Android OEMs respond to Google’s latest acquisition

The two biggest tech news stories of this week is HP pulling the plug on webOS (and considering a sale of its PC manufacturing division) and Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility. The latter sees the search giant and Motorola Mobility entering into a definitive agreement, under which Google will acquire the Android smartphone and tablet maker for a total of around $12.5 billion.  

Various other Android original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have responded positively to this forthcoming acquisition, with HTC’s CEO Peter Chou stating that the company welcomes this news as it demonstrates to what ends Google will go in order to defend its mobile operating system, its partners, as well as the Android ecosystem as a whole. Fellow Android OEMs Samsung, LG, as well as Sony Ericsson also echoed HTC’s sentiments.

Mobile OS rivals sees this deal playing into their hands

Google’s mobile OS competitors however, were not so optimistic about the deal. Microsoft said that its Windows Phone OS is now the only truly open platform, offering equal opportunity for all partners. Nokia, who made their Symbian Anna software update for Symbian^3 running devices available internationally this week, stated that: “This further reinforces our belief that opportunities for the growth of Nokia’s smartphone business will be greatest with Windows Phone.”

“This could prove to be a massive catalyst for the Windows Phone ecosystem. Additionally, with our respective intellectual property portfolios, Nokia and Microsoft are working together to build and nurture an innovative ecosystem that benefits consumers, operators, developers and other device manufacturers.”

Windows is currently making more money out of Android than it is off its own Windows Phone platform.

Nokia promises to represent during Mobile World Congress 2012

Speaking of Nokia, the company has stated that its upcoming Nokia World showcase, where it is expected to reveal its first Windows Phone OS operating mobile devices, won’t be hogging all the glory in terms of new announcements. The E6 and E7 maker’s communications director Mark Squires had the following to say via his Twitter account: “We're going to Mobile World Congress Barca in a big way next year, Nokia to exhibit at AppPlanet & our CEO @selop will also keynote #MWC12”.

App Planet is a developer-focused “event within an event”, providing a venue to explore and showcase the world of mobile apps. According to the GSM Association, Nokia will be exhibiting in a 2300 square metre space at App Planet during next year’s MWC 2011 event in Barcelona, taking place from 27 February to 1 March.

Ovi Store hits 9 million downloads per day

Continuing on the topic of the Finnish company’s app bandwagon, Nokia’s Ovi Store app marketplace continues to expand its usage rate, with the company announcing that it has now surpassed the nine million downloads per day milestone. Macro Argenti, senior vice president for Developer and Marketplace at Nokia posted the following tweet: “Nice to see @Nokia #Store hitting 9m downloads/day and climbing..”

In November 2010 Nokia announced that it passed the three million downloads per day mark, with the N8 maker pushing past the six million downloads per day mark in June of this year.

According to the All About Symbian tech blog, Nokia’s current daily downloads mark (9 million), compares very favourably with BlackBerry holding company’s Research In Motion’s BlackBerry App world statistic of 3.4 million. It still has some ways to go before catching up to the Google Android Market’s 18 million per day and the Apple App Store’s 26 million per day though.  

Table: All About Symbian

HTC sues Apple

Taiwanese smartphone and tablet maker HTC took its latest legal action against Apple this week, in its ongoing patent war with the Cupertino-based company. HTC filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) as well as with the US District Court of Delaware, for patent infringement by Apple’s Mac computer product lines and iPhone, iPad and iPod product ranges.

“We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones,” said Grace Lei, general counsel, HTC Corporation. “This is the 3rd case before the ITC in which Apple is infringing our intellectual property. Apple needs to stop its infringement of our patented inventions in its products.”

The patents at issue deals with a range of functionality embodied in Cupertino’s Mac computers and mobile devices, which are essential to user experience. This includes Wi-Fi capability that allows users to wirelessly network multiple devices and processor communication technology, which enables a seamless integration of a PDA and a cellular phone into a single device, delivering a true smartphone experience to users.

Microsoft launches official B8 blog and Twitter account

Microsoft launched a new tech blog and Twitter account this week, which deals with issues and news surrounding the development of the next version of its Windows OS, internally code-named Windows 8 (video posted below).

Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows Division at Microsoft, stated the following in his post: “We've been hard at work designing and building Windows 8, and today we want to begin an open dialog with those of you who will be trying out the pre-release version over the coming months. We intend to post regularly throughout the development of Windows 8, and to focus on the engineering of the product. Welcome to ‘Building Windows 8,’ or as we call it, ‘B8.’"