Samsung

Microsoft suing Samsung for breach of contract

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From Microsoft’s blog post:

As you may have seen, on Friday Microsoft filed legal action against Samsung in U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. Today’s legal action is simply to enforce our contract with Samsung.

We don’t take lightly filing a legal action, especially against a company with which we’ve enjoyed a long and productive partnership. Unfortunately, even partners sometimes disagree. After spending months trying to resolve our disagreement, Samsung has made clear in a series of letters and discussions that we have a fundamental disagreement as to the meaning of our contract.

Oh, Samsung. Keep behaving like this and no one’s going to want to play with you anymore.

Samsung postpones launch of Tizen phone

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Fortune:

Samsung Electronics Co. suffered another blow to its efforts to cut the dependency of its smartphone business on Google Inc.’s Android operating system, postponing the launch of a new model that runs on its own Tizen software.

The news is the latest disappointment for the Korean giant which is trying to defend its position as the world’s largest maker of smartphones from the twin challenges of Apple Inc. and, at the other end of the market range, Chinese companies such as Huawei, ZTE and Xiaomi.

Samsung is getting squeezed.

Samsung faces fresh allegations over child labor

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Wall Street Journal:

According to investigations by the New York-based watchdog [China Labor Watch], the Shinyang factory hires children and underage students during busy periods and when in “urgent need of labor.” Shinyang makes cellphone covers and parts for Samsung.

The alleged underage workers are usually employed for three to six months, work for 11 hours a day and are only paid for 10 of those hours, the watchdog said in a statement.

Samsung posts earnings, well below expectations

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Samsung is getting it from all sides. Earnings are down for the third straight quarter. Their operating profit missed expectations by almost a billion dollars (7.2 trillion won vs expected 8.1 trillion won). Apple is rumored to be releasing competitive products (larger screen phone/iWatch) in the fall. And Chinese electronics manufacturers are eating into Samsung’s highest unit sales’ sector, the cheap smartphone.

Armed robbers steal US$6.3 million from Samsung

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Guardian:

Thieves haved raided a Samsung electronics factory in Brazil during the night shift, subduing workers and guards before making off with about US$6.3m worth of mobile phones and computers.

Samsung and its lawyers fined $2M for leaking details of Apple/Nokia patent deal

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9to5mac:

A court has fined lawyers Quinn Emanuel and Samsung a total of $2M for misusing confidential details of a patent deal struck between Apple and Nokia.

The documents were supplied by Apple to Samsung’s lawyers purely so that it could see that Apple was telling the truth about its patent deals with other companies. The documents were marked “for attorney’s eyes only” and were not to be revealed to Samsung executives.

Typical.

Review of Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Tab S

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The kicker:

More than three years after Google first got serious about tablets with Android 3.0 Honeycomb, it’s not even the league next door to the league inhabited by the iPad, which now has more than a half-million apps designed especially for it.

Apple’s looming battle with Xiaomi

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SeekingAlpha (free reg-wall):

Xiaomi, the world’s fastest growing phone vendor, has surpassed Apple (AAPL) in China. Canalys Report puts Xiaomi as the third biggest phone vendor in China in Q1 2014. Copycatting the iPhone has made Xiaomi, a four-year old company, the 6th largest global seller of smartphones.

The rapid rise of Xiaomi is due in part to Apple’s complacent attitude towards it. While Apple took Samsung to court for copying some of the features of the iPhone, Apple allowed Xiaomi to become a $10 billion company by selling iPhone clones using the Android OS. Xiaomi hired Google veteran Hugo Barra last year. Barra is spearheading Xiaomi’s expansion in 10 countries this year.

The linked article makes a pretty solid case comparing Samsung’s co-opting of the iPhone look-and-feel with Xiaomi’s approach. While Apple’s lawsuit against Samsung has made the headlines, there’s been nothing made about Xiaomi’s interface.

On eve of WWDC, Samsung announces their first Tizen smartphone

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CNET:

Samsung is the world’s biggest Android device maker by a wide margin, but it has been developing Tizen as an alternative to Google’s operating system for quite some time. Tizen gives Samsung more control over its own future, allowing it to rely less on Google and more on its homegrown software. That becomes increasingly important as Google works to support other Android vendors and as Samsung tries to set itself apart from all the other handset makers in the market.

Samsung rolls out its new health-monitoring wrist band

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I do think personal health monitoring devices will become almost universal, and this is certainly a step in that direction, but this seems more like a gadget than a solution, more of a marketing play to establish mindshare than a thought out product ready for the market.

Samsung pursuing sapphire for cover glass

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According to the industry on May 22, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics recently asked ingot and wafer makers to submit samples in an effort to adopt the sapphire cover glass. They reviewed it last year as well, but they were reluctant to use it because of high prices, but as global competitors recently announced plans to release new products with sapphire glass, they began to reconsider it in a hurry.

Sound familiar? It should.

Samsung resumes settlement talks with Apple

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Korea Times:

Samsung Electronics and Apple have recently agreed to begin talks to settle patent disputes out of court, according to people directly involved with the matter, Monday.

“Samsung has recently resumed working-level discussions with Apple and the key issue is how to dismiss all lawsuits,” they said, declining to be named.

They added that the recent verdict in the U.S. that admitted Apple’s infringement on some Samsung patents made things much better for the resumption of talks.

If true, an interesting development.

Samsung apologizes for working conditions that caused death, leukemia

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Samsung Electronics Co. officially apologized and promised compensation Wednesday over the sufferings and deaths of its semiconductor workers from illnesses that family members claim are work-related.

“Several workers at our production facilities suffered from leukemia and other incurable diseases, which also lead to some deaths,” said Kwon Oh-hyun, the CEO of the electronics giant.

“We should have settled the issue earlier, and we are deeply heartbroken that we failed to do so and express our deep apology,” Kwon said. He added that Samsung will now make efforts to settle the issue in a sincere manner.

Wow.

Samsung Chairman Lee stable after surgery following heart attack

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Bloomberg:

Lee was operated on early yesterday at Samsung Medical Center after being resuscitated and stabilized the previous night at Soonchunhyang University Hospital following an acute myocardial infarction, according to an e-mailed statement from Samsung Group spokeswoman Rhee So Eui.

Samsung plans “health” event a week before Apple’s WWDC

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The invitation says:

A new conversation about health is about to begin. Be there when it starts.

The event is planned for May 28th, 10:30 am, San Francisco.

I can only imagine that this is a defensive play in anticipation of Apple’s WWDC announcements. Think it’ll work? Think Samsung will take the wind out of Apple’s WWDC sails? Not a chance.

Samsung buys two patents to compete in its patent war with Apple

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The Verge:

After weeks of playing defense against five Apple patents, Samsung this week went after Apple with two of its own patents: one it says is infringed when people make FaceTime calls, and another that covers the photo gallery feature found on iPhones, iPads, and some iPods.

Trouble is, the five Apple patents are actually Apple patents. Samsung’s two patents are both purchased patents, not Samsung innovations.

Samsung’s portrayal in the media

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Yesterday, USA Today ran the linked article discussing Samsung slugging it out with Apple for customers. To me, it read almost like a love letter to Samsung, full of appreciation for a scrappy underdog. For example:

In this escalating slugfest, Samsung has become tech’s Joe Frazier to Apple’s Muhammad Ali, less flashy but tenacious in battering its opponent with a flurry of new products. Apple’s product arsenal remains select — by design.

I find this sort of assessment hard to digest. Did Samsung copy Apple’s design efforts? A federal jury certainly ruled that to be the case. And based on what I’ve read, this seems to be a fair finding.

So why the love for Samsung? Where’s the indignation? I just don’t get it. Samsung as Joe Frazier? Really? Yeesh.

NY Times compares Samsung S5 to iPhone 5s

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While there are probably some people who go out to shop for the best Android phone, I suspect that most people want to know which phone is best of all, whatever operating system it runs. In other words, how does the Galaxy S5 compare to the iPhone 5S, Apple’s six-month-old flagship device and the champion to beat?

The answer: Not very well. I’ve been using the new Samsung for about three weeks, and while I do think it is the best Android phone you can buy, it sure isn’t the best phone on the market. By just about every major measure you’ll care about, from speed to design to ease of use to the quality of its apps, Samsung’s phone ranks behind the iPhone, sometimes far behind. If you’re looking for the best phone on the market right now, I’d recommend going with the iPhone 5S.

No surprise there.

Apple’s war on Samsung has Google in crossfire

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New York Times:

Some features in Samsung devices that Apple objects to are part of Google’s Android operating system, by far the most popular mobile operating system worldwide, running on more than a billion devices made by many manufacturers. That means that if Apple wins, Google could have to make changes to critical Android features, and Samsung and other Android phone makers might have to modify the software on their phones.

Google wearable videos and interface details

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Take a look at the two videos embedded in the post. The first one is more of a commercial, showing different aspects of life with a Google watch. The second one is more detailed, a bit more of a mission statement. The linked blog post lays out four keys to Google wearables