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January 16, 2012

Intellectual property and patent licensing firm Sisvel has acquired 450 patents from Nokia, 350 of which are essential for mobile and wireless communications.

Sisvel emphasizes the term 'essential' since it is impossible to build mobile phones conforming to 2G, 3G and/or 4G/LTE telephony standards without infringing the patents.

But as such, they are also subject to Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) licensing-– hardly the sort of thing a patent firm would be interested in.

And the confusion is a bit understandable. It also fits with the perception of Nokia as a bit of a desperate company, prepared to raise money selling patents to an IP firm. But then again, Nokia received $1 billion from Microsoft, but that was almost a year ago, so maybe that one billion is gone already...

At any rate, Sisvel is a patent-licensing company which doesn't make anything, so it can look like a temporary recipient acquiring patents with the sole objective of pursuing unwary infringers.

The company did send local police on exhibitors at CeBIT and IFA back about four years ago for infringing MP3 patents it administers on behalf of Philips.

Sisvel is actually concerned with the creation of patent pools, dealing with fields where the myriad of patent-holders makes getting individual licences next to impossible, and the mobile segment happens to be one of them. In such fields, some sort of aggregator is not only necessary, but desirable.

So if you're planning to make a DVB-T set-top box, then you can go along to Sisvel and get yourself a complete licence package which Sisvel has negotiated with all the various intellectual property holders. The same thing applies to DECT, H.264 SVC and MPEG audio, to name just a few.

In many cases, you don't even have to go to Sisvel for those licences-– you can still strike deals with the individual patent owners if you so choose.

The Nokia patents which Sisvel has now acquired already have numerous licensees, and those deals remain in place along with Nokia's own licence to continue using the patents.

Sisvel has been trying, in competition with Via Licensing and the MPEG LA, to put together a comprehensive IP licensing pool covering all the essential parts of the preferred 4G telephony standard, LTE (long term evolution).

4G and LTE technology is more efficient than 3G and actually saves wireless spectrum utilization when compared to 2G and 3G.

However, this is a significant step in that direction and good news for Sisvel, but if the company is a troll then it's maybe a 'friendlier troll' offering FRAND licences to mobile segment companies who need one.

In other mobile news

Apple had to temporarily close its flagship store in Beijing after frustrated would-be customers rioted and threw eggs into the Apple Store windows when they were told the that the new store simply didn't have the iPhone 4S in stock.

A crowd of no less than 500 people waited in the cold outside the Sanlitun Apple store in Beijing yesterday morning for the long-awaited Chinese launch of the iPhone 4S, and the mood turned ugly when they were told by staff that the new store just didn't have any of the iPhones on hand and wouldn't be opening that day.

Most of them had waited overnight in temperatures that dropped to -10 degrees C. The frustrated Apple fans started hassling security guards and throwing eggs at the windows of the store in the high-end mall before they were cleared off by the police.

The Sanlitun store is shut until further notice and Apple has said it will halt the sale of all iPhone models from its Chinese stores.

There is no information on when Apple will start delivering the new devices. An Apple spokesperson said "Unfortunately, we were unable to open our store in Beijing due to the large crowd, and to ensure the safety of our customers and employees, iPhones will not be available in our retail stores in Beijing and Shanghai for the time being."

However, the iPhone 4S can still be obtained from China's mobile network partner China Unicom, or the Apple online store.

Delays and shortages of the iPhone in China have created pent-up demand for the new device. Apple has 10.4 percent of the smartphone market in China. Many buyers at the Apple store were scalpers who buy stock in bulk to later resell it with a 30 percent surcharge to people that didn't want to wait in line for 10 hours or more.

In other mobile news

Nokia’s new Lumia 900 smartphone is now available in the United States with its 4G features on AT&T's network. The launch is critical for both Microsoft and Nokia since any hopes for the Windows Phone depend on a strong U.S. entry of the Lumia 900. In March 2011, Microsoft paid Nokia more than $1 billion to help it promote Windows-based phones, but so far the partnership has yet to produce any significant numbers for Microsoft, and the heat is on. As has been the case since Microsoft and Nokia signed the deal, critics have praised the new partnership of a new hardware style with Windows Phone.

And consumers aren’t exactly lining up to purchase the new phones either; sales have been dismal from day one.

But the Lumia 900 could give the project some hope. It’s a rather large phone but thin at the same time, and it supports LTE (Long Term Evolution) 4G service, which is a necessity if Nokia and Microsoft are going to compete. With all else being equal, LTE makes a better use of wireless spectrum and is more efficient than 3G.

Nokia’s Windows Phone device needs Verizon for LTE more than AT&T. The consensus view is that Nokia will face difficulties in the U.S. and potentially abroad. However, AT&T offers Nokia’s new Lumia device some marketing support. The largest challenge for Nokia and other Android and Apple rivals is shelf space.

It’s difficult to get most telecoms to push for new handsets since there are so many to select from. Nokia and AT&T have been longtime partners and that may give the devices some marketing air cover. And of course, it doesn’t hurt that Microsoft will throw some cash behind the Lumia as well.

Nevertheless, the Nokia-Microsoft devices hit some features that still matter. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said that battery life may be a differentiating feature. If Nokia can thread the battery life-4G needle, then it will have a real advantage.

And consumers could get on the bandwagon soon. Some critics are OK with the Windows Phone, but consumers haven’t bought in yet, and that's where it hurts the Microsoft-Nokia partnership. If consumers get behind Nokia, word of mouth may give it some momentum, but it still remains to be seen what the outcome will be.

The current view is that Nokia smartphones are just different enough that no one will buy the devices. Americans just don’t know Nokia anymore, and the brand is better known in Europe and Asia.

Verizon has said that all of its smartphones will be 4G LTE soon. If Nokia can get into Verizon quickly then it’ll have more sales. More distribution combined with better battery life could give Nokia a much-needed boost in the U.S.

Nokia could have a sustainable slew of devices to keep consumers interested, however. Some wireless industry analysts noted in December that the Lumia 800 interest may be tapering off already, but the Lumia 900 could attract a few buyers.

But make no mistake-- the smartphone market is extremely competitive and Nokia will still need a steady range of devices to compete.

In other mobile news

Yesterday at CES 2012 in Vegas, the first Intel-based smartphone has been launched, but it won't be available at AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile.

Instead, the Lenovo 800-K will start shipping in the second quarter of this year, but only initially in China, so you'll have to get yours from China Unicom.

"I'm thrilled to announce that the best of Intel's knowhow and resources is now coming to smartphones," Intel CEO Paul Otellini told his CES keynote audience late yesterday.

He added "It's coming first to China, the largest market for smartphones in the world, with 100 million users and growing rapidly."

Liu Jun, president of Lenovo's company's mobile internet and digital home group, joined Otellini on the keynote stage for the announcement. "It is my great honor today to introduce to you the world's first Intel architecture–based smartphone, the Lenovo Smartphone K-800," said Jun.

"Overall, we are transforming Lenovo from a leading personal computer maker to an internet device company," Liu added.

Liu described the K-800 as simple, stylish, and feature-packed. Among the features are a 4.5-inch display, 720p video, HDMI-out, near-field communication (NFC), and Intel wireless display technology to stream video to a compatible HD TV. More details are sure to emerge in the run-up to its release.

Otellini claimed that Intel's new 32nm Medfield Atom processor provides significantly better JavaScript and browser-rendering performance than its ARM-based competition, and Liu promised that the K-800's battery life is comparable to other smartphones in its class despite the increased performance.

Intel has been trying for some years now to cut down on its chips' power consumption sufficiently to prompt a smartphone maker to include Chipzilla's devices in mobile handsets. Now, with the Lenovo K-800, they've succeeded what Intel had set out to do.

Lenovo's Liu may have been the only manufacturer who could wave an about-to-ship Intel-based smartphone at CES, but Sanjay Jha, chairman and CEO of Motorola Mobility, joined Otellini to tell show visitors that his company isn't far behind, and that it has the full support of its new owner, Google.

"I am especially proud to announce today that Motorola and Intel have entered into a multi-year, multi-device strategic partnership around mobile devices and smartphones," he said.

Jha added that Motorola Mobility also plans to have devices in wireless carrier validation by June 2012, with commercial launch shortly after that. "Stay tuned for the details in coming months," he added.

So ARM-based smartphones finally have real competition, although exactly how much is still a question to be answered only after mobile users get their hands on Intel-based phones in the coming months.

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Source: Sisvel.

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