Image by Joy of Tech

The allegation, made earlier this month in a motion discovered by Network World, claims Samsung destroyed “vast quantities of relevant evidence in blatant disregard of its duty to preserve all such evidence.” Samsung, it seems, routinely purges emails from custodian computers and, according to Apple, has continued to do so despite its duty to preserve evidence to the case.

From Apple’s motion:

Samsung’s ad hoc, unmonitored email ‘preservation’ methods have resulted in the irretrievable loss of unknown volumes of relevant emails. … For example, Judge Grewal recently compelled the deposition of Won Pyo Hong, the head of Samsung’s Product Strategy Team, in part due to an email in which Dr.Hong ‘directly orders side-by-side comparisons of Apple and Samsung products for design presentations.’

Apple and the Court cannot possibly know how many more emails Dr. Hong sent or received that would have supported Apple’s claims that Samsung copied Apple products had they not been deleted.

Harsh allegations, and ones that Samsung has decried as baseless. That said, this isn’t the first time the company has been called out for meddling with a discovery order. Just last week it was sanctioned by a California judge for withholding evidence. This just two weeks after another sanction for another failure to provide internal documents on a timely basis. Apple, in its motion, notes other instances as well.

So, as I said: Messy, and getting messier by the day. Which doesn’t bode well for the companies’ upcoming court-ordered mediation talks on May 21 and 22.

(Image: Joy of Tech)

Brilliantly rebranded with the memorable moniker ES9500 OLED TV, the 55-inch set features a display that Samsung claims produces deeper contrast and finer detail than typical OLED screens, along with voice and gesture control. Also on board: The company’s Smart DualView technology, which allows users to view two different programs on a TV’s screen simultaneously, with the help of 3-D glasses and couple of pairs of headphones.

Price? 10.8 million won, or about $9,500.

That’s close to double what you’d pay for one of the high-end 55-inch TVs currently on the market. Given that price point, Samsung is taking the ES9500’s ramp-up nice and slow. It plans to begin shipping it in the latter part of this year, with an eye toward producing about 55,000 units. And if all goes as planned, that number will hit five million by 2015.

Nick DiCarlo, VP of product planning for Samsung Mobile, noted that the market has shown that, despite Apple’s pronouncements, there is a demand for a range of tablets, including smaller, 7-inch models. DiCarlo also noted that the company knows how to quickly come from behind. It wasn’t that long ago that his company had only a tiny part of the phone market and it is now a serious player. He said he sees the same thing happening in the tablet space.

“I think it is very, very early days,” DiCarlo said in a CTIA panel moderated by AllThingsD co-Executive Editor Walt Mossberg.

Taking aim at his main rival, Jamie Iannone, president of digital products for Barnes & Noble, said that the Nook Tablet clearly outshines the Kindle Fire in a head-to-head comparison.

Iannone noted that its color tablet is a second-generation product designed specifically for reading, while Amazon used another manufacturer’s design.

“As you know, the Fire was built off a reference-design product to get it out quickly,” Iannone said, adding that the product suffered as a result.

As for Apple, Iannone noted that many iPad owners also have one of its E-Ink Nook devices because the iPad isn’t ideal for long-form reading.

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Dutifully following judge’s orders, Apple on Monday said it will narrow its claims against Samsung, essentially cutting them in half. Meanwhile, Samsung agreed to pull from its case five of the 12 patents it has asserted against Apple.

By cutting their claims down like this, the companies hope to retain a proposed July 30 trial date.

The moves significantly reduce the scope of the case. For example, by paring its claims from 75 to 15, Samsung has reduced its total claims by 80 percent. Which should make the case much more manageable for judge and jury both. This time around, anyway. Because while Apple is dropping some of its claims against Samsung, it doesn’t want to do so “with prejudice.” In other words, it wants to reserve the right to assert those claims at a later bench trial, or roll them into a new lawsuit.

“Obviously, Apple is not willing and should not be required to waive any right to a jury trial on claims and defenses that arise from Samsung’s continued assertion of patents that Samsung contends are essential to practice the UMTS telecommunication standard, including Apple’s Twenty-Fifth through Twenty-Ninth Counterclaims in Reply,” the company wrote in its filing.

[Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]

Aiming to get a sense for how powerful the tablet is, online advertising network Chitika looked at what devices it was serving ads to and found that it was almost exclusively Apple tablets.

For every 100 iPad impressions, Chitika is serving slightly more than one ad to a Samsung Galaxy and Asus Transformer Prime and under one ad to the Motorola Xoom, BlackBerry PlayBook and Kindle Fire. The Nook Tablet share is even lower, though clearly both the Nook and Kindle are marketed less as Web browsing devices and more as media consumption tools.

In total, the iPad accounted for more than 94 percent of ads, Chitika said.

It shows that not only are iPads outselling their rivals, but each one that is sold is also more heavily used, at least when it comes to Web surfing.

“Going forward the competition is going to be hard pressed to find a way to overthrow the seemingly omnipotent Apple,” Chitika said. “Not only do they offer a great product, they have the undying devotion of their enthusiasts.”

Jury Blog

Judge Lucy Koh of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California this week ordered both companies to reduce the size of the sprawling case to make it more manageable for the jury. Understandable, considering the case involves 16 patents, six trademarks, five “trade dress” claims and antitrust allegations spread across 37 products.

“I think that’s cruel and unusual punishment to a jury, so I’m not willing to do it,” Judge Koh told Apple and Samsung. “If you’re going to trial in July, this is not going to be acceptable.”

The companies have until Monday to reduce their claims to a manageable level. If they’re unable to do so, Koh may push the trial date back to 2013.

(Image Credit: Jury Blog)

For more on the device, check out our recap of Samsung’s London launch event.

The new Galaxy device is set to be unveiled at 7 pm London time (11 am PT). AllThingsD will have live coverage of the announcement, which is also being webcast.

In the past, Samsung has announced its main Galaxy devices at Mobile World Congress; however, the company held back this year, saying it wanted to announce the product closer to when it would ship. A top Samsung marketing official also told AllThingsD in January that the company wanted to use the Olympics for a major product launch.

Samsung has since announced a quad-core chip expected to power the new Galaxy.

Earlier:
10:38 am: The live stream is slated to be available here.

11:00 am: Okay. Here are the key details on the Galaxy S III (and yes, that’s the name).

11:03 am: The device will be available in Europe at the end of May, with launches in other markets to follow.

Here’s a picture of the phone:

11:06 am: As for when it will come to the U.S., Samsung had this to say:

“Samsung Mobile is planning a U.S. version of Galaxy S III, optimized for the fastest LTE and HSPA+ networks in the U.S., which will be available in the summer of 2012. Exact timing and retail channel availability is not being announced at this time.”

11:09 am: Here’s a more direct link to the livestream.

11:10 am: Samsung’s JK Shin:

11:11 am: “There were a lot of rumors and speculations about the next Galaxy,” Shin said. “Some were right and some were wrong.” But, he said, Samsung Galaxy S III is the best in class.

Shin touts the quality of the screen and says the design is inspired by water and leaves.

The phone can listen to you and understand what you want. The screen can notice your eye movement and can stay bright when you are looking at it.

If you are texting and you want to call someone instead, Shin said, “it understands your intention to make a call and calls for you.”

Simply put, he said, Galaxy S III is a “human phone.”

11:15 am: It has more than 140 countries with more than 290 carriers, Shin said, making it the largest launch in history.

The 3G version, Shin said, will ship in May in Europe, followed by Asia, Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The 4G version will ship first in North America, Japan and Korea starting in the summer.

11:18 am: Other features include direct wireless sharing to a television or other Galaxy device, tablet or PC.

The updated S-Beam feature can share a 1GB video in three minutes or a music file in two seconds, Samsung said.

11:23 am: A European Samsung executive is demoing the “smart stay” feature that avoids going to sleep or dimming the screen by detecting when a user is looking at the screen.

It is annoying to touch the screen to keep it awake, or even worse to have to enter a password, Samsung says. The Galaxys S III can instead determine when to dim the screen by sensing a user’s intentions.

11:25 am: Next up is voice recognition, which can be used to do things Apple’s Siri does, such as getting the weather, but also to launch apps.

“I want to take a picture,” for example, opens the camera app.

The voice engine understands British and American English, Italian, German, French, Spanish (Spain and Latin American versions) and Korean.

11:29 am: Samsung is pushing hard the notion that the new Galaxy is designed with the user in mind, repeating often that the new phone “sees, listens and responds.”

11:31 am: Now demoing improved social sharing features that allow users to, among other things, bond with another phone.

Under the hood, the new “S-Beam” feature combines Wi-Fi direct and NFC technologies.

“It’s the fastest and easiest way to share content with your friends and it happens with just one touch,” said the European Samsung executive.

11:33 am: An add-on dongle extends the sharing option to any HDMI-capable device.

11:33 am: Galaxy S III has a new “buddy” photo sharing feature that recognizes friends in your photos and offers to send them the photo.

11:37 am: Video showing the S3 in action, including its quad-core chip, intelligent photo taking and other features.

11:39 am: It comes in “pebble blue” and “marble white.”

Some other specs:

It’s 8.6 milimeters thick, weighs 133 grams and packs a 2,100 mAh battery.

11:41 am: A “pop-up play” feature allows one to watch a video in a small window while performing another task, such as searching the Web. It’s kind of picture-in-picture for your phone.

A “best photo” feature picks the best shot out of a burst of eight.

11:47 am: Now showing, the first TV commercial for S III.

Among other things, the commercial notes that the Galaxy S III “follows your every move.” Hmm, not sure that’s quite the way they want to put things.

11:49 am: Accessories include flip cover for the screen, wireless charging kit, extra battery and aformenentioned HDMI dongle.

11:52 am: Samsung says the Galaxy S III has improved security and other features for businesses, allowing for better device management.

Galaxy will come in three storage options — 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.

Galaxy S III will go on sale in Europe on May 29.

11:57 am: Santa Clara-based Sensory Inc. says its voice activation technology is helping power the voice command features in the Galaxy S III.

12:00 pm: The presentation ends and those in London are invited to check out the phone in various booths designed to replicate the kind of pop-up stands where Samsung plans to show the device.

According to IDC’s review of worldwide tablet shipments for the first quarter of 2012, Kindle Fire shipments dropped from 4.8 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011 to less than 750,000 units last quarter.

From 16.8 percent to “just over 4 percent” global market share is a swift decline indeed, and enough to cost Amazon its second-place spot in IDC’s ranking of tablet vendors. Amazon is now in third place, behind Samsung.

In the first-place slot: Apple. While the company shipped 11.8 million iPads in the first quarter, down from 15.4 million units in the fourth, that was more than enough to maintain its dominant position and grow its market share to 68 percent from 55 percent.

One last detail worth noting: Worldwide tablet shipments for the quarter reached 17.4 million units, about 1.2 million units below IDC’s projections. That said, they were more than double the 7.9 million units shipped in the same period a year earlier.

(Image courtesy of Someecards)

Parents, for example, often balk at paying high monthly cellular-data bills for their teens and tweens and would rather they stick with simpler phones, if they have phones at all. And even some adults prefer simpler, less costly phones.

For a lot of these users, a popular solution has been what’s called a connected media player: Essentially a smartphone without cellular voice and data access, and without the monthly cellular bill. And the king of that category has been Apple’s iPod touch, which starts at $199. A Wi-Fi-only device, the touch looks like a thinner iPhone, with the same high-resolution 3.5-inch screen. It runs most of the same apps, handles email and Web surfing, and is a very capable hand-held game machine, music and video player, and photo viewer.

Now Samsung, Apple’s biggest rival in the smartphone arena, is going after the touch with a new connected media player sporting a similar-sized screen, the Galaxy Player 3.6. But Samsung is charging about $50 less — $150. And in about 10 days, it’ll launch a second model, the larger Galaxy Player 4.2, for $200. Both devices run on a year-old version of Google’s Android operating system.

Samsung dipped its toe into this market last year with earlier Galaxy Players, but they were mostly ignored by consumers, partly because of bulky designs and high prices. Now, the Korean giant is doubling down with more compact and affordable models.

I’ve been testing the Player 3.6 for the past few days and comparing it with the latest iPod touch. The Samsung has some advantages, such as a camera that takes better still pictures, an FM radio and expandable memory. But overall, it feels like a cruder device than the touch. Its much lower screen resolution made text, video and images look grainy compared with those on the touch, and its bulkier plastic case felt flimsy compared with the glass and stainless-steel case on the touch, which uses Apple’s latest OS.

Still, for some people, especially parents buying for their kids, the Galaxy Player 3.6 may be good enough, especially since it costs 25 percent less. Its price advantage is even a bit better, because it comes with a charger, something the touch doesn’t include. And its included earbuds are the in-ear type, with a microphone and play-pause button, which the included touch earbuds lack.

Among the features of the Samsung Galaxy Player 3.6: FM radio and earbuds with a microphone and play-pause button.

Even though the Galaxy Player isn’t a cellphone, it can make voice and video calls, and send text messages over the Internet when you’re in Wi-Fi range. Just like the touch.

Samsung insists the $200, 4.2-inch model will be a closer competitor to the touch. I didn’t get a chance to put this model through its paces. But I did get to play with one for about an hour. Its screen resolution is much higher than its sibling’s, though still well below that of the touch. It also has front-mounted stereo speakers that sounded great — better than the Apple’s speaker. And some users will prefer its larger screen.

Even the entry-level Samsung model might be considered an alternative to Apple’s, especially by prospective buyers who are price-conscious or prefer Android, or who want some Samsung features the touch lacks. The Galaxy Player 3.6 is about 34 percent thicker, 8 percent heavier than the touch, and is also longer and wider, but it is still comfortable in the hand and the pocket.

I tried music, videos, photos, games, email, Web surfing and third-party apps like Netflix and “Angry Birds” on the new Player. All worked fine, as did a movie I rented from Google’s online store, recently renamed Google Play from Android Market. To get media from a computer onto the Player, Samsung recommends plugging it in via a cable and dragging the files manually into specified folders on the device. This worked for me, but was tedious.

Samsung offers a Windows and Mac program called Kies that automates the transfer process. But in my tests, only the Windows version was able to work with the Player I was using.

The 2-megapixel rear camera on the Player 3.6 was better at still photos than the one on the touch, but worse at videos. Still, neither comes close to matching the superb cameras in smartphones like the latest iPhone or the Android-based HTC One.

The Player 3.6 has an unusual feature: It can be paired with a cellphone — even an iPhone — via Bluetooth, and can be used to answer (not place) calls. In my tests, this worked, but I can’t imagine using it very often.

Like the base $199 iPod touch, the $150 entry-model Player comes with 8 gigabytes of internal memory. But, unlike the Apple, you can expand its memory with an extra-cost memory card, up to 32GB. Apple offers higher-priced touch models with 32GB and 64GB of sealed-in memory.

I didn’t do a formal battery test, but Samsung claims the Player 3.6 gets 30 hours when playing audio and six hours when playing video. Apple claims 40 hours for audio and seven hours for video on the touch. In my use, the Samsung’s battery held up nicely, and the battery is removable.

Overall, the new Galaxy Player 3.6 is worth a look if you’re in the market for a device with many of the features, but not the monthly costs, of a smartphone, especially if you’re on a budget and can live with the poor screen resolution.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120501/samsung-aims-to-get-in-touch-with-media-players/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120501/samsung-hits-play-on-series-7-gamer-laptop/ http://allthingsd.com/20120501/samsung-hits-play-on-series-7-gamer-laptop/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 21:45:47 +0000 Bonnie Cha http://allthingsd.com/?p=202030 Samsung is dialing it up a notch or four with its new gaming laptop, the Series 7 Gamer.

First introduced in January at CES 2012 and available today, the Series 7 Gamer features a unique dial that allows you to switch into four different modes and optimizes the laptop’s performance, depending on whether you’re using the computer for gaming or less intense tasks, such as creating documents.

For example, in Gaming mode, the main gaming keys are highlighted in red, and the lights around the speakers pulsate to the sounds of the game. Meanwhile, General mode turns the Series 7 into more of an everyday laptop, on which you can surf the Web, work on documents or view photos.

There is also a Quiet mode that disables the fan and all sounds, as well as a Power Save mode designed to save battery life by turning off all non-critical components.

Gaming is at the core of this device, however, and the Samsung Series 7 Gamer has some of the latest technology to power the Windows 7 laptop. This includes Intel’s new Ivy Bridge i7 processor (2.3 GHz Intel Core i7-3610QM CPU), Nvidia’s latest Geforce GTX 675M graphics, 16 gigabytes of memory and a 1.5 terabyte 7200RPM hard drive.

Games should look spectacular on the Series 7’s 17.3-inch full-HD (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) display, which Samsung promises will offer 50 percent more brightness than traditional PCs. Samsung also packs in a Blu-ray player, Dolby Home Theater v4 speakers and a built-in two-megapixel camera.

A heavyweight in features, the Series 7 gamer is also just plain old heavy. At 13.34 pounds, this is definitely not a device for toting around town every day, especially with its rated battery life of 3.7 hours, but it could be an attractive option for gaming enthusiasts looking for a powerful, portable solution.

The Samsung Series 7 Gamer costs $1,900 and is available now through a number of retailers, including Amazon, Newegg and TigerDirect.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120501/samsung-hits-play-on-series-7-gamer-laptop/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120501/apple-to-samsung-your-market-share-is-strong-but-my-margins-are-unstoppable/ http://allthingsd.com/20120501/apple-to-samsung-your-market-share-is-strong-but-my-margins-are-unstoppable/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 16:01:17 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=201938 According to IDC, Samsung surpassed Apple in the first quarter to become the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer; Samsung shipped 42.2 million smartphones to Apple’s 35.1 million. But Cupertino retains another, far more lucrative title: Smartphone-market revenue leader.

New data from Juniper Research shows that Apple’s revenue from the iPhone in the first quarter topped out at about $22.7 billion — a fair bit more than the $17 billion Samsung made from its entire handset portfolio, smart and feature. So while Samsung may be winning on global smartphone shipments, Apple is winning on a more important metric: Smartphone profitability. And for a very simple reason: The company has the highest margins around.

Reporting second-quarter earnings last week, Apple said that its gross margin was 47.4 percent. Meanwhile, Samsung’s was just under 13 percent. So, while Samsung is dominating smartphone shipments, Apple is dominating the smartphone industry’s pool of profits.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120501/apple-to-samsung-your-market-share-is-strong-but-my-margins-are-unstoppable/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120430/yeah-good-luck-with-that-apple-samsung-mediation-set-for-late-may/ http://allthingsd.com/20120430/yeah-good-luck-with-that-apple-samsung-mediation-set-for-late-may/#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:30:24 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=201122 Apple and Samsung’s sprawling 50-suit legal battle continues apace, with no end in sight, though hostilities between the two companies have calmed enough for them to attempt mediation.

And so, on May 21 and 22, Samsung Vice Chairman Gee-Sung Choi, Apple CEO Tim Cook and their respective legal counsel will meet in San Francisco to discuss possible settlements to their metastasizing IP spat, and to draw up for the judge presiding over it “a candid evaluation of the parties’ likelihood of prevailing on the claims and defenses.”

While the talks are a welcome development in what is fast becoming the Hundred Years’ War of intellectual property battles, it would be naive to believe that they’ll actually result in a settlement at this point. The stakes are too high and the fronts in the battle too numerous; FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller observes that Apple and Samsung are suing one another in 10 countries, with more than 50 lawsuits pending. Hard to imagine Cook and Choi hugging it out after two days of chats.

And as much as Cook dislikes litigation, it’s clear that he’s even less fond of the of the sort of “slavish” design copying of which Apple has accused Samsung.

“I’ve always hated litigation, and I continue to hate it,” Cook said during Apple’s last earnings call. “We just want people to invent their own stuff. And so if we could get to some kind of arrangement where we could be assured that’s the case and a fair settlement on the stuff that’s occurred, I would highly prefer to settle versus battle. But the key thing is that it’s very important that Apple not become the developer for the world. We need people to invent their own stuff.”

If Samsung is willing to concede to that, then these two days of court-ordered settlement talks ought to go quite smoothly. But that seems unlikely, which means this battle will probably roll on for a good long time.

(Image The Joy of Tech)

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120430/yeah-good-luck-with-that-apple-samsung-mediation-set-for-late-may/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120427/samsung-passes-nokia-to-become-worlds-no-1-phone-maker/ http://allthingsd.com/20120427/samsung-passes-nokia-to-become-worlds-no-1-phone-maker/#comments Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:00:44 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=200583 A continued drop in sales at Nokia allowed Samsung to grab the title of world’s No.1 seller of cellphones.

Nokia sold 83 million units, while Samsung sold 92 million phones, according to IHS iSuppli. That’s a reversal from last year’s fourth quarter, where Nokia shipped 113.5 million units, while Samsung shipped 97.6 million.

On the smartphone side, Apple retained its top spot, shipping 35 million iPhones, followed by Samsung, which sold 32 million smartphones.

“With cellphones now accounting for more than 40 percent of Samsung’s overall revenue, it’s clear that the company’s continued investments in smartphone hardware and software R&D are paying off,” IHS senior analyst Wayne Lam said in a statement.

“The company is not only cashing in on the market’s shift to smartphones, but is also succeeding in other cellphone product categories, allowing it to capture the overall market lead,” Lam said. “What makes Samsung’s performance even more impressive is that the company’s latest Galaxy S III handset has yet to be launched, with shipments set to start in May. This indicates Samsung is likely to make further progress in market share in 2012.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120427/samsung-passes-nokia-to-become-worlds-no-1-phone-maker/feed/ 0