ASML says chip makers face a two year shortage of key machinery

DutchNews, March 21, 2022 

An ASML cleanroom where a euv machine is being assembled. Photo: ASML 

Semiconductor makers face a two-year shortage of critical equipment because Dutch chip machinery maker ASML is unable to meet demand fast enough, the company’s chief executive Peter Wennink has told the Financial Times. 

ASML, based in Veldhoven, is a key player in the global chip industry, producing machines which Intel, Samsung and TSMC all use to make advanced semiconductors. The company also has a monopoly in the field of EUV, or extreme ultra violet, based lithography machines.

‘Next year and the year after there will be shortages,’ Wennink told the paper. ‘We’re going to ship more machines this year than last year and . . . more machines next year than this year. But it will not be enough if we look at the demand curve. We really need to step up our capacity significantly more than 50%. That will take time.’ 

The FT said Wennink’s comments come as the semiconductor industry is speeding up investment in new production to meet a global shortage of chips, and that analysts expect the market to double to $1 tn by 2030.

World's first 5G phone released in South Korea

Yahoo – AFP, April 5, 2019

South Korea's three mobile carriers held launch parties for Samsung's
Galaxy S10 5G, which costs at least $1,200 (AFP Photo/JUNG Yeon-Je)

Samsung Electronics on Friday released the Galaxy S10 5G, the world's first available smartphone with built-in fifth-generation communications technology, as South Korea seeks to build a lead in the transformative system.

On Wednesday the South became the first country to commercially launch nationwide 5G services, with three superfast networks going live offering data speeds that allow users to download entire movies in less than a second.

Hours later US giant Verizon began commercial services in Chicago and Minneapolis, after rival AT&T made a 5G-based system available to selected users in parts of 12 cities in December.

South Korea's three mobile carriers -- SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus -- held launch events across Seoul for the Galaxy S10, whose base version costs 1.39 million won ($1,200).

Interactive virtual-reality displays and robot demonstrations were on show to tout the capabilities of the latest iteration of mobile internet speed, and new users were excited about the possibilities, especially live streaming of sports games and university lectures.

"I watch a lot of videos often, movies and lectures," said buyer Shim Ji-hye, 38. "I hope faster speeds will help me manage my time better."

Another user said he was most excited about virtual reality content -- which includes games and even "celebrity VR dating" apps according to the country's mobile carriers.

With 5G, said researcher Lee Sang-yoon, VR content "can be enjoyed in real time with no delay... I'll be able to enjoy it in better resolution and speed".

Before Friday's roll-out of the Samsung phone, the 5G service had been restricted to a handful of specially selected users in South Korea.

Rival manufacturer LG is due to launch its V50 ThinQ, another 5G phone, in the South later this month, while in the US, Verizon's network works with Lenovo's Moto Z3 smartphone fitted with a special accessory.

Commercialising 5G gives South Korea the chance to build around the technology, which is crucial for the future development of devices such as autonomous vehicles and the Internet of Things.

It is expected to bring about $565 billion in global economic benefits by 2034, according to the London-based Global System for Mobile Communications, an industry alliance.

The implications of the new technology have pitted Washington against Beijing -- whose firms dominate 5G technology -- in an increasingly bitter standoff.

The US has pressed its allies and major economies to avoid 5G solutions from Chinese-owned telecom giant Huawei, citing security risks that technological backdoors could give Beijing access to 5G-connected utilities and other components.

Chinese entities own a total of 3,400 5G patents -- more than a third of the total, according to data analysis firm IPlytics -- with 1,529 of those registered by Huawei.

South Korea comes next, with its companies holding 2,051 patents, while US firms have 1,368 together.

Neither KT nor SK Telecom use Huawei technology in their 5G networks, but it is a supplier to LG UPlus, the companies told AFP.

Samsung Electronics apologises for factory cancer cases

Yahoo – AFP, Jung Hawon, 23 November 2018

Samsung Electronics co-president Kim Ki-nam bows as he makes a formal
apology to victims of work-related diseases in Seoul on November 23, 2018

Samsung Electronics apologised Friday to workers who developed cancer after working at some of its factories, finally ending a decade-long dispute at the world's top chipmaker.

The father of a dead 22-year-old worker and the company's co-president Kim Ki-nam signed a formal settlement agreement in Seoul as other disabled ex-employees looked on.

"We sincerely apologise to the workers who suffered from illness and their families," said the firm's co-president Kim Ki-nam. "We have failed to properly manage health risks at our semiconductor and LCD factories."

Samsung Electronics is the world's biggest mobile phone manufacturer and chipmaker and the flagship subsidiary of the Samsung Group, by far the biggest of the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate the South's economy.

Samsung currently operates vast semiconductor production compounds in Suwon as well as the cities of Hwaseong and Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, as well as Xian in China.

Campaign groups say that about 240 people have suffered from work-related illnesses after being employed at Samsung semiconductor and display factories, with around 80 of them -- many of them young women -- dying.

Under a deal announced earlier this month, Samsung Electronics will pay the group's employees compensation of up to 150 million won ($133,000) per case.

It covers 16 types of cancer, some other rare illnesses, miscarriages and congenital diseases suffered by the workers' children. Claimants can have worked at plants as far back as 1984.

The scandal emerged in 2007 when former workers at its semiconductor and display factories in Suwon, south of Seoul, and their families said that staff had been diagnosed or died of various forms of cancer.

A series of rulings and decisions by courts, Seoul's state labour welfare agency and a mediation committee followed over more than 10 years, culminating in Friday's announcement.

Factfile on Samsung Electronics, including profit and smartphone market share

Hwang Sang-ki, who signed the agreement on behalf of the workers and their families, told reporters he was glad to have fulfilled his promise to his daughter, who died of leukaemia in 2007, to prove Samsung was to blame for her death.

But he went on: "The apology honestly was not enough for the families of the victims but we will accept it.

"No amount of apology will be enough to heal all the insults, the pain of industrial injuries and the suffering of losing one's family.

"I cannot forget the pain she and our family went through. Too many people have suffered the same fate."

Trade secret

Little is known about possible connections between the production process in the factories and the workers' illnesses, as Samsung has refused to disclose what specific chemical substances it uses, describing the information as a trade secret.

Hwang and other relatives have sought a court order to compel it to release the details.

"Compensation for industrial injury is important, but what's more important is prevention," said Hwang, whose story was made into a movie in 2013.

Samsung has played a key part in the South's rise to become the world's 11th-largest economy, but it is also the focus of resentment over the power and influence of the chaebols and has faced accusations of murky political connections.

Its de facto leader Lee Jae-yong was found guilty of bribing former president Park Geun-hye as part of the corruption scandal that brought her down, and he spent almost a year in prison before most of his convictions were overturned on appeal and he was released.

The cancer scandal is one of the worst instances of industrial injuries in the South, where safety standards sometimes belie its advanced technological status.

Two months ago, two subcontractors were killed in a carbon dioxide leak at Samsung Electronics' Suwon chip plant.

In January, four workers suffocated due to a gas leak at a steel factory owned by Posco -- the country's top steelmaker -- in the southern city of Pohang.

Chip machinery maker ASML wins first order from China

DutchNews, May 16, 2018

Photo: ASML 

Chipmachine marker ASML of Veldhoven has won its first-ever order from China, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Wednesday. 

The paper said Chinese Semiconductor Manufacturing International has ordered a $120m extreme ultraviolet lithography machine from ASML which never identifies its customers. Citing Nikkei Asian Review the FD said this is the latest in a series of orders for the EUV machines from ASML. 

Taiwan-based TSMC has ordered eight of the EUV machines, Samsung six and Intel three while GlobalFoundries of the US has ordered one. At the presentation of first-quarter figures in April, ASML said it had booked orders for 20 of the machines. 

EUV technology allows the industry to continue to print smaller features onto ever-more complex chips. It is carried out in a vacuum using a plasma to produce EUV light using highly sophisticated mirrors instead of lenses to project the circuit patterns onto silicon wafers. 

Today’s silicon chips have features as small as 40 nanometers – less than a few hundred atoms across – and ASML says EUV lithography tools will be used to print even smaller 

Using EUV to print transistors this small is equivalent to printing an image the size of a human eye on the surface of the earth from a space shuttle . . . and then printing another image on top of the first one with perfect alignment, the company says.

After toppling Apple in China, Oppo eyes world market

Yahoo – AFP, Julien GIRAULT, June 21, 2017

An army of salespeople and 200,000 stores across the country have helped
Oppo overtake giants Apple and Samsung in the Chinese smartphone market
(AFP Photo/Nicolas ASFOURI)

With its army of salespeople and vast network of outlets, a relatively new smartphone maker has exploded in popularity to overtake global giants Apple and Samsung in China’s market -- and now it has its eye on the West.

Oppo began life selling DVD players in the in the southern manufacturing hub of Dongguan a little more than a decade ago and only broke into the handset market in 2011.

But with an aggressive marketing strategy and concentration on bricks-and-mortar stores in small and medium-sized cities -- rather than relying on online customers -- sales have soared.

Last year it had a market share of 16.8 percent making it the China market leader and while a slip in the first three months of 2017 put it just behind local rival Huawei, according to market analyst IDC, it remains well ahead of Apple and Samsung.

Globally it ranks fourth behind Samsung, Apple and Huawei.

While its rivals focus on the premium end of the smartphone market in major cities and online, Oppo makes relatively cheap devices -- its latest model is less than half the price of an iPhone 7.

Oppo also sells them in actual shops. It has 200,000 outlets across China -- less than 10 percent of its purchases are made online -- while retailers are offered generous commissions in exchange for promoting the brand.

"In small cities, consumers unfamiliar with smartphones need to see and touch the devices and to have salespeople there to help them," said Yi Jun, Oppo's international sales director.

At the company's factory in Guangdong province, Oppo handsets are submitted to a series of durability tests including one-metre drops and temperature changes ranging from -40 degrees Celsius to 85 degrees Celsius.

"Technology is essential for meeting consumers' expectations," Yi said, pointing to Oppo's fast-charging ability, high-definition camera lens and sleek design.

Smartphone market share graphic (AFP Photo/Gal ROMA)

'Brand ambassadors'

Now Oppo's rivals are starting to follow suit.

Chinese brand Xiaomi, which lost significant market share in 2016, has been relying on the web for sales of its top-of-the-range smartphones.

But in February it announced plans to go back to old-fashioned selling techniques with plans to open 1,000 stores by 2020 in the hope of reversing its fortunes.

As competitors play catch up, analysts warn Oppo must maintain its momentum to stay on or near the top.

It needs to continue expanding its sales network and offering competitive products, said Mo Jia, an analyst at technology research firm Canalys.

Oppo has also been boosting its sales abroad, including emerging markets in Southeast Asia where its share more than doubled to 13.2 percent last year -- by far the biggest increase among its rivals, IDC data shows.

In India, it was the fourth-biggest player in the fourth quarter, with 8.6 percent market share, behind Samsung, Xiaomi and Lenovo.

"Its success in these countries comes from frantic marketing," said IDC analyst Tay Xiaohan, noting the use of local celebrities as "brand ambassadors" as it targets millennials.

It is also starting to back high-profile sports teams to increase brand awareness. Earlier this year it forked out more than $160 million to become an official sponsor of the Indian cricket side.

And Oppo is adapting its products to satisfy the "selfie" trend.

"We noticed the craze in Southeast Asia for group selfies and tailored our devices accordingly," Yi said, referring to special camera features that enable users to take better self-portraits.

Next stop is the West.

"We are very interested in entering the US and European markets, we are working on it... but without a precise timeline," Yi said.

It will be challenging.

While Huawei has managed to make a name for itself in US and European smartphone markets, it was already very present in those places as a telecom equipment manufacturer, said Annette Zimmermann, an analyst with technology research company Gartner.

And Oppo's direct sales strategy might not be as successful in markets dominated by mobile network operators that provide handsets with their contracts.

Samsung prevails over Apple in $399 mn patent appeal

Yahoo – AFP, Rob Lever, December 6, 2016

Samsung is the world's largest producer of smartphones (AFP Photo/
DON EMMERT)

Washington (AFP) - The US Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a $399 million patent infringement penalty imposed on Samsung for copying Apple's iPhone design, in a case watched for its implications for technology innovation.

The justices ruled 8-0 that Samsung should not be required to forfeit the entire profits from its smartphones for infringement on design components, sending the case back to a lower court.

While the ruling was short on specifics, analysts said it was likely to curb litigation from patent holders expecting to reap big profits from infringement on a component.

The 11-page ruling found that the $399 million penalty -- one element of a major patent infringement case -- was inappropriate because it represented "Samsung's entire profit from the sale of its infringing smartphones" for copying the iPhone's "rectangular front face with rounded edges and a grid of colorful icons on a black screen."

But the court stopped short of delving into details of how the lower court should determine the penalty.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the opinion that "doing so would require us to set out a test for identifying the relevant article of manufacture... and to parse the record to apply that test in this case."

The court sent the case back to the appellate court in Washington to resolve the details.

The case is one element of the $548 million penalty -- knocked down from an original $1 billion jury award -- Samsung was ordered to pay for copying iPhone patents.

No clarity

Observers had been watching to see how the court -- which had not taken up a design patent case in more than a century -- would tip the balance between technological innovation and protecting intellectual property.

Dennis Crouch, a University of Missouri law professor and co-director of the Center for Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship, said the ruling may leave both sides disappointed because it sets no real precedent.

"Although the case offers hope for Samsung and others adjudged of infringing design patents, it offers no clarity as to the rule of law," Crouch said in a blog post.

Crouch said the court allowed for damages to be applied at the component level but also indicated that the product as a whole is "an article of manufacture," leaving the matter open to interpretation.

"Thus, it will be up to courts to figure out which level (of damages) applies in particular cases," he wrote.

Samsung won the backing of major Silicon Valley and other IT sector giants, including Google, Facebook, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, claiming a strict ruling on design infringement could lead to a surge in litigation.

Apple was supported by big names in fashion and manufacturing. Design professionals, researchers and academics who said they had no financial interest in the case filed an amicus brief arguing on the basis of "fundamental principles of visual design," citing precedents like Coca-Cola's iconic soda bottle.

'Sigh of relief'

Florian Mueller, an intellectual property analyst who writes a closely followed patent blog, wrote that "large parts of the (US and global) tech industry will breathe a sigh of relief now" even if the case is not settled.

Ed Black, president of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, which represents major tech firms, welcomed the ruling.

"This was a pivotal court case for the technology industry and it is encouraging to see the law interpreted and applied in a way that makes sense in a modern era and protects both inventors and innovation," Black said.

The lower court's interpretation of design patents, Black said, "would have had a chilling effect on investment and the development of products -- especially in the tech sector."

Brian Love, a law professor who follows technology at the University of Santa Clara, said it was noteworthy that the top court declined to provide detailed guidance on how to resolve the damage award.

"The district court may well end up allowing the entire amount to stand, but it seems more likely that the award will be substantially reduced," Love said.

Still, Love said it may dissuade companies from launching new lawsuits on design patents

"Interest in design patents spiked following Apple's first jury verdict in 2012," he said.

"Companies suddenly saw design patent rights as a potential gold mine. Now, it seems likely that assertion of design patents will return to being a rare occurrence."

Related Article:

Appeals court slashes Samsung patent fine to Apple

HTC mum on alleged partnership with Israeli VR startup Replay

Want China Times, CNA 2015-07-14

Cher Wang speaks at an event at HTC's headquarters in Taoyuan, June 6.
(Photo courtesy of HTC)

HTC declined to comment Monday on a report that the Taiwanese smartphone maker is hoping to work with an Israel-based startup to provide virtual reality technology.

Local magazine Business Next reported on Saturday that HTC chairwoman and CEO Cher Wang had planned to visit Replay Technologies in early June, but was forced to cancel the plan because she needed to address HTC's tumbling share price.

The report said Wang canceled the plan in an e-mail to the Israeli company, citing Replay co-founder and CEO Oren Haimovitch-Yogev.

Wang's secret visit was aimed at teaming up with Replay for new technologies used in the HTC Vive — a virtual reality headset developed jointly with US video game supplier Valve, which is expected to hit the consumer market in the second half of this year, the report said.

In response to the report, HTC told CNA on Monday that it does not comment on rumors or speculation.

Replay has developed a new video format called "freeD," or free dimensional video, which works by capturing reality as a true three-dimensional scene, comprised of three-dimensional pixels that faithfully represent reality, rather than as a flat 2D image.

This information is stored in a freeD database and can be accessed to create any desired viewing angle from the multi-dimensional information, the three-year-old startup said.

The freeD technology has been used in instant replays at major sports events, including the 2012 Olympic Games, NBA All-Star Games, MLB games and the Super Bowl.

Replay has formed partnerships with Samsung Electronics, Sony and Microsoft.

IBM unveils 'breakthrough' computer chip

The chipmaker said it has managed to shrink the circuitry on its semiconductors by 50 percent, overcoming 'one of the grand challenges' of the industry. The discovery could take computing power to a new level.

Deutsche Welle, 9 July 2015

IBM on Thursday said its new chips could boost computing power of "everything from smartphones to spacecraft."

They are the first of their kind with transistors only 7 nanometers wide - roughly 1/10,000 the width of a human hair, the company said.

That's dramatically thinner than the 22 nanometer or 14 nanometer transistors used in the microprocessors that power today's servers.

The breakthrough was celebrated as a potential game-changer for the industry, which has consistently built smaller chips with more power in recent years but has seen progress slow as the physical limitations of existing technology appeared to be reached.

IBM said the new transistors could help power chips that would meet the ever-increasing demands of future cloud computing and Big Data systems, mobile products and other novel technologies.

The research was part of a $3 billion (2.7 billion euro) investment that saw the chipmaker partner with Samsung as well as the State University of New York's Polytechnic Institute to develop silicon-germanium transistors capable of boosting processing power.

cjc/pad (AP, AFP)

New Partnerships Extend Microsoft’s Reach Into Android

Jakarta Globe, AFP,  Mar 24, 2015

This March 27, 2014 file photo shows the Microsoft logo seen in San Francisco,
California. Microsoft says its new Windows 10 operating system will be coming
"this summer" in 190 countries and 111 languages. (AFP Photo/Josh Edelson)

Washington. Microsoft on Monday unveiled partnerships with Samsung and other manufacturers to install its services including Word and Skype on devices powered by the rival Google Android system.

The move is part of a push by Microsoft, which has been lagging in efforts to get Windows-powered devices in the marketplace, to deliver services to consumers and businesses using Apple and Android hardware.

Microsoft said it was expanding a deal with Samsung — which had already agreed on pre-installing Microsoft services on its high-end smartphones — to include some tablets.

The deal will provide Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype on “select Samsung Android tablets,” a statement from the Redmond, Washington, group said.

”Our partnership with Samsung is emblematic of our efforts to bring the best of Microsoft’s productivity services to everyone, on every device, so people can be productive wherever, however and whenever they want,” said Peggy Johnson, executive vice president of business development at Microsoft.

In a separate statement, Johnson said 10 other hardware makers would also install Microsoft services on their Android devices.

These firms include US-based Dell, TrekStor of Germany, JP Sa Couto of Portugal, Datamatic of Italy, DEXP of Russia, Hipstreet of Canada, QMobile of Pakistan, Tecno of Africa, and Casper of Turkey, and Pegatron — a Taiwan-based firm which makes devices for other brands.

”Original device manufacturers are important because they extend Microsoft services to the ecosystem,” Johnson said.

”More specifically, they help to reach a greater number of other device manufacturers, resulting in even more choice for customers around the world. And for Microsoft, this is part of the company’s mobile-first, cloud-first vision.”

Agence France-Presse

Galaxy S6 Wins Early Kudos for Innovative Design, Materials

Jakarta Globe, Bloomberg, Mar 02, 2015

A hostess displays the Galaxy S6 edge smartphone at the Samsung Galaxy
 Unpacked event before the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain on
March 1, 2015. (Reuters Photo/Albert Gea)

Samsung Electronics won early praise for its new high-end Galaxy S6 smartphones, with reviewers saying the devices featured premium materials and innovative design.

The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, with a screen stretching from the front across both sides, were unveiled on Sunday in Barcelona, with Forbes saying the use of glass and metal represents “great gains in terms of style.” The BGR website called the S6 and the S6 Edge “truly fantastic smartphones.”

Samsung’s Galaxy S range has been criticized for using plastic instead of the metal frames featured in Apple’s iPhone and high-end devices by rivals running Google’s Android software. The new phones use an aluminum casing, the South Korean company’s own processors, as well as payment software and a fingerprint reader for added security.

“The Galaxy S6 accomplishes something important for Samsung: It’s a flagship phone that finally feels like a flagship,” the New York Times said. “Samsung is moving in a beautiful and powerful new direction, and has indeed created something that looks and feels new and different.”

Both phones will be available in gold, white and black. The S6 also comes in blue, while the S6 Edge has a green version. The phones, which go on sale from April 10, have high-speed and wireless charging capabilities. Samsung has not disclosed the prices.

While TechRadar praised the phones for their design and upgraded camera, it said the smaller battery, which cannot be removed, may be a drawback.

Re/Code said the new devices featured high-quality design and materials with a high-end feel that should have been part of the S range from the start.

Samsung has unveiled its “most beautiful phone,” said the Wall Street Journal, while Chosun Ilbo, a daily newspaper in South Korea, said that dropping the removable battery and memory slot put the new Galaxy devices into more direct competition with Apple.

Still, the changes have resulted in a more sophisticated phone, it said.

Bloomberg

Xiaomi Releases New Flagship Mi Note To Take On iPhone 6 Plus, Samsung Note

IBTimes, Harichandan Arakali, January 15 2015

Xiaomi launched its new flagship phablet, the Mi Note, on Jan. 15, 2015, at an
 event in Beijing, China. The phone has a larger screen than the iPhone 6 Plus and
is lighter as well. Xiaomi Inc.

Xiaomi Inc., which has earned the moniker, "China’s Apple," launched its new flagship phablet, the Mi Note, with a screen larger than that of Apple's iPhone 6 Plus, and priced at 2,299 yuan ($371) for the 16GB version.

The Mi Note, with its 5.7-inch screen, is also thinner than iPhone 6 Plus, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said at the launch event of the new Note. The event was webcast live from Beijing and Lei had put up slides on a large screen behind him on the stage, similar to Apple product launches.

Mi Note comes equipped with a six-element, 13-megapixel primary camera sourced from Sony Corp., with optical image stabilization, and a two-tone flash from Philips. The selfie camera offers a 4-megapixel shot.

The phone is 6.95 mm thick, wrapped on both sides with Corning Gorilla glass, and has a 3,000 mAh battery from Sony or LG Electronics. At 161 grams, the Mi Note is also lighter than iPhone 6 Plus.

While the standard Mi Note delivers 1,920 x 1,080 pixels display with 386 pixels per inch (PPI) resolution, along with 3GB of RAM and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, a Pro version bumps up the specs to 2,560 x 1,440 pixels display with 515 PPI, 4GB RAM and a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor along with an Adreno 430 graphics processing unit.

Both the stock Note and the Note Pro handsets support 4G LTE technology, but the fancier version costing 3,299 yuan ($532) also supports a standard called category 9 that allows for considerably higher rates of data transfer that can be as high as 450 Mbps.

In the four years since its birth, Xiaomi has risen to become the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, shipping more than 60 million handsets in 2014, almost all of which were sold in China. India is the company’s next biggest market where it sold over a million phones in the last six months since its entry into the market.

The privately held company recently raised $1.1 billion in fresh funding, at a valuation of $45 billion, making it one of the most valuable technology companies today.

US judge rejects Apple bid to ban Samsung smartphones

Yahoo – AFP, 28 Aug 2014

Attendees gather at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference at the Moscone

West center on June 2, 2014 in San Francisco, California (AFP Photo/Justin Sullivan)

A judge on Wednesday rejected a bid by Apple to ban US sales of rival Samsung smartphones targeted in a recent $2 billion patent trial in Silicon Valley.

The decision was seen as a setback for Apple in its long-running battle with Samsung over features built into Android-powered mobile devices that compete worldwide with iPhones and iPads.

The California-based Apple requested an injunction on offending Samsung mobile devices -- which were from the flagship Galaxy line -- after a patent trial that ended with a mixed verdict in May.

A Samsung Electronics flag flies outside

 their headquarters in Seoul, November 6,

2013 (AFP Photo/Jung Yeon-Je)

Jurors awarded $119.6 million in damages to Apple.

While the amount of the award is huge, it is only a fraction of the more than $2 billion Apple had sought at the outset of the case.

"Apple's cited evidence indicates that Samsung paid close attention to, and tried to incorporate, certain iPhone features," US District Court Judge Lucy Koh said in a written ruling denying an injunction.

"While indicative of copying by Samsung, this evidence alone does not establish that the infringing features drove customer demand for Samsung's smartphones and tablets."

"Apple has not established that it suffered significant harm in the form of either lost sales or reputational injury," Koh said in her latest ruling.

"Moreover, Apple has not shown that it suffered any of these alleged harms because Samsung infringed Apple's patents."

Partial ceasefire

Patents at issue in the case involve unlocking touchscreens with slide gestures, automatically correcting words being typed, retrieving data sought by users and performing actions on found data such as making a call after coming up with a phone number.

Samsung devices targeted by Apple included more than half a dozen smartphones from the Galaxy line, along with the Galaxy 2 tablet.

Jurors agreed that Samsung violated three of five Apple patents at issue in the two-month-long trial.

Jurors also found that Apple violated a Samsung patent and said Apple should pay its rival $158,400 in damages.

In August 2012, a separate jury in the same court decided that Samsung should pay Apple $1.049 billion in damages for illegally copying iPhone and iPad features, in one of the biggest patent cases in decades.

The damage award was later trimmed to $929 million and is being appealed.

Samsung and Apple decided earlier this month to drop all patent disputes outside the United States.

Both companies have been locked in a three-year battle of litigative attrition in close to a dozen countries, with each accusing the other of infringing on various patents related to their flagship smartphone and tablet products.

But neither has managed to deliver a knock-out blow with a number of rulings going different ways, and the partial ceasefire suggested a line was being drawn.

Apple has accused its South Korean rival of massive and wilful copying of its designs and technology for smartphones and tablets.

Samsung has counter-claimed that Apple had used some of its technology without permission.

Samsung suspends China supplier over child labour allegations

World's biggest smartphone maker suspends business ties with Dongguan Shinyang Electronics after China Labor Watch report

theguardian.com,  Associated Press, Monday 14 July 2014

Samsung showroom in Seoul, South Korea. Photograph: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/

Getty Images

Samsung has said it has suspended business ties with a Chinese supplier that allegedly hired children.

The South Korean company, which is the world's biggest smartphone maker, said in its blog on Monday that it had found possible evidence of child labour and illegal hiring at Dongguan Shinyang Electronics.

Samsung said last week it would urgently look into the Chinese supplier following a New-York-based watchdog's report that it had hired at least five children under the age of 16.

China Labor Watch said children as well as minors under 18 worked at Shinyang for three to six months to meet production targets during a period of high demand. The watchdog said the child workers were paid for 10 hours a day but worked 11 hours.

The report detailed 15 labour violations discovered during its undercover investigation. They included child labour, the absence of safety training, no overtime wages and no social insurance for temporary workers, who constituted at least 40% of 1,200 employees at the Chinese cellphone parts supplier for Samsung.

China Labor Watch's report came shortly after Samsung said its audit had found no child labour at hundreds of Chinese suppliers. Samsung began inspecting its Chinese suppliers after the watchdog raised the issue in 2012.

Samsung said it would permanently stop doing business with Shinyang if a Chinese investigation found evidence of child labour.

New Microsoft-Nokia smartphone is... Android

Yahoo – AFP, Rob Lever, 24 June 2014

CEO of Nokia Corporation Stephen Elop presents the new Nokia X at the

Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, on February 24, 2014 (AFP Photo/

Lluis Gene)

CEO of Nokia Corporation Stephen Elop presents the new Nokia X at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, on February 24, 2014 (AFP Photo/Lluis Gene)

Washington (AFP) - Microsoft on Tuesday rolled out its first new Nokia smartphone since acquiring the Finnish group's handset division -- using the Android operating system from arch-rival Google.

Microsoft said the Nokia X2, an updated version of a handset unveiled this year before the takeover was completed, was "designed to introduce the 'next billion' people to the mobile Internet and cloud services."

The device will be sold worldwide as a dual-SIM phone at a price of $135 (99 euros), Microsoft said in a statement.

While Microsoft has been struggling to get a foothold in the smartphone market with its Windows Phone operating system, the X2 "provides access to a world of Android apps and popular Microsoft services," the statement said.

Even though it uses the rival Android platform the X2 offers "a gateway to Microsoft services," including the Skype messaging program and OneDrive cloud storage.

The initial Nokia X was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, before Microsoft completed its takeover of Nokia's handset division in April.

The new version cuts the price of a phone which has had success in some countries.

"The Nokia X family is going from strength to strength, with the Nokia X smartphone achieving top-selling status in Pakistan, Russia, Kenya and Nigeria, while earning the third-best-selling smartphone spot in India,” said Timo Toikkanen, head of mobile phones for the Microsoft Devices Group.

"The Nokia X2 elevates the Nokia X experience with a stellar new design, ease of use and new Microsoft experiences. We're proud to continue to bring smartphone innovation to lower and lower price points."

With the Nokia X unveiled in February, Android applications work, but users cannot access Google's services, notably its applications store, Google Play.

Tuesday's statement said users would have access to the Nokia Store as "the place for finding the highest-quality Android apps" for the device.

Windows Phone has managed to get only around 3.5 percent of the global smartphone market, while Android has more than 80 percent, according to recent figures from research firm IDC.

'As many phones as possible

Roger Kay, analyst with Endpoint Technologies, said the Android phone makes sense in view of the fragile position of the Windows Phone platform.

"Google has the dominant platform and Apple is number two, so there is a question about whether there is room for a number three," Kay said.

He added that the Nokia unit appears to be maintaining some independence after being acquired by Microsoft and that "they want to sell as many phones as possible."

"Microsoft is hanging onto the phone business by its fingernails," he said. "One bump and they could be gone. You still have a whole phone business in Nokia so it makes sense to be on the dominant platform."

Microsoft closed the deal in April with some adjustments from the announced price of $7.52 billion (5.44 billion euros). The US company agreed to exclude factories in India and South Korea.

Nokia was the world leader in mobile phones until it was challenged by Apple's iPhone in 2007 and later Samsung.

Apple and Google settle patent row

BBC News, 17 May 2014

Smartphones. File photo

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Mobile phone industry giants Apple and Google have agreed to dismiss lawsuits they had brought against each other over technology patents.

In a joint statement, the companies said they would work together in "some areas of patent reform".

But the deal did not include licensing their technology to each other.

Apple - which produces iPhones - and firms that make phones using Google's Android software earlier filed dozens of lawsuits against one another.

Earlier this month, a jury in California ordered South Korea's Samsung firm to pay Apple $119.6m (£71m) for for infringing two of its patents.

The court also ruled that Apple infringed Samsung's patents and awarded $158,000 in damages.

Android software is now installed on some 80% of new phones sold every year.