Nokia fired another salvo in its patent-infringement battle with Apple. Early Jan2010, it filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission alleging that Apple's products infringed multiple Nokia patents. The infringements relate to user-interface, camera, antenna and power management technologies that Apple uses in its products. Apple declined to comment on Nokia's filing with the ITC.
Nokia first sued Apple in October claiming that the iPhone infringed 10 Nokia patents like GSM and Wi-Fi. Apple countersued claiming that Nokia was infringing on 13 patents pertaining to the iPhone.
The legal wrangles point to the keen competition in the smartphone segment where every handset maker is trying to make devices as cool and sexy as the iPhone. How long will the faze of iPhone going to last with the technology consumers after having flooded the market for almost two years and with more Telcos bringing it into the region, seems like it is going to continue selling for a while until some maker like Sony, Google, HTC fight hard to bring in one good "iPhone equal".
Analysts fault Nokia for being slow to unveil slim touchscreen phones in the last two years when all its competitors were doing so.
However, do not discount Nokia. Of the four billion mobile phones in circulation today, one billion of them are from Nokia.
It has the widest range of cellphones, from the simple candy bar entry level phone to the sophisticated N900 running Linux. It is also active in areas where its competitors are almost absent.
In India and in developing countries in Africa, Nokia's handsets there help farmers and villagers get weather updates, the price of rice and learn English through the use of SMS.
It has rolled out Nokia Money for people in these countries to help them transfer funds or pay bills and suppliers using SMS. These efforts are not cool or sexy but they are much needed by people in developing countries who cannot afford smartphones or newfangled apps.
Nokia is still a force to be reckoned with but its window of opportunity is small and it must move fast.
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