Google's Motorola Mobility has upgraded its lineup of Droid smartphones, announcing three new models including the flagship Droid Ultra. The new phones will be available through Verizon Wireless. …read more
Tag Archives: Motorola Mobility
New Droid smartphones launched by Google, Verizon
Google’s Motorola Mobility has upgraded its lineup of Droid smartphones, announcing three new models including the flagship Droid Ultra. The new phones will be available through Verizon Wireless.
The Droid Ultra has a 5-inch screen and at 7.18mm, is the thinnest 4G LTE smartphone available, said Rick Osterloh, senior vice president at Motorola Mobility. The Ultra offers 24 hours of battery life.
Also announced at a New York Verizon event was Droid Maxx, which has a 5-inch screen and 48 hours battery life, significantly more than the 32 hours of battery life offered by its predecessor Razr Maxx. The Maxx is also 9 percent thinner than the Razr Maxx.
Motorola also announced the Droid Mini, which has a ultracompact design with a 4.3-inch screen. The Mini offers 24 hours of battery life on mixed usage. The device weighs 132 grams, and is for those who like small, highly portable devices.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
Rumor Recap Ahead of Google's Moto X Launch
The launch of the much-anticipated Moto X smartphone is set for next week at a press event in New York City. The Moto X is the latest high-end phone from Motorola Mobility, but more to the point is the first new handset design initiated since the company was acquired last year by Google for $12.5 billion. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Google-owned Motorola Mobility on job hunt for wearables director
Motorola Mobility, which Google acquired in 2012 for $12.5 billion, is doing a serious talent search for a newly minted “Senior Director Industrial Design-Wearables,” according to a recent job posting that lists Chicago as the job locale. It is not only job news but tech news, as a sideshow peek at what Motorola Mobility has in mind as it faces its highly competitive future. In short, Motorola Mobility is attempting to beef up a we-are-number-one, world class design group for computer wearables. The job posting said Motorola Mobility is looking for the right candidate who can “provide strategic leadership, champion innovation and institute best practices to create a new world-class wearable’s design group within Motorola.” The new hire will have someone to watch over him or her, as the new hire will report to the Senior Vice President of CXD, which is Motorola lingo for Consumer Experience Design. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
Arris cleared by DOJ to acquire Motorola's set-top box business
Arris Group has received clearance from the U.S. Department of Justice for its proposed acquisition of the Motorola Home business.
The broadband device vendor said it now expects to close the transaction on or about Wednesday, as all “required regulatory approvals have been received, or the applicable waiting periods have expired.”
Google said in December it plans to sell the TV set-top box business of its Motorola Mobility subsidiary, which it acquired last year, to Arris for US$2.35 billion in cash and stock.
The Internet giant acquired Motorola Mobility more for its mobile phones business and its patents, and prepared to sell off the set-top box business.
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Judge says Apple, Motorola pursuing business strategy in court
A court in Florida said that Apple and Motorola Mobility have no interest in quickly and efficiently resolving a patent infringement lawsuit, but are instead using their litigations around the world as “a business strategy that appears to have no end.”
Referring to the “parties‘ obstreperous and cantankerous conduct,” Judge Robert N. Scola of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, described it as not a proper use of the court.
The judge was reacting to the litigation before the court which now includes over 180 claims asserted from 12 patents, in which the parties dispute the meaning of over 100 terms from those claims, according to an order which was entered into the court record on Wednesday. “Both Apple and Motorola greatly expanded the scope of this patent litigation by, among other things, supplementing patent infringement and invalidity contentions,” the judge wrote.
The parties agree that the case needs to be simplified, primarily through voluntarily agreeing to drop patents and claims from the case, but it is not a surprise that they have been unable to agree on how to accomplish this goal, the judge wrote in his order.
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Apple, Motorola have no interest in quickly resolving dispute, judge says
A court in Florida said that Apple and Motorola Mobility have no interest in quickly and efficiently resolving a patent infringement lawsuit, but are instead using their litigations around the world ‘a business strategy that appears to have no end.’
HEVC video compression halves bitrate, keeps quality the same
HEVC or H.265 video compression will affect all stages of video content creation and delivery, and possibly let providers deliver Ultra HD video over existing infrastructure, according to Motorola Mobility.
To see more about HEVC, watch a video on YouTube.
“Since it will take half the bit rate for similar quality, HEVC can be used for many different applications that are not feasible today or very expensive,” said Ajay Luthra vice president of advanced technologies for Motorola Mobility at the NAB Show in Las Vegas.
Ultra HD or 4K video content typically needs to be delivered at 50 or 60 megabits per second, he said. For reference, the highest quality 1080p YouTube videos top out at about 2mbps. Delivering Ultra HD content has been a challenge for content creators and, more importantly, makers of Ultra HD televisions. Currently, Ultra HD videos are played off a hard drive for Sony televisions. The content can’t be streamed or played from a Blu-ray disc.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
German court invalidates Apple slide-to-unlock patent
A German court has invalidated an Apple patent for the slide-to-unlock feature on mobile phones, according to a published report.
The Thursday ruling by Bundespatentgericht, Germany‘s federal patent court, is a victory for Samsung Electronics and Motorola Mobility. Apple has sought injunctions prohibiting the sale of devices from both companies.
The Bundespatentgericht ruling can be appealed by Apple to the Bundesgerichtshof, Germany‘s federal court of justice, wrote tech patent blogger Florian Mueller, who originally reported the ruling. Mueller is a paid consultant for tech companies in addition to blogging about mobile patents.
The German court ruled that none of 14 amendments Apple offered could salvage the patent, Mueller wrote.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
Microsoft's Xbox cleared of Google patent violation charge
An administrative law judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission has ruled against a ban on Microsoft’s Xbox as he found it did not violate a patent owned by Motorola Mobility.
In a one-paragraph ruling, Judge David P. Shaw gave an initial determination that the Xbox did not violate section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930.
Section 337 investigations conducted by the ITC most often involve claims regarding intellectual property rights, including allegations of patent infringement and trademark infringement by imported goods, and can lead to the ban on their imports into the U.S.
The commission may, however, review, adopt, or change an initial determination.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
Trade Commission Judge Rules Microsoft Did Not Violate Google Patent
On Friday, an administrative law judge at the International Trade Commission ruled that Microsoft did not violate a patent owned by Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility when it made the Xbox. This ruling is the latest in a fight between the companies over the Xbox video game console and are related to the larger patent war between Apple, Microsoft and the mobile phone makers who use Google, which includes its subsidiary Motorola Mobility. Previously, Motorola tried to ban sales of the Xbox in US and Germany as part of this patent dispute. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Motorola Mobility Says 41 Percent Of Content Recorded On DVRs Goes Unwatched
By The Huffington Post News Editors
If you have a backlog of shows on your DVR, then this study shouldn’t come as any surprise: Motorola Mobility says that 41% of the content recorded on DVRs in the U.S. is never watched.
Is Samsung's Galaxy S4 Bad News for Google?
By Doug Ehrman, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
While at some level it seems strange to ask if the latest generation in the single best-selling line of Android phones could be bad for Google , Samsung’s success with the Galaxy line gives it immense influence that shouldn’t be taken for granted. Not long ago, The Wall Street Journal reported that Google had concern over Samsung’s huge Android market share, while another source suggested that the purchase of Motorola Mobility had been to serve as “an insurance policy” against Samsung. With the release of the Galaxy S4, the influence that Samsung has over Android has the potential to rise even further.
As far as Google goes, Motorola is still struggling; further cuts to its employee base mean that its power as an insurance policy is waning. While the new Samsung smartphone doesn’t appear to be the iPhone killer that many had hoped for, it promises to push sales even further. Ultimately, as the South Korean powerhouse continues to attract market share, Google investors should watch how the relationship between the two companies evolves.
The pre-release buildup
The Wall Street Journal recently reported on concerns developing over Samsung’s ongoing success: “Google executives worry that Samsung has become so big — the South Korean company sells about 40% of the gadgets that use Google’s Android software — that it could flex its muscle to renegotiate their arrangement and eat into Google’s lucrative mobile-ad business, people familiar with the matter said.” Google relies on search revenue to subsidize the Android software, which it provides to various hardware manufacturers as a way to drive its business. As Samsung’s importance within that structure continues to rise, it puts the company in a uniquely powerful position. No other manufacturer is even in double digits for Android market share.
A recent piece in PC Pro suggested that Google executives had pushed for the Motorola acquisition to bolster the company’s hardware portfolio and act as a buffer against Samsung: “Andy Rubin reportedly told employees that Google had bought Motorola Mobility ‘as a kind of insurance policy’ against Samsung’s dominance.” Until recently, Motorola’s Droid Razr line had been among the top competitors for Android market share. Of late, the Droid line has significantly fallen out of serious contention.
So much has Samsung taken over as the first name in premium Android smartphones that HTC crashed the Galaxy S4‘s release party, allowing those gathered waiting for the event to demo the new HTC One. Passing out hot cocoa and snacks to event-goers, HTC explained that it wanted consumers to have a real chance to do a true side-by-side comparison. The company, which has been largely known for its understated approach to marketing, doesn’t want to be left behind and is joining the fight against the Samsung advertising juggernaut.
The Galaxy S4 launch
Despite all of the buzz created by the rollout of the new device, one of the most curious observations made about …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Google Trims Another 1,200 Motorola Jobs. Is This the Final Cut?
By Anders Bylund, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
Google isn’t done trimming the fat from its Motorola Mobility buyout.
The division will lose another 1,200 jobs in China, India, and America on top of the 4,000 cuts that were made last summer. The news comes from an internal email that was leaked to The Wall Street Journal and later confirmed by other sources.
Moreover, 5,000 Motorola workers are heading out to cable equipment firm Arris in a game-changing spin-off that will triple Arris’ sales overnight. The latest cuts will trim Motorola down to less than 10,000 employees. Google as a whole employs nearly 54.000 full-time workers right now.
How far will Google slash its Motorola costs? All things considered, the purported $12.5 billion sticker price has already come a long way down.
Motorola came to Mountain View with a satchel full of tax benefits that takes the effective purchase price down to just $3.8 billion. I think it’s fair to assume that Google will do whatever it takes to reap the full benefits of those tax breaks, even if the process won’t end until 2019.
Throw in $2.5 billion from Arris, and Google is left with a bargain-basement effective price of $1.3 billion. That would be a steal for Motorola’s patent portfolio alone, and Google obviously still hopes to make something out of the handset operation.
Motorola gives Google some skin in the handset-sales game, though not nearly the full-body exposure that Apple gets. Cupertino controls every step of the iPhone and iPad experience, from hardware to software to what services are allowed. As a result, every phone or tablet sold drops directly to Apple’s bottom line.
But Google has to tread carefully with Motorola. Big G can’t just give its own handsets better Android support and stronger marketing assistance than the plethora of existing partners. That would drive world-leading smartphone maker Samsung to embrace another platform instead of Android, such as its own Tizen software. Rumor has it that Sammy is moving in that direction anyway, and Google would be silly to provide the final push.
So Google is squeezing every ounce of efficiency it can out of Motorola, perhaps assuming that the sales side of the business won’t improve much. Cutting costs much further than this would reduce Motorola to a pretty focused play on patents and tax discounts.
Could it happen? Anything is possible, but I’d be shocked to see another round of right-sizing here. Google would never tip its hand that openly.
As one of the most dominant Internet companies ever, Google has made a habit of driving strong returns for its shareholders. However, like many other Web companies, it’s also struggling to adapt to an increasingly mobile world. Despite gaining an enviable lead with its Android operating system, the market isn’t sold. That’s why it’s more important than ever to understand each piece of Google’s sprawling empire. In The Motley Fool’s new premium research report on Google, we …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Is Google Maps Going To Be Banned In Germany?
By Tim Worstall, Contributor This would be annoying at a personal level as well as being slightly strange on the larger one. For we use Google Maps in Germany to guide trucks to a mining site. But that’s of course a minor point as compared to the possible outcome of this case detailed by Florian Mueller. It looks like Microsoft has a very good chance of prevailing in a patent trial against Motorola Mobility and Google over an issue crucial for the use of Google Maps: ….inclined to hold Google Inc., its subsidiary Motorola Mobility LLC and MMI’s German subsidiary liable for infringement of a key Microsoft patent, EP0845124 on a “computer system for identifying local resources and method therefor”, which is the European equivalent of U.S. Patent No. 6,240,360. And this would mean: Microsoft is seeking, and now very likely to obtain, a German patent injunction against the Google Maps service, the Google Maps Android client app, and web browsers providing access to Google Maps. In order to comply with the injunction that looms large, Google would have to disable access to Google Maps from computers using a German IP address, discontinue shipping the Google Maps Android app in the German market, and distribute web browsers in Germany only if they block access to Google Maps in a way comparable to Internet filters used for the purpose of parental controls. This is really about something larger than Maps though. There’s two parts to this. A finding of patent violation in a German court does not bind courts in other jurisdictions. But it will be influential on any similar cases: most especially in other EU courts. So assuming that Microsoft prevails here we will presumably see it taking the same issue to other jurisdictions where it has the same patent. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Google trims another 1200 jobs from Motorola Mobility
Motorola Mobility is cutting 1200 staff members, in addition to a reduction of 4000 staffers it announced in August, in order to focus on high-end devices.
“These cuts are a continuation of the reductions we announced last summer,” said Motorola spokesperson Katie Dove in an email. “It’s obviously very hard for the employees concerned, and we are committed to helping them through this difficult transition.”
Motorola’s mobile business has been overwhelmed in the smartphone market by larger players such as Samsung Electronics, Apple, Sony, Huawei Technologies, and ZTE. Samsung, the largest smartphone maker in the fourth quarter, like Motorola makes phones using Google’s Android operating system.
The revenue of Motorola’s mobile business as a result of knocks in the market was US$1.51 billion, or 11 percent of parent Google’s consolidated revenue in the fourth quarter of 2012. It also had an operating loss of $353 million in the quarter. Apple in contrast posted revenue of $54.5 billion and net profit of $13 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 29.
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…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
Google to cut 1,200 more jobs at Motorola Mobility
Motorola Mobility is cutting 1,200 staff, in addition to a reduction of 4,000 staff it announced in August, to focus on high-end devices. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Computerworld Latest
Prominent Apple fellow goes to work for Motorola
Guy Kawasaki, venture capitalist and former Apple chief evangelist, announced this week that he has taken on advisory work for Motorola Mobility – which is owned by rival Google. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Computerworld Latest
ITC will review Motorola, Apple patent dispute
The U.S. International Trade Commission has decided to review a December ruling by an administrative law judge that Apple did not violate a Motorola Mobility patent relating to a sensor controlled user interface for a portable communication device. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Computerworld Latest
HTC, Nokia, Motorola, LG face suit alleging misuse of semiconductor patent
Tela Innovations has filed patent infringement complaints against key mobile handset vendors, including LG, HTC, Nokia and Motorola Mobility, before the U.S. International Trade Commission and the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Computerworld Latest