later purchase.
