Samsung has announced yet another dual-touchscreen Android flip phone, this time exclusively for China's second largest carrier China Unicom.
Carrying the GT-B9120 moniker, the peculiar Android flip phone is practically the same as the previously announced dual-SIM Samsung W999. It features two 3.5-inch Super AMOLED touchscreens with a resolution of 480x800 pixels each. Inside, there's a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of built-in storage.
The GT-B9120 runs Android 2.3 Gingebread and features HSPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. The back of the phone carries a decent 5MP snapper, while a 1.3MP front-facing camera takes care of video chats.
It's currently unclear when exactly China Unicom will put the device for sale and for what price, but expect it soon. It's a pity Samsung won't launch the unusual droid anywhere else. One can still hope, though.
Samsung plunges $500k into Linux Foundation - The Register
Samsung plunges $500k into Linux Foundation
P-p-p-picks up a different penguin in Apple struggle
Posted in Developer, 7th June 2012 17:06 GMT
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Samsung has opened a new front in the mobile wars against Apple by upping its investment in Linux and its mobile software. Samsung will plough half a million dollars into the Linux Foundation and get a seat on the not-for-profit's board of directors by becoming a Platinum member of the Foundation, it has been announced.
Linux doesn't state how much its corporate Platinum members donate for the privilege of top-tier membership - but Apple Insider reports that the amount is circa $500,000.
Samsung joins The Linux Foundation's six other corporate platinum members: NEC, IBM, Fujitsu, Intel, Qualcomm and Oracle.
Samsung's interest in operating systems is not a surprise. As the biggest mobile handset maker in the world, and manufacturer of many other devices including tablets, TVs and white goods, the company has a vested interest in the software on its hardware. We imagine Samsung will be particularly interested in the new Linux for mobile operating system Tizen, a potential rival to iOS and Android.
Google's Android OS is based on a Linux kernel, but even so it would seem worth the Korean company's time to investigate alternative flavours.
And it's not just mobile phones that use Linux, software will become an increasingly important part of devices such as TVs as the era of smart gadgets dawns.
In the short term, Samsung have committed to work with The Linux Foundation on streamlining its participation with the kernel community and adopting open source best practices.
Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation said the the partnership would be good for Samsung and good for Linux:
The company’s commitment to Linux and investment in its development firmly plants it in a position to continue its achievements in the mobile, embedded and consumer electronics markets. This is a strategic business decision that will result in advancing Samsung Electronics’ success and accelerating Linux development work.
®
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Samsung slams down $1.9bn for mobile chip fab - The Register
Samsung slams down $1.9bn for mobile chip fab
Names top chip-head CEO
Posted in PCs & Chips, 7th June 2012 18:32 GMT
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Memory and processor chip maker Samsung Electronics is plunking down 2.25 trillion Korean won (about $1.9bn) to beef up its chip-making capacity, and rumors are doing the rounds that it has tapped the head of its semiconductor ops to be the new CEO of the company.
In a brief statement, Samsung said that its management committee had authorized the $1.9bn investment, which will be used to buy equipment for a new production line that will etch chips using 20 nanometer and 14 nanometer processes onto 300 millimeter silicon wafers.
The new line, which will be built out in phases between now and 2014, will be used to make chips for smartphones and other mobile devices, although Samsung did not elaborate on what these might be. (And officially, Apple has never confirmed that Samsung makes the processors inside iPhones and iPads.)
Samsung just opened up a $10bn wafer baker in South Korea last September and in April of this year said it would shell out $7bn over the next several years for a 10 nanometer NAND flash facility in Xi'an, China. The company has spent $8.7bn since 1996 establishing a fab in Austin, Texas, and ramping it up. The speculation in April was that after a $3.6bn upgrade to the Austin facility in March 2010, Samsung was pondering a move into the nascent ARM server chip arena.
Concurrent with the investment in the new line, Reuters and the Wall Street Journal are both reporting that Kwon Oh-hyun, the executive who has run Samsung's chip operations for the past four years and who took over its display biz this year, was suddenly and unexpectedly named the new CEO at the consumer electronics and chip maker. Kwon will retain control over the Samsung components business and will also run corporate-wide operations, and Samsung was at pains to explain that it will continue to keep its components and electronics businesses separate so as to not make its chip customers jumpy.
Kwon replaces Choi Geesung, who has been CEO of the 165 trillion Korean won company (that's about $139bn) since the end of 2009. Choi, who built up Samsung's TV business to topple Japanese rival Sony from the dominant position, has been named head of Samsung Group's corporate strategy, working directly with chairman Lee Kun-hee. The Financial Times reports that Choi was asked to move into the corporate strategy position by Lee when the executive who had been in charge of overall strategy for the group had to leave to health reasons. ®
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Samsung fights Apple move to block Galaxy sales - Yahoo Finance
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Samsung Electronics Co. said Thursday it will fight Apple's move to stop U.S. sales of its new Galaxy phone in the latest flare-up of an intellectual property battle between the world's top smartphone makers.
Samsung said it will vigorously oppose Apple's request for a court to ban sales of the Galaxy S III smartphone and still plans to go ahead with the device's scheduled release in the U.S. on June 21.
The South Korean company said in a statement that it will "demonstrate to the court that the Galaxy S III is innovative and distinctive."
On Tuesday, Apple Inc. asked a U.S. district court to temporarily ban sales of the S III smartphone before its launch in the United States. The maker of the iPhone accused Samsung of infringing two Apple patents.
The request, if accepted by the U.S. District Court for Northern California, would deal a blow to Samsung's attempt to get a headstart on sales of Apple's next iPhone.
The S III smartphone went on sale in Europe on May 29 and will be offered by around 300 mobile carriers in Asia and North America later this month.
The early launch puts Samsung in a favorable position to take a bigger chunk of the lucrative smartphone market. While Apple is keeping mum on its annual iPhone upgrade, many analysts expect the new iPhone to go on sale as early as July.
Samsung has become the biggest threat to Apple's clout in the mobile market as its Galaxy series of smartphones won popularity among consumers seeking an Android-powered device.
Most market research firms say Samsung overtook Apple in smartphone shipments for the first time during the first three months of this year.
Samsung and Apple have been embroiled in bitter patent lawsuits in North America, Europe and Asia since Apple accused Samsung of copying its iPhone in April 2011.
Chief executives of the two companies met in San Francisco last month after a court instructed them to negotiate, but the talks didn't produce a settlement.
Amid the legal battles, the two companies continue to do business with each other.
Samsung counts Apple as among its largest buyers of chips and display screens while Apple relies on Samsung for mobile components.
Samsung builds new logic chip line, spends $1.9 billion in doing so - UberGizmo (blog)
Verizon confirms July 9th ship date for the Samsung Galaxy S3
Samsung ChatON messaging service hits the Windows Phone operating system
Samsung Galaxy S3 marches on despite Apple's sales injunction request
Seen at: reuters 
Samsung Elec shifts CEO to global strategy role - Reuters India
SEOUL |
SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co(005930.KS), Asia's $163 billion technology powerhouse, is shifting CEO Choi Gee-sung to a new role as head of Samsung Group's corporate strategy as it battles Apple Inc(AAPL.O) for supremacy in smartphones and leads the charge to new chip technology.
Choi, 61, has been with Samsung for more than three decades and has worked in all the group's main business divisions, from semiconductors and display to home appliances and telecoms, before taking over as chief executive in 2010.
Crucially, he is seen as chief mentor to Jay Y. Lee, son of Samsung Electronics' chairman Lee Kun-hee and the group's heir apparent. Jay Y. Lee stays as chief operating officer.
"Choi is the best candidate who can chart Samsung through the global economic crisis and ever-intensifying competition," Samsung said in a statement, citing an unnamed executive. "Under Choi, Samsung plans to pursue innovative changes."
The South Korean group named Kwon Oh-hyun as its new CEO. Currently head of Samsung's components business, which oversees chips and display, Kwon cemented Samsung's position in memory chips, where it has almost 50 percent global market share, and expanded into non-memory, or logic chips, which now account for 40 percent of Samsung's overall semiconductor revenue.
GRAPHIC: Samsung ownership r.reuters.com/xyt47s
GRAPHIC: Samsung earnings: r.reuters.com/sem87s
Under Kwon, Samsung became the sole supplier of the mobile processors that power Apple's iPhone and iPad - rival products to Samsung's own Galaxy and Note. The 59-year-old former engineer, who studied electrical engineering at Seoul National University and Stanford, has also led a restructuring of Samsung's LCD flat-screen business.
Samsung said there would be no operational impact from the reshuffle, with Kwon still overseeing the components business.
PUBLIC FEUD
The announcement comes on the anniversary, 19 years ago, of Lee Kun-hee's 'new management declaration', when he told Samsung executives at a Frankfurt hotel they should change everything except their wives and children to improve the firm's then sub-standard product quality.
Today, Lee Kun-hee is embroiled in a public feud with members of his family that could speed up the transfer of control to his son.
"Jay Y. Lee is in the final stage of being groomed ... and Choi will help in this process, helping him (Jay Y. Lee) look into the group as a whole, not just the electronics unit," said Chung Sun-sup, head of chaebul.com, an online information provider on South Korea's industrial conglomerates, which wield enormous political and economic clout.
The strategic office that Choi will be heading up is the "control tower" of the Samsung Group SAGR.UL, which presides over some 81 companies involved in everything from ships and smartphones to insurance and chemicals.
"There'll be no major changes in overall strategy as Kwon will continue to oversee the components business, while telecoms and consumer electronics are separately run by other executives," said James Song, analyst at KDB Daewoo Securities.
Samsung, which said earlier this month that sales of its range of Galaxy S smartphones had topped 50 million, has moved quickly to overtake Apple in the fast-growth mobile market and has blown away Nokia (NOK1V.HE) and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM.TO).
LOGIC CHIP INVESTMENT
Samsung earlier on Thursday said it will spend $1.9 billion on a new logic chip line to make processors for mobile devices amid explosive demand for smartphones and tablets. It said the new line will use 300 mm wafers and 20 nanometer and 14 nanometer processing technology.
Demand for system chips used in smartphones and tablets is set to more than double to $59 billion in 2016 from $23 billion last year, according to research firm Gartner.
Ahead of the announcements, shares in Asia's biggest technology firm closed up 5.2 percent in a broad market rally that sent the benchmark KOSPI index up 2.6 percent.
(Additional reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Writing by Ian Geoghegan; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
Import Ban Too Strong as Patent Case Remedy, FTC Says - Businessweek
Google Inc. (GOOG) (GOOG)’s bid to block imports of Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox gaming system and Apple Inc. (AAPL) (AAPL)’s iPhone based on patents owned by its Motorola Mobility unit may hurt competition, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said.
Weighing in on cases before another U.S. agency, the International Trade Commission, the FTC said in a filing yesterday that companies should be limited in their ability to win orders blocking imports of competitors’ products over the use of patents built into industrywide standards.
Motorola Mobility is citing its standard-essential patents to persuade the ITC to stop imports of Apple and Microsoft devices made in Asia.
“We are concerned that it might be hindering innovation,” FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in an interview with Bloomberg Government yesterday in Washington.
The FTC’s position would limit the power of companies like Motorola Mobility, Samsung Electronics Co. and InterDigital Inc. (IDCC) (IDCC) to use the international trade agency as a forum in patent disputes. Each company has asserted patents that cover aspects of industry standards they helped establish.
An ITC judge in April said Microsoft’s Xbox infringes four Motorola Mobility patents, including three related to industry standards covering Wi-Fi technology and video decoding. Another judge said that Apple’s iPhone and iPad tablet computer infringed a patent related to 3G technology.
Microsoft Pleased
“We welcome the FTC’s statement agreeing with Microsoft that standard-essential patent abuse harms consumers and competition,” David Howard, Microsoft’s deputy general counsel, said in an e-mailed statement.
“The FTC joins a growing chorus of regulators from around the world who recognize the danger posed by companies who try to use standard-essential patents to block the sale of products,” Howard said.
The FTC rarely gets involved in activities of the ITC, another independent agency, because their roles are different. The FTC investigates antitrust and consumer protection issues, while the ITC’s job is to protect U.S. markets from unfair trade practices.
Patents relating to industry standards should be treated differently than other forms, Leibowitz said in the interview. Companies pledge to license such patents on fair terms, he said.
Leibowitz said the litigation over smartphones and tablet computers, with a related race to buy more patents, doesn’t promote the introduction of new products. Mountain View, California-based Google spent (GOOG) $12.5 billion to buy Motorola Mobility in large part to obtain its trove of 17,000 patents.
Wasteful Purchases
“All these tens of billions of dollars spent on buying defensive portfolios I think can raise a pretty serious question about whether that is wasteful and inefficient,” Leibowitz said in the interview.
The FTC, in its filing, suggested the International Trade Commission refrain from imposing an import ban or delay the imposition until both sides “mediate in good faith.” Commissioner Tom Rosch, in a footnote, said import bans are inappropriate when a patent owner has pledged to license standard-essential patents on fair terms.
Motorola Mobility filed its ITC case against Cupertino, California-based Apple after the iPhone maker challenged other makers of phones running on Google’s Android operating system.
The dispute over Xbox began after Microsoft approached Motorola Mobility and demanded patent royalties on smartphones that run on Android. Motorola Mobility responded by claiming it was entitled to royalties on the Xbox.
Royalty Rates
Motorola Mobility sent letters to Microsoft with what it said was a standard demand for a 2.25 percent royalty on the end price of products that use the inventions, including the Xbox and Windows products. Microsoft contends that would add up to as much as $4 billion in annual royalties, a figure Motorola Mobility disputes.
Microsoft’s entertainment division (MSFT), which includes sales of the Xbox, generated $8.9 billion in global sales in fiscal 2011, about 13 percent of Microsoft’s revenue.
Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, filed a lawsuit accusing Motorola Mobility of breaching its contractual obligations.
ITC Judge David Shaw, in his determination, said no company would agree with Motorola Mobility’s demands. Still, he said, the dispute over royalty rates shouldn’t preclude an import ban if a violation of standard-essential patents is found.
The FTC supports Microsoft’s argument that any dispute over standard-essential patents should be limited to deciding royalty rates in court.
Seattle Ruling
U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle yesterday declined to rule in Microsoft’s favor in its case with Motorola Mobility, saying the royalty issue must be resolved at a November trial.
Apple, which is trying to curtail growth of Android devices, has accused Samsung of improperly using its standard- essential patents in a case that’s in trial at the trade agency. Huawei Technologies Co. has made similar allegations in an ITC case filed by InterDigital over third-generation technology on mobile phones.
Apple and Microsoft have pledged that they wouldn’t use their own standard-essential patents to block products.
“We think it’s an abuse of the patent system to use an essential patent to block the import and sale of a competitor’s product, and Apple has never used standards essential patents in that way,” Apple said in February. Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman, said the company stood by that statement.
Pending Cases
The ITC has more than a dozen pending cases involving smartphones and tablet computers, and lawsuits have spanned four continents with Apple and Microsoft going against makers of Android devices.
The European Union is investigating complaints by Microsoft and Apple that Motorola Mobility is unfairly using standard- essential patents to block competition.
The U.S. case is Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) (MSFT) v. Motorola Inc., 10cv1823, U.S. District Court for the District of Washington (Seattle). The ITC case is In the Matter of Gaming and Entertainment Consoles, 337-752, U.S. International Trade Commission (Washington).
To contact the reporters on this story: Susan Decker in Washington at sdecker1@bloomberg.net; Eric Martin in Washington at emartin21@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bernard Kohn at bkohn2@bloomberg.net; Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net.
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