According to a (paywalled) report in the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is experimenting with its own smartphone design. Officials at some of Microsoft’s parts suppliers, who declined to be named, said the Redmond, Wash.-based company is testing a smartphone design but isn’t sure if a product will go into mass production.” The article continues: “If Microsoft pushes ahead with its mobile phone, it would underscore how far Microsoft has moved away from its long-standing practice of making software and leaving decisions about design, features and marketing of the computing hardware to partners such as Hewlett-Packard or Samsung Electronics. … As it does so, Microsoft pulls from a modified playbook of Apple—whose hardware-plus-software approach Microsoft officials long have scorned. … Smartphones running Microsoft’s two-year-old Windows Phone operating software for cellphones haven’t sold well, and Microsoft may want to leave itself an option to test whether its own phone would spur sales.

We learned a few minutes ago that Samsung was able to get that nasty sales ban lifted on their ’11 Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (even though the tab is on its way out). Guess they’re feeling pretty good about themselves as they’ve just added the iPhone 5 in their counter suit against Apple. Samsung claiming the iPhone 5 — along with a few of the older iPhones, iPads and iPods — violate a number of their 3G essential patents, along with a few feature patents as well. There’s a hearing set for November 6th in which a judge will decide of Samsung can add the iPhone 5 to their case, but there’s really nothing stopping them from doing so. Samsung had this to say about the new development:

“We have always preferred to compete in the marketplace with our innovative products, rather than in courtrooms. However, Apple continues to take aggressive legal measures that will limit market competition. Under these circumstances, we have little choice but to take the steps necessary to protect our innovations and intellectual property rights.”

It was only a few short weeks ago that Apple successfully managed to convince a jury that several (old school) Samsung products infringed upon their UI design patents and trade dress. Apple didn’t stop there, filing a second case against Samsung claiming more than 20 recently launched devices — the likes of which include the Galaxy S3 and Google’s own Galaxy Nexus — infringe upon a new set of patents.

Told you guys about the drama between Acer and Google that resulted in the abrupt cancellation of a smartphone launch. According to Acer,Google wasn’t pleased with Acer launching a smartphone based on the Aliyun OS,an operating system forked off of Android. Well,today we finally have an official statement from Google,shedding some light on the situation. Google had this to say:

“Compatibility is at the heart of the Android ecosystem and ensures a consistent experience for developers,manufacturers and consumers. Non-compatible versions of Android,like Aliyun, weaken the ecosystem. All members of the Open Handset Alliance have committed to building one Android platform and to not ship non-compatible Android devices. This does not however, keep OHA members from participating in competing ecosystems.”

Ah,okay. It’s starting to make a little more sense. It’s true that Acer is a part of the Open Handset Alliance and apparently there was some fine print involved that they may have overlooked. It seems Google’s concerns stem from their belief that the Aliyun OS is actually a “non-compatible” version of Android (in basic terms),and by releasing a smartphone based on the OS,violates the agreement Acer agreed to when they hoped on board the OHA. To sum it up,if you’re apart of the OHA: rival OS = okay. Rival Android OS = not okay.

According to Google,they are just doing their part to prevent fragmentation with the OS, which they’ve apparently been trying to prevent since Android 1.0. In a blog post dated back in 2011,Andy Rubin said:

If someone wishes to market a device as Android-compatible or include Google applications on the device,we do require the device to conform with some basic compatibility requirements. (After all,it would not be realistic to expect Google applications –or any applications for that matter –to operate flawlessly across incompatible devices). Our “anti-fragmentation” program has been in place since Android 1.0 and remains a priority for us to provide a great user experience for consumers and a consistent platform for developers. In fact,all of the founding members of the Open Handset Alliance agreed not to fragment Android when we first announced it in 2007.

I know what you’re thinking,“So what the hell is up with Amazon?” Why exactly are they allowed to release devices based off Android, but removed of all Google services? That’s the thing. Amazon is not apart of the OHA,which means they are not subject to its terms,and are free to do whatever they like.

Things get a bit muddled up with Alibaba —makers of the Aliyun OS —stating that,where the Aliyun OS is able to run Android apps,it’s not technically based off Android,maintaining that the OS was built from scratch using open-source Linuxcode,not Android’s Dalkvik virtual machine. Guess it’ll take a judge and dim witted jury to sort out this whole mess. Hopefully Google and Acer will come to terms in the meantime.

According to an exclusive report from Reuters, Google CEO Larry Page and Apple CEO Tim Cook have been chumming it up,engaging in behind-the-scenes talks over each of their company’s intellectual properties. It wouldn’t be the worse idea we’ve heard and sure,we’d like to see Google rise up off the ground like a sleeping giant,crushing Apple with patent violations and injunction rulings,but offensive legal action isn’t typically how Good Guy Google plays ball.

Apparently,the two megacorps are simply keeping the lines of communication open, despite Apple’s trial win against Samsung last week over trade dress and design patents. It was said both CEO’s have spoken over the phone with future phone meetings scheduled for a later time. But it’s not just the chief executive officers,discussions are also being conducted by lower-level officials as well.

So what exactly is being discussed? Well,that can only be speculated. But in my mind’s eye I can see Larry Page making the first move, calling up Tim on his direct line,asking if there’s some kind of mutual middle ground that can be reached. Tim would respond with an astronomical number pulled out of thin air and perhaps that’s when the convo ended.

It’s been suggested Google should simply do what they can to quell Apple and get back to doing what they do best —innovating. I’d be inclined to agree but still,if there’s one thing I’ve learned about trolls from my short time writing on Android blog,it’s that sometimes they can’t be appeased… and a swift ban-hammer is the only way to deal with the situation.

Sweet,sweet justice reigns upon Apple tonight. The Cupertino-based company has just been found guilty of violating 2 Samsung patents dealing with the transmission of data. Before you rejoice,this was ruled by a South Korean court. You know… in South Korea. Samsung was also found infringing of Apple’s “bounce-back” patent for what it’s worth.

So what happens next? A country-wide ban of all Apple products in South Korea? Well,there’s that. But Apple gets the last laugh in most of their infringing products are no longer being sold in South Korea. Apple will also slapped with a fine and forced to pay a staggering $35,400 —that’s roughly the price of a minivan. But a win’s a win,right?

Developing…

Yet another day, yet another bit of patent-related lawsuit news. And, unfortunately, this time an Android OEM is on the wrong side of the judgement. A Mannheim court has ruled that Motorola infringes on Microsoft’s patents on FAT technology. The court has granted Microsoft’s request for a ban on all relevant devices, as long as they pay a 10 million Euro bond (peanuts for the company, unfortunately).

Motorola will be required to pay damages which haven’t been determined as yet. Microsoft, as expected, are gloating in the wake of the recovery. They had already won an injunction request in late May, and believe this bolsters their position.

“We already have an injunction against Motorola products in Germany as a result of a ruling on May 24, and today’s ruling serves to strengthen this injunction. In the long term, if Motorola wishes to sell products on the German market, it must either take a license or stop using the technology covered by our patents including the ones at issue in this week’s decisions.”

-David Howard, Microsoft Deputy General Counsel and Corporate VP

There’s really not much to say in this. I can’t pretend that the justice system around the world is going to change for the better. There have been some signs for the better, but nothing’s going to change until there’s a complete revamp of the system. Until then, there’s really no point expecting Microsoft to have a change of heart and decide to compete on quality. They know they can’t, and they know that the only thing in their interest is to either make a ton of money from licenses, or put such a high price on manufacturing Android handsets that OEMs decide not to.

Analytics firm Nielsen statistics from their Q2 2012 subscriber data has shown Android extend its significant lead over Apple,with a 51.8% marketshare compared to iOS’s 34.3%. In Q1 2012,the scores stood at 48.5% for Android to Apple’s 32%. About a year ago (Q3 2011,I was unable to find the Q2 2011 data for a YoY comparison) Android had a 44.2% to 28.6% lead. These are minor growths, but it shows that regardless of the injunction requests and all the legal hoopla,and despite all the “fragmentation” talk,Apple is nowhere close to closing the gap on Android.

In the manufacturer’s stakes,Samsung is the leading OEM as expected,with their Android devices accounting for a 17% total marketshare. HTC is second at 14%,Motorola third at 11% and the rest accounting for 9%. Looking over at the other platforms,Blackberry has dropped from 17% in Q3 2011 to 9%. Windows Phone 7 is stagnant at a meager 1.3%,with all the money spent on marketing still unable to get them to even half of Windows Mobile’s 3% share.