Category: Mobile

In today’s Remainders: laughs. The Onion riffs on Google’s privacy issues; Virgin America’s triumphant claim of going Flash-free is sort of a joke; a clever Chatroulette user pranks people into looking at themselves, and more.

Grounded
Yesterday Virgin America announced that they were actively ditching Flash for an all HTML website, explaining that it would make the site more accessible for mobile users. The media made it out to be a pretty big deal—which it might have been, had it been completely true. We visited Virgin’s brand new site yesterday and what did we find? Flash! So that’s strike one. Strike two is that Virgin doesn’t really have much of a mobile site to speak of, so, you know, maybe it would’ve been more useful to focus on that than to grab some spotlight from the big Apple / Flash scrum. Strike three is just us being aggravated by the combination of strikes one and two. We like you, Virgin, don’t get us wrong. But your new Flash free site isn’t all that you made it out to be.
[The Register]

Sorry, You
Google wants to apologize to you, personally, for their recent privacy missteps. They know it’s hard being 29 and living in your parents’ basement. They realize that someone who spends 6 hours a day playing Everquest and another 3 trolling related message boards probably holds their privacy dear. They understand it doesn’t help that you just broke up with your girlfriend, and they can tell that you’re not taking it very well from all those desperate late night e-mails you’ve been sending her. Anyway, they just wanted to say that they’re sorry and they’re working on it. [The Onion]

iPad Ping Pong
On Monday, an analyst was carrying on about how a production issue at Foxconn was going to result in less iPads being available at launch. Peter Misek, the analyst in question, put that number somewhere around 300,000, at most half as many units as had been previously expected. Unsurprisingly, Foxconn has volleyed back saying that the manufacturing is moving along just fine and that they will surely meet the expected output of 600,000 – 700,000 iPads. So which is it? Who knows. Analysts make all sorts of silly claims—it’s their job, after all—but if there is indeed a problem, Foxconn would be expected to deny, deny, deny. [Electronista]

MirrorRoulette
At this point, I think, people are starting to get used to Chatroulette, insomuch as anyone can get used to a random video chat website that connects people with strangers and their penises the world over. Now, we’ve moved onto the second phase of this whole business, in which people tweak the largely untweakable system in any way they can to take ChatRouletting to the next level. This four minute videos shows the condensed reactions of hours of ChatRoulette partners who had their video feed flipped back on them. It’s pretty fun to see how people still mug for the camera, even when they’re ostensibly just video chatting with themselves. Put this on a loop and hang it in a gallery; Metaroulette is realized. [LaughingSquid]

It looks like Google has decided against releasing new iPhone apps for the time being and has focused most of its mobile development efforts on web apps instead. While the Buzz web app is very good, however, it can’t quite rival the speed and comfort of using a native iPhone app. Fiam‘s Buzzie is the first Buzz app for the iPhone ($1.99 – iTunes link) and even though it is still missing some features,

it already gives us a good idea for what developers can achieve by using the Buzz API.

Sponsor

Posting to Buzz

Posting to Buzz from Buzzie is as easy as hitting the compose button, choosing if you want to attach your location to the post and hitting “send.” You can use the app to send both private and public messages.

One feature that is missing here, however, is the ability to attach photos and links. Sadly, you can’t set any defaults for the editor, which means that – by default – it always wants to attach your location, for example.

Photos and Links

The app handles posts with photos beautifully. You just tap on the photos and they appear in full-screen mode. Photo sharing is one of Buzz’s best features and this app rightfully puts a lot of emphasis on making the photo browsing experience as seamless as possible.

The way the app handles links takes some getting used to, though.Instead of just tapping on the link, you have to push the little paperclip icon at the bottom of the screen. That’s not a deal breaker, but it will surely confuse some people.

Verdict

Google is betting on HTML5 and web apps to deliver its products without having to go through the App Store approval process. Buzzie, however, shows that there are still some clear advantages to developing a native app. The app just feels a lot snappier than Google’s web app for Buzz and even though it doesn’t offer any new features, it makes using Buzz on the iPhone a lot more fun. A few features – like attaching photos to your posts or browsing the map for messages – are still missing, though chances are that the developers will add these in one of the next revisions.

Hat tip to The Next Web for spotting the app first.

Discuss

It’s probably not the first site to eschew Flash in favor of greater compatibility with Apple’s portable devices, but it’s one that’s definitely big enough to make waves. Virgin America has launched a new, Flash-free website with the stated intent of reaching more customers on Apple’s devices, where Adobe’s rich web content application is not welcome.

Honestly, I think this is only the beginning of a new tide that will see corporations retreating away from either Adobe’s or Microsoft’s proprietary solutions for displaying animations and other advanced media elements in their websites. When the goal is to reach as many customers as possible, it only makes sense to take into account the limitations of some platforms. Flash may run on many portable non-Apple devices, but that doesn’t mean it does it well.

As reported by the Register, the decision to go with only HTML is about inclusion, even though the move by Apple that preceded it is all about exclusion:

Virgin picked HTML to give users of iPhones and other mobiles the option in the future of checking in through their phone. The battle between Adobe and Apple has seen Flash deliberately excluded from the Jesus Phone.

Virgin’s new site is designed to let users check-in using their mobiles, using a system that issues electronic boarding passes you’ll be able to show to airport security staff. The plan is awaiting approval by the U.S. Transportation Security Authority. The site is responsible for 70 percent of Virgin’s $100 million quarterly revenue. Right now it’s advanced enough to suit the company’s needs, but Virgin does anticipate making the jump to HTML5 once it’s cleared by the W3C.

Virgin America’s Chief Information Officer Ravi Simhambhatia added, in defense of the decision, that “[t]his year is going to be the year of the mobile [for Virgin].” The sentiment echoes Steve Jobs’ recent declaration that Apple is now a mobile device company first and foremost. There’s just no denying that if companies want to be taken seriously on the mobile scene, they need to take into account, if not focus on Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch, and the upcoming iPad.

The message is clear: Apple can succeed at stonewalling Adobe. The iPhone has been a massive success despite a lack of Flash support, and the iPad is poised to do the same when it launches late this month. Magazine companies aren’t happy about having to choose, but let’s be honest, print publications and their online components hardly hold the industry sway that they did 10 years ago. The death of Flash is coming, and Virgin is only the first harbinger of said death.

Mitch Lazar, Yahoo’s European Mobile managing director, is stepping down from his post after working at the company for four and a half years.

Lazar marks one of many recent departures from Yahoo’s mobile group. Over the past year-or-so, departures range from all the way at the top, like Marco Boerries, Yahoo’s EVP of the Connected Life Division, to its Chief Scientist Marc Davis to Steve Boom, SVP of Connected Life. And, only ten months after being promoted to global head of Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Mobile, David Ko gained the additional responsibility for all of Yahoo’s content sites in North America.

Yahoo continues to operate its mobile search technology on its own despite the company’s search partnership with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT). However, Yahoo has the ability to tap Microsoft for mobile if it decides that makes sense in the future.

In a letter sent to friends and colleagues, Lazar says he does not know what he will do next, but is taking time off and is considering moving back to the U.S. Lazar credits Yahoo for accomplishing a lot while he was there: “We didn’t have much of a business when I joined, but we now have over 100 mobile search and ad deals around the globe with the genesis of those beginning right here in the UK. Between those and the distribution deals with Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and the OEMs we really created an exciting leadership position for the company.”

Related

• Yahoo Lands Another Mobile Search Distribution Deal—This Time In Germany
• Industry Moves: Yahoo Mobile’s Chief Scientist Marc Davis Latest Exec To Leave
• Industry Moves: David Ko New Global Head Of Yahoo Mobile
• Industry Moves: Two Senior Execs Depart From Yahoo’s Mobile Ranks

Wade Roush wrote:

On the third official day of Mass Mobile Month, we’re extremely pleased to unveil the official Mass Mobile Month iPhone app. Created by Swift Mobile of Cambridge, MA, and available at no cost through Apple’s iTunes App Store, the app includes the full list of Mass Mobile Month events, as well as a map guiding you to the events, along with information about transportation options and local businesses around the event venues.

There’s even a built-in social media client that lets you post updates about the events to your Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn accounts, with hash tags pre-supplied. If you’ve got an iPhone or an iPod Touch, I urge you to download the app, try it out, and tell your friends about it.

Swift Mobile founder and CEO Kathleen Gilroy demonstrated the Mass Mobile Month app at Monday’s meeting of the Web Innovators Group at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge. The gatekeepers at Apple finally approved the app yesterday.

Last week I talked at length Gilroy and got the inside story about Swift Mobile—which is out to change the way smartphone owners experience large conferences and events.

The company’s main business is to work with convention centers to produce mobile apps featuring interior and exterior maps, local transportation routes and schedules, and guides to nearby restaurants and businesses. It’s already created apps for the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center and the Hynes Convention Center, and it’s working on a dedicated app for the next national meeting of the Direct Marketing Association, which will be held in October at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.

Gilroy says she started Swift Mobile in 2007 after more than 20 years in the events and learning technology and podcasting businesses, working with organizations like Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and MIT’s Sloan School of Management. When Apple allowed third-party apps onto the iPhone and opened the App Store, “It was obvious to me that it was going to be a huge opportunity,” she says.

“With a smartphone, you can create a smart meeting,” she continues. “You have this computer in your hand that can access navigational information and do social networking, and you don’t have to lug around your laptop. It’s a perfect fit in terms of making a meeting a more valuable experience for everyone involved.”

The self-funded startup sold its first project to the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, which used the Boston Convention Center app for the first time during the American Library Association meeting in January. The app’s information about MBTA routes and nearby businesses proved particularly popular with conference-goers, Gilroy says. “People were saying, …Next Page »

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AT&T (NYSE: T) is gearing up to launch the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Backflip, its first Android device, on Sunday, and with it comes a little surprise: The Google-powered phone has been stripped of its flagship search engine, and instead comes loaded with Yahoo.

The removal of Google’s search by AT&T raises a few questions: Will all of AT&T’s Android devices default to Yahoo’s search engine? Will T-Mobile USA have to honor a similar agreement with Yahoo? (NSDQ: YHOO) And, will Verizon Wireless be forced to remove Google (NSDQ: GOOG) search in favor of its exclusive search provider, Microsoft’s Bing?

An AT&T spokesman confirmed that the carrier removed Google search from the phone, but added that other apps, like Gmail, Google Maps, Google Talk, Android Market and YouTube, remain. Engadget stumbled across this nugget of information when reviewing the device this week.

To be sure, the space has gotten complicated as carriers have signed contractual agreements with search providers, and then those search providers have rolled out mobile phones. One thing for certain is that if this continues to be the trend, Google’s business model may be at threat. After all, it gives the operating system for free with the hopes of making money from advertising on its various services, like search. Sprint (NYSE: S) is the only U.S. carrier that routinely integrates Google search into its devices.

AT&T did not say whether Google’s search would be stripped from upcoming Android devices, including the four additional ones planned for this year. Obviously, there’s some exceptions like the iPhone.

It’s unclear if T-Mobile will ever have to do the same. It’s been about two years since T-Mobile USA launched its first Google phone, and it has yet to replace Google’s search with Yahoo—despite having a similar exclusive partnership. A T-Mobile spokesman was noncommittal: “T-Mobile hasn’t announced any changes. Google continues to be our search partner on Android devices.” UPDATE: Yahoo issued the following statement: “We are happy that AT&T has chosen Yahoo! Search as the default mobile search service on the Motorola Backflip, AT&T’s first Android device. We have a long-standing relationship with AT&T and more than 80 carrier partnerships around the world…”

Another question is whether Verizon Wireless will also be required to replace Google? Last year, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) paid millions of dollars for the exclusive right to manage mobile search and advertising on Verizon’s handsets. While Bing has been installed on several phones, including BlackBerry devices, Verizon’s Motorola Droid and HTC Droid Eris, still have Google’s search bar intact. We are still waiting for a comment from Verizon to see if that will change.

What’s more is this subject is likely to raise its ugly head again when Microsoft launches Windows Phone 7 later this year. The new OS could potentially create a conflict for AT&T and T-Mobile—but not Verizon. Of course, this pattern is also replicated worldwide with Yahoo, in particular, having dozens of agreements with carriers on a global basis. However, these headaches may only be short-term: The contracts will eventually expire, and may never be renewed. And, the most obvious option is for consumers to side-step all of the fuss by going to the browser directly and typing in the search engine of their choice.

Related

• If Microsoft Wants Yahoo’s Mobile Search, They’ll Have To Earn It

During the past two weeks, the only time I would remember that the Winter Olympics were underway was when I was looking at the stats of our NewTeeVee blog or checking out Mathew Ingram’s Twitter stream. In the case of NewTeeVee, we saw a whole lot of people show up via Google looking for ways to watch the Olympics online.

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Games were a major hit on the Net, as outlined on NewTeeVee earlier today. NBCOlympics.com clocked 710 million page views and 46 million unique visits.

The Vancouver Games were equally big on mobiles as well. According to Limelight Networks, a content delivery network, in 16 days NBC Olympics Mobile served up 82 million page views and 1.9 million mobile video streams. In comparison, the Beijing Games served up 34.7 million page views.

“By the time the opening ceremony started, the Olympics Mobile platforms had already generated more page views than during the entire 2006 Games,” Limelight noted.

U.S. mobile users consumed almost 400 petabytes of data last year, up 193 percent from 2008, according to a new report from analyst Chetan Sharma. But carrier revenues aren’t keeping pace.

Sharma, who also serves as a member of the GigaOM Pro Analyst Network, reported that U.S. data traffic exceeded voice traffic by almost 400 terabytes in 2009; he expects that the ratio between the two to double this year. U.S. mobile data services revenues grew at only 24 percent year-over-year, though, and are expected to grow just 20 percent in 2010.

And while voice ARPU declined by a substantial 98 cents for U.S. carriers, data ARPU increased by a mere 4 percent to 53 cents as overall ARPU decreased 45 cents on the year.

Interestingly, Verizon and AT&T accounted for 88 percent of the increase in data revenues in the fourth quarter of 2009 — a fact that helps explain why the nation’s two largest carriers continue to separate themselves from their competitors.

Sharma notes that the market penetration of mobile in the U.S. is 99 percent for people older than the age of five. So as Stacey pointed out earlier today, carriers are running out of growth options. The key for the most lucrative operators, then, will be more effectively monetizing data traffic while limiting the impact that traffic has on their networks. Which is why both AT&T and Verizon are moving toward metered billing and away from flat-rate data plans.

Related Post On GigaOM Pro:

Metered Mobile Data Is Coming and Here’s How

Two days after a 8.8 magnitude earthquake displaced them from their homes and separated them from dear ones, people gathered at a fire-station in Concepcion, Chile to charge their cellphones—their comfort objects during this disaster.

Chile was becoming a trending topic on Twitter before even the fastest newscasters got a chance to talk about Saturday’s earthquake, thanks to many hastily posted Tweets—most of which likely came from mobile devices. Tweets, text messages, emails, calls, voicemails—everything flew across the networks, draining phones and granting people some comfort and peace. Just hearing a familiar voice or reading words of assurance—knowing that your mobile device links you to the world, to family, and to much needed aid—makes one heck of a difference.

We need food. We need medication. We need a hand to pull us out of the rubble. But we also need a little gadget that lets us cry out to the world so that everyone else has a chance to tell us that it’ll be ok. [Boston]

Picture by EVARISTO SA/AFP/Getty Images

THQ (NSDQ: THQI) has confirmed that its mobile game studio in Finland has entered into liquidation, putting an end to a decision made a year ago to make the Universomo office the hub of its smartphone game development.

In January 2009, THQ conducted a significant restructuring that included focusing on building games for smartphone platforms, closing its San Diego, UK and Germany offices, and designating Universomo as the center of its wireless business. However, today, a THQ spokesperson confirmed to ME that the Finland office is in liquidation, and that going forward, it will tap into a global network of external developers to make mobile-game titles.

The news was first reported by Pelaaja, a Finnish games magazine. The spokesperson said they still plan to release 15 mobile games this year despite the closure. “We are very excited about digital gaming and have increased our investment in this area.”

Last month, when THQ released its fourth-quarter earnings, it said it was realigning several of its studios to emphasize its digital operations. It said two of its eight studios will now focus on developing digital titles based on “THQ’s core game brands and new original intellectual properties,” as well as “the implementation of a portfolio-wide community platform to connect consumers to all of THQ’s core games.”

Related

• THQ Restructures Wireless Division; Will Focus On Smartphones And Layoff 100 Employees

Writing in the Huffington Post, Larry Magid raises the point that PC netbooks are hot sellers for very good reasons — namely that these small laptops, which typically cost between $300 and $400, can do most things a large portion of users want to do with a laptop computer, and do them much more cheaply, as well as being handily smaller and lighter than traditional laptops.

Small Laptop Price Premium Dynamic Turned On Its Head

I agree, and along with Magid note the irony of a changing dynamic where, reversing erstwhile conventional wisdom that computer consumers would be obliged to pay extra for the required engineering of miniaturization, with smaller laptops often costing more than larger siblings of the same brand (think PowerBook Duo vs. PowerBook or MacBook Air and MacBook), netbooks have turned the cost/weight equation on its head.

Mainstream netbooks, particularly ones equipped with the latest Intel Atom N270 processors running at 1.60 GHz, with a GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive, are perfectly adequate for most common tasks people use computers for such as Web surfing and e-mail, and even for watching web video. At least for non-touch typists, their usually undersized keyboards are also considered tolerable.

Downward Pressure On All Laptop Pricing

Then there’s the netbook phenomenon’s collateral effect of exerting strong downward pressure on standard sized notebook computer prices, to which even Apple has not been immune, as exemplified by the 13″ MacBook Pro being cheaper than its aluminum unibody MacBook predecessor, and the debut of a lower entry level 15″ MacBook Pro stripped of its ExpressCard Slot and discrete graphics processor/VRAM.

A prima facie topical example is Lenovo’s new ThinkPad Edge, which has a 13-inch display, a typically excellent Lenovo full-size keyboard, an AMD Athlon dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, a 320GB 5400 RPM hard drive, three USB ports, runs Windows 7, offers five-hour real world battery runtime, and is priced starting at an easy-on-the-wallet $599. Move up to a 1.3GHz Core Duo Intel processor and 4GB of memory and you’re still at $799.

That’s of course only $200 less than Apple’s entry-level MacBook, which at $999 has a much more powerful 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo processor and Nvidia 9600M 9400M integrated graphics, but only 2GB of RAM, a measly two USB ports, and a 250GB hard drive. To get the same 4GB of memory and 320GB of storage specs as the $799 Lenovo or even a $399 Dell Inspiron 15, you’re up to $1,149, while a comparable spec MacBook Pro will set you back a whopping (by comparison) $1,399 — a thousand dollars greater than your typical netbook.

Mac Still Greater Value, But Gap Narrowing

Now personally, I still think greater value is found in the Macs, especially due to their OS X-clusivity, and projected durability over the longer haul, or if you need the extra processing and graphics power they offer. But, with PC competition stiffening, and consensus building that Windows 7 is actually a pretty decent operating system, the OS X advantage is diminishing. That base AMD-powered Lenovo ThinkPad Edge for $600 bucks looks particularly enticing for cash-strapped or value-oriented users whose computing power needs are typically modest, especially in this challenging economy

That’s why I continue to stubbornly contend that the forthcoming iPad notwithstanding, Apple still needs a conventional clamshell notebook contender in the $600 – $700 price category.

Related GigaOM Pro Research: Report: The Future of Netbooks!

People love their iPhone apps — after all, Apple has sold over a billion of them since it launched the phone. And a big proportion of those apps are games. But you know what else a growing number of people love to have on their iPhone? Books. According to Mobclix, which does mobile advertising for apps, the number of books in the iTunes store now exceeds the number of games for the first time since the device was launched, making books the largest category in the store. The numbers from Mobclix, which keeps a regular tally on the most popular apps and downloads, show that there are more than 26,000 books in iTunes, compared with a little over 24,000 games.

This fits in with something Om wrote recently based on data from Flurry, which also showed a substantial increase in the number of books being downloaded to the iPhone. At the time, Flurry said that Apple was “positioned to take market share from the Amazon Kindle” for book reading, despite the small size of the display, and that “with Apple working on a larger tablet form factor, running on the iPhone OS, we believe Jeff Bezos and team will face significant competition.” That larger form-factor device, of course, will soon be available under the name iPad, and it looks like an even better book reader than the iPhone.

In many ways, the popularity of the iPhone as an e-book reader has created a ton of momentum for Apple when it comes to launching the iPad, which as some have pointed out looks like a much larger version of the phone or its cousin the iPod touch. Having grown used to reading books on a smaller device, it will probably seem pretty natural to trade that in for a larger unit that makes books look even better, and the tendency will likely be to gravitate towards something that looks and feels familiar (and is a full-color touchscreen) as opposed to something like the Kindle.

Having downloaded and read many books on the iPhone myself, through e-book apps such as the Kindle one, Stanza (which Amazon acquired last year) and Classics, I’ve grown quite used to reading them on the device, despite its small size. But I’d be happy to have something that functioned the same way with a bit more real estate, and I’m sure many e-book fans would share that feeling.

Related reports from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

Evolution of the e-Book Market

Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user striatic

Who doesn’t love a good concept piece? Spaziocellulare forum user “Seraphan” just posted his render of what the iPhone 4G could look like, and his ideas aren’t too shabby. Of course, it’s one man’s idea of what the phone of the future should look like, including an expanded color pallet, built in microSD slot, and front and rear cameras complete with a built in flash on the back.

Obviously it’s not real, but it’s fun to look and dream eh?

One of the more obvious opportunities in mobile is getting the smartphone past the affluent, early-adopters—and Nokia (NYSE: NOK), the largest handset maker in the world, has a plan for how to do just that.

Today, it unveiled the C-series smartphone product line, which Nokia describes in a blog post as a smartphone packed into a low-cost feature phone body. The first device, called the C5, comes loaded with Facebook built in, and has a somewhat small 2.2-inch display with a 3.2-megapixel camera. Nokia’s Ovi Maps with free navigation also comes pre-loaded. The C5 is expected to be available in the second quarter in Europe, Southeast Asia, China and the Middle east. The anticipated price, before taxes and subsidies, is $183 (€135).

The low-end smartphone market is considered a large opportunity because a mobile phone will like be the first way people, who don’t have access to computers, will first interact with the internet. Nokia has already had seen some success in the developing world, where users are quickly adopting its Ovi Mail service. Within a six month period, it said more than one million accounts had been activated.

As part of the C series announcement, Nokia explained its new naming conventions for its four smartphone product families. The C series are low-end smartphones, the E series phones are for business users, the X series is for youth and music, and N series represents the most advanced models.

While the E and N series have been around for awhile, the X series was introduced last year. Each handset will also be paired with a number, like the “C5.” The number signifies the range of functionality the phone offers from 1 to 9 (1 being the lowest and 9 being the highest). In a blog post, Nokia explained: “This new naming convention is designed to make things easier for users, so they can quickly and easily work out where a device sits within the series and beyond that have a clearer idea of what each series does. Nseries remains the flagship and most advanced range of products. Xseries comes next and focuses on social entertainment. Eseries remains focused on productivity and business whilst Cseries represents the core range of products.”

Mobclix, a mobile ad network aggregator, has acquired Heartbeat from New York-based Enormego for its ability to analyze the performance of iPhone applications, including sales reporting, statistics and crash reports. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Not only has the mobile ad network acquisitions been heating up, but so has the analytics space as developers and brands demand to know how their mobile applications are performing. In December, Flurry merged with Pinch Media to combine the two mobile analytics companies.

The Heartbeat analytics service was launched by its parent company, Enormego, in January last year. Since then, it claims to have 35,000 applications using the platform, including Pocket God, iShoot and RJDJ, and that it has tracked $25 million worth of paid downloads.

Mobclix plans to integrate Heartbeat’s analytics information with its data so that a developer can see all revenue-generating aspects, including ad monetization, in-app purchase and paid models. In February, Mobclix partnered with Nielsen to beef up its targeting abilities by using the research firm’s demographic data.

More legal wrangles for Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) over patents as the smartphone market continues to heat up. The iPhone maker is suing rival handset maker HTC, which makes devices using both Android and Windows platforms, for infringing on 20 Apple patents related to the device user interface, underlying architecture and hardware.

Apple did not offer any other specifics about how HTC may have been using its patented technology. In a statement, Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, said, “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.” The case was filed concurrently with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and in U.S. District Court in Delaware. Release

This is not Apple’s first visit to the ITC. Apple and Nokia have each filed cases against each other for patent infringements over the last couple of months. These cases are still pending.

This most recent suit against HTC doesn’t come as much of a surprise. HTC was the first phone maker to develop a device using Android, and it has been gradually ramping up its product line with other Android devices, including Google’s Nexus One launched in January.

Then last month, during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, HTC launched its newest device, the Legend, to much fanfare. With its sleek aluminum design and most up-to-date version of HTC’s Sense user interface, some are hailing it the biggest device since…the iPhone. This suit confirms that HTC may well be a competitor to be reckoned with.

Related

• Nokia Sues Apple: iPhone Maker Accused Of Infringing Mobile Patents