Samsung, Nokia, Sony and Motorola to debut new devices for fall

By Dan Gallagher

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — The next few weeks will feature an array of announcements for new smartphone devices, as manufacturers work to get their latest and best devices in place to compete with the juggernaut expected from Apple Inc.’s next iPhone.

The new devices are expected to boost smartphone sales to a record quarter in the final three months of the year, though analysts wonder if upstarts like Microsoft Corp.’s MSFT +0.07% Windows Phone will be able to make headway against the powerful dual-block of Apple AAPL -0.20% and Google Inc. GOOG +1.59% , the latter of which owns the Android operating system that has become the top-selling smartphone platform in the world.

“At this point, we’re looking at iPhone as the big volume mover,” said Ramon Llamas of IDC, who added “it’s hard to bet against that.”
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Samsung says it will immediately appeal a US court verdict awarding Apple a massive victory over it on Friday.

A jury in San Jose, California has awarded $US1.049 billion ($A1.01 billion) to the US tech giant, according to court documents.

But analysts say the damages could be tripled because jurors found Samsung “wilfully” infringed on patents.

The jury rejected the South Korean electronics firm’s counterclaims its iconic iPhone and iPad were illegally copied.

Samsung reacted by saying it will contest the US verdict.

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By Jonny Evans

The Apple [AAPL] decision to dump native YouTube support from iOS 6 is utterly inevitable as the company continues to punish Google [GOOG] for what Cupertino’s executives see as that firm’s duplicity regarding Android and the iPhone.

‘Special’ friends no more

There’s no doubt the relationship between the two companies has changed. Friends no more it seems unlikely anything more than a partial detente can ever emerge between the two.

The latest twist in the transmission sees Apple’s most recent iOS 6 beta abandoning the dedicated YouTube app. “Our license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended,” Apple said in a statement to The Verge.

“Customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the App Store.” The app will remain within iOS 5 and earlier and Google says it will introduce its own apps for Maps and YouTube. It’s also possible Google and not Apple terminated this deal.
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BEIJING—Lenovo unveiled a lighter, quicker ThinkPad notebook computer on Monday to appeal to customers who like the convenience of tablets and smartphones.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon will go on sale later this month, the Chinese computer maker said.

Lenovo Group acquired the ThinkPad brand with IBM Corp.’s personal computer unit in 2005. Lenovo passed Dell Inc. last year to become the second-largest PC manufacturer after Hewlett-Packard Co.
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