For far too long, Apples iPads have dominated the consumer tablet realm. However just last month the research firm IDC predicted that all of this was set to change.

Based on IDC’s data, in the first three months of 2013 there were approximately 49.2 million tablets shipped. Of which, 27.8 million ran Android and 19.5 million were iPads.

Whilst Apple is still the single largest tablet manufacturer in the world, Samsung is rapidly gaining on the US technology giant. Samsung shipped 8.8 million Android tablets in the first quarter of 2013.

To illustrate the drastic movements in market share, last year’s numbers for Q1 2013 shows that Apple dominated the tablet market with 58.1% compared to Samsung’s 11.3%. In contrast, …

Lately, with the release of great tablet offerings from Android vendors as well as Google’s efforts in making Android the best combined platform for both smartphones and tablets, we’ve seen a rapid rise in Android tablet market share.

After the end of the 2012 year, we’ve already seen some great numbers posted in the smartphone space – including an unsurprising lead by Samsung, and a (to some) surprising surge by Sony to fourth place.  Now it’s time to have a look at what the tablet market did – a relatively newer market that has previously been dominated by Apple.

The IDC has published shipment data for the fourth quarter of 2012, reflecting a similar picture to the third quarter …

I may just be unreasonably hungry right now, but gobbling up all of Kodak’s patents in one fell swoop does sound mighty scrumptious. Being one of the biggest players in the photography game and having picked up a nice patent portfolio, Kodak hold a large number (1,100) of the patents for digital imaging.

Anyway, these patents supposedly hold a whole lot of substance and whoever is able to add them to their own portfolio at the end of the day. It had earlier looked like the tech giants of the world would start bidding against one another for these patents, but it looks like Apple and Google may be teaming up to purchase them for a lump sum for $500 …

In the latest  instalment of the Samsung-Apple court case saga, Judge Lucy Koh has granted Samsung’s lawyers permission to view an unredacted version of the recent HTC-Apple cross-licensing agreement.

The reasoning used by Samsung’s lawyers to get Judge Koh on-side was to argue that the HTC-Apple agreement is relevant to its arguments against Apple’s permanent injunction motion, as well as to determine what a reasonable fee would be should Apple prevail.

Even more interesting is that The Guardian reports that FOSS Patent blogger Florian Mueller was able to get his hands on a redacted version of the cross-licensing agreement with a few interesting details:

• any change of ownership of either company, unless otherwise agreed, results in the …

Big news: according to The Verge, HTC and Apple have agreed to end all outstanding patent litigation against each other worldwide, and have signed a ten-year license agreement covering existing and future patents. A short joint press release from HTC and Apple has announced the “global settlement”, of which the specific terms of the settlement are confidential. HTC’s CEO, Peter Chou, said that the company “was pleased to have resolved its dispute with Apple, so HTC can focus on innovation instead of litigation”.

While the details of the agreement are confidential, an HTC representative told The Verge that they did not expect the agreement to “have any adverse material impact on the financials of the company”.

While we’re glad …

Well well, what do you know – there’s another lawsuit on our hands. Well, this is more of a continuation of a lawsuit that didn’t end too well for Samsung last time. To refresh your memory – last time in August Samsung was told that they would have to pay Apple a whopping $1.05 billion US for damages in  ’copying’ Apple’s design cues. This was largely due to creating a rectangular device with rounded corners – <s> that’s some true innovation! </s>

Well, it appears as though there have been a few changes to this case as of late. Samsung has approached Judge Grewal to include the iPhone 5 in the counter-suit against Apple. But, we already knew that was …

The International Data Corporation’s (IDC) third quarter tablet sales figures are in and there’s a clear winner.  Who you ask? You guessed it – it’s Android!

According to the IDC, market leader Apple saw a decline in market share from 65.5% in 2Q12 to 50.4% in 3Q12, leaving most if not all of the remaining market share to Android.  Interestingly though, Apple’s share in the same quarter last year (i.e. 3Q11) was 59.7% or 11.1m units vs 14.0m units in 3Q12.

In the Android camp, Samsung led the way with massive gains across the board.  Samsung saw a 115.0% jump in market share from 2Q12, and an amazing 312.0% jump since 3Q11 to give it a 3Q12 market share …

Less than 48 hours ago we reported that Apple was ordered to remove their “untrue” and “incorrect” notice and replace them with a notice that complied with the original ruling.

Well it turns out that within 48 hours on, despite Apple’s (rejected) request for 14 days to comply with the order, Apple has issued a new complying notice.

Apple’s UK website now contains a new statement regarding the inaccuracy and non-compliance of the original order:

 On 25 October 2012, Apple Inc. published a statement on its UK website in relation to Samsung’s Galaxy tablet computers.That statement was inaccurate and did not comply with the order of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales.

The statement then contains a  link…

Yesterday the UK Courts basically showed Apple Inc they would take no nonsense.

The courts were referring to compliance with their court order on publishing notices that were intended to correct the perception Apple had created that Samsung copied the design of the iPad.

You may recall that in the UK, Apple lost the case where they accused Samsung of copying the design of the iPad.  As part of the judgement, the UK courts ordered Apple to post a notice on their website and take out newspaper ads where Apple was to acknowledge that Samsung in fact did not copy the design of the iPad.

Subsequently, Apple sought to comply with the order by printing notices to that effect but …

Remember that story we ran about a week ago when the UK court said that Apple still must post a public apology on their website for 6 months about the Apple vs Samsung case? Well, it appears as though apology has gone live and – well – it’s more of a joke than we’d expected.

The statement starts off with a declaration of Samsung’s innocence, which quickly turns the other way -

On 9th July 2012 the High Court of Justice of England and Wales ruled that Samsung Electronic(UK) Limited’s Galaxy Tablet Computer, namely the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Tab 8.9 and Tab 7.7 do notinfringe Apple’s registered design No. 0000181607-0001.

The page goes on to quote some lines from the …

Well, here it is folks, the iPad mini is most certainly among us! Apple told us earlier in the year that they’d be showing some innovation as the year proceeded and they – well – did a little innovation. The iPad mini comes in with a brand new 7.9″ display form factor and a supposedly brilliant design. I for one am not a fan of the metallic finish on a tablet, but much rather the texture feel of the Nexus 7.

Anyway, without a subjective opinion, here are the specifications we know in comparison to the Nexus 7:

…

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd has received more ammunition in its ongoing US patent defence case against Apple Inc. in the form of a US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) ruling. According to TNW, the US Patent and Trademark Office has filed an initial ruling invalidating Apple’s Patent Number 7,469,381.

This ruling, if made final, will invalidate all of the claims made in the patent including the rubber-banding patent that was used against Samsung in the recent patent trial where Apple was awarded damages of US$1.05b.

The rubber-banding patent relates to the bouncing animation (like a rubber band) that occurs on iOS devices when you reach the end of a page or list.  Samsung had originally had a …