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TAIPEI, Taiwan and SAN DIEGO — Mio Technology Corporation and Qualcomm on Wednesday, Jan 30, announced a collaboration to develop connected personal navigation devices (PNDs). These new connected PNDs will leverage Qualcomm’s technology with the QST1100 chipset to deliver industry-leading GPS performance and cellular connectivity for real-time traffic updates, voice call capabilities and more.

With this new collaboration, Mio looks to offer consumers a next-generation GPS device that goes beyond traditional point-to-point navigation. With real-time content, search capabilities and more, Mio’s connected PNDs will provide a uniquely dynamic navigation experience that can be customized for any lifestyle. Whether for leisure travel, business travel or the daily commute, Mio’s cutting-edge connected PNDs will enable people to explore their environment.

Mio’s new connected PNDs will be based on the  chipset from Qualcomm, the first solution to integrate application processing, GPS and cellular connectivity for ubiquitous connectivity and sleeker form-factors.

The QST1100 chipset leverages Qualcomm’s gpsOne technology for unsurpassed GPS performance. The fully integrated gpsOne solution supports numerous modes of operation - including Assisted-GPS, Standalone-GPS and gpsOneXTRA Assistance technology for enhanced Standalone-GPS performance - and is the most widely deployed position-location solution in the world. Currently, more than 300 million devices around the world leverage gpsOne technology for accurate, ubiquitous positioning capabilities. More at Qualcomm.

Irvine, Calif — Dec 31, `07 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ — Broadcom announced that a federal judge today issued an injunction against Qualcomm’s continued infringement of three Broadcom patents.

As ordered by US District Court Judge James V. Selna, the injunction prohibits Qualcomm from making, using and selling certain chipsets and software that infringe the three Broadcom patents. Qualcomm is also barred from engaging in a range of marketing and customer support activities related to its WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) and EV-DO (EVolution-Data Only) chips, which are used to process data on high-speed wireless networks.

A Qualcomm spokeswoman said the company was reviewing the ruling and declined further comment. Qualcomm, based in San Diego, is the world’s second-largest chip supplier for mobile phones after Texas Instruments Inc. It earns much of its money from licensing fees on its patented technology.

Broadcom, based in Irvine, California, is a newcomer to the cell phone business but gained ground in 2007 in a wide-ranging court battle with Qualcomm.

In May 2007, a jury awarded Broadcom $19.6 million in damages for the same chip patents. In November, Selna indicated he would up the award to $39.3 million, but reversed himself when a a federal appellate court raised the bar for proving willful patent infringement.

The judge then took up the question of whether future sales of the chips should be stopped, resulting in Monday’s order.

“The ITC order did not go nearly as far in prohibiting other activities from Qualcomm,” said David Rosmann, vice president of intellectual property litigation with Broadcom. “The U.S. District Court order has in some respects much broader remedies. So the activities that are going to be barred by this injunction go a long way to stopping Qualcomm’s continued operations in support of these infringing chips.”

Broadcom is also suing Qualcomm on other patent infringement and antitrust claims, Rosmann said. The antitrust case is expected to go to trial in 2009. More at Broadcom.

SAN DIEGO — Dec 17, `07 — Qualcomm today announced that it has acquired San Diego-based SoftMax Inc., a market leader in noise reduction for mobile devices.

SoftMax brings leading-edge, multi-microphone noise suppression and echo cancellation expertise to Qualcomm, broadening the audio and voice capabilities of the Company’s product portfolio for integration into devices such as mobile handsets, Bluetooth headsets, VoIP phones and notebook PCs.

SoftMax’s leading-edge voice algorithms for signal separation, echo cancellation and signal processing have enabled some of the latest wireless devices on the market to separate a speaker’s voice from various background noises. The result is a dramatic improvement in voice quality, providing significant differentiation for the end product. More at Qualcomm.

White Plains, NY — Dec 12, ‘07 — Nokia announced today that a United States International Trade Commission (ITC) judge issued an Initial Determination in favor of Nokia in the action brought by Qualcomm against Nokia alleging patent infringement.

The judge found no infringement or violation by Nokia of the three asserted Qualcomm patents. In addition, it was determined that patent ‘473 was found to be invalid.

Qualcomm filed its complaint on June 9, 2006 alleging infringement by Nokia of six Qualcomm patents. Prior to the hearing, which began on September 10, 2007, Qualcomm voluntarily withdrew three of the six patents from its complaint. The remaining three patents relate to an invention Qualcomm claims it made when developing CDMA technology. Qualcomm declared the three remaining patents as essential to the GSM standard and subsequently attempted to withdraw its declaration on one of those patents.

Similar patents, relating to CDMA inventions, are at issue in the European and China cases filed by Qualcomm against Nokia.

Qualcomm has yet to prevail in any patent litigation action against Nokia despite it having filed 11 lawsuits around the world over the past two years.

The judge’s Initial Determination will now be forwarded to the full Commission for review. The Commission is scheduled to make its Final Determination by April 14, 2008. More at Nokia, Qualcomm.

Related:

Qualcomm Wins Another Round in Patent Battles with Nokia

Another Round of Qualcomm vs Nokia Patent Battle Starts in Britain

TORONTO, ONTARIO –Marketwire– Dec 03, ‘07 — Nortel has successfully tested a solution with Qualcomm that will improve the mobile phone experience for users by allowing them to continue conversations uninterrupted and avoid additional roaming charges when a caller is moving between different wireless networks.

The completion of testing between Nortel’s IMS-based Voice Call Continuity (VCC) network solution and the Qualcomm chipset solution that uses their IMS/VCC device client is a major step towards the availability of out-of-the box VCC-enabled mobile phones.

VCC helps decrease mobile phone charges by seamlessly switching voice calls, without interruptions, between WiFi and cellular networks. Airtime and long distance charges do not apply when the user roams into areas of WiFi coverage - which can be in the home, office or some public retail locations.

As an IMS-based application, VCC moves beyond traditional cellular solutions by enabling service providers to offer innovative multimedia services on mobile phones like network-based real-time, multi-player gaming, enterprise service integration and interactive blogging.

“Because Nortel’s VCC is based on IMS, it will allow operators to deploy more multimedia services compared to other FMC solutions,” said Alf Decardenas, general manager, Carrier Multimedia Networks, Nortel.”

Also, Nortel’s VCC solution supports seamless voice calling across a wide range of next-generation technologies, as well as Femto cellular access points that are able to connect to the network using residential DSL or cable broadband connections.

Nortel is a leading contributor to VCC standards and our successful completion of testing with Qualcomm illustrates that we are committed to deploying commercial VCC solutions in the market, making them available to service providers within their current networks or as they evolve to 4G solutions such as WiMAX, UMB and LTE.”

Testing included authentication, calls on cellular/WiFi, in-call handover using manual and automatic triggers and a variety of error cases. Both Nortel and Qualcomm have implemented the VCC standards defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the global standard for 3G mobile phone systems.

The Nortel VCC network solution is expected to be commercially available from Nortel in the first quarter of 2008. VCC-ready devices are expected to be available from Qualcomm in the market mid 2008.

Brussels — November 29, ‘07 — Today the rapid deployment of mobile TV services across Europe has taken a significant step forward as EU Member States endorsed the European Commission three pillar strategy presented in July: putting in place a joint approach to the licensing of mobile TV in order to accelerate the roll out of services and to encourage innovative business models; making available spectrum for these services, possibly in the UHF frequency band; and promoting the use of DVB-H as the mobile TV standard for Europe.

Next steps will now include the preparation of guidelines for authorization procedures and the addition of DVB-H to the official list of standards whose use all 27 EU Member States have to support and encourage. This proactive European strategy for mobile TV aims at giving European consumers the benefits of television everywhere and anytime, as is increasingly the case in Asia and the US. It also gives content creators, broadcasters, service providers and hardware manufacturers the certainty they need to roll-out mobile TV services across Europe in 2008.

The Commission is strongly committed to the success of mobile TV which could be a market of up to €20 billion by 2011, reaching some 500 million customers worldwide. The Commission considers 2008 to be a crucial year for mobile TV take-up in the EU due to important sports events, such as the European Football Championship and the Summer Olympic Games, which will provide a unique opportunity for raising consumers’ awareness and for the adoption of new services.

Today, South Korea and Japan alone have 20 million mobile TV customers, more than 30 times the number of users in the EU. These competitors have undertaken massive efforts to promote their own single standards around the globe, threatening one of Europe’s most promising industries.

To date DVB-H has been commercially launched in Italy and Finland, with trials in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, France, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. More at European Commission.

Related Articles:

Deutsche Telekom’s T-Systems Wins DVB-H Mobile TV Frequencies In Germany

Qualcomm Intros Snapdragon, First Chipset to Break the Gigahertz Barrier with Multi-mode Broadband and Multimedia Features

BASKING RIDGE, NJ, Nov 29, ‘07 /PRNewswire/ — Verizon today announced plans to develop and deploy its fourth generation mobile broadband network using LTE — Long Term Evolution – the technology developed within the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards organization.

The selection of LTE provides Verizon and Vodafone — joint owners of U.S.-based Verizon Wireless - - with a unique opportunity to adopt a common access platform with true global scale and compatibility with existing technologies of both companies.

Verizon and Vodafone have a coordinated trial plan for LTE that begins in 2008. Trial suppliers include Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia- Siemens, and Nortel. These suppliers, along with others in the world community, have contributed significantly towards development of the standards in 3GPP.

Discussions with device suppliers have expanded beyond traditional suppliers such as LG, Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson, as consumer electronics companies anticipate embedded wireless functionality in their future products.

“We fully support Verizon’s decision to select LTE as their next generation wireless broadband solution,” said Steve Pusey, Vodafone’s global chief technology officer. “LTE will build on the capabilities of Vodafone’s 3G broadband High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) network technology, which is available across the entire Vodafone 3G footprint.”

“Today’s 4G announcement, coupled with our Open Development initiative announced earlier this week present a major growth opportunity for Verizon Wireless,” said Doreen Toben, chief financial officer of Verizon. “Fourth generation’s higher data speeds wi usher in a new era of wireless applications and appliances, all of which can benefit from connecting to the nation’s premier wireless network.”

More at PRNewsWire.

London, UK — Nov 26, ‘07 — The world’s top cellphone maker, Nokia Oyj, said on Monday it was confident it had not infringed the two technology patents U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm had sued it for in Britain.The hearing of the case, originally filed by Qualcomm in May last year, got underway at the High Court in London today.

Qualcomm is seeking an injunction that would stop Nokia selling products using the patents in Britain. It was unclear which Nokia products would be affected. Qualcomm has sued Nokia over the same or similar GSM patents also in the United States, Germany, France, Italy and China. None of the cases has reached a verdict or settlement.

“Nokia is confident the facts and the evidence presented at trial will clearly and definitively demonstrate that Qualcomm’s alleged GSM patents are invalid and not infringed,” Nokia spokeswoman Anne Eckert said.

The companies have been at legal loggerheads since they failed to renew a key technology licensing pact that expired on April 9. Analysts have estimated Nokia pays around $500 million to Qualcomm annually for patents and wants to cut the sum.

Last week Qualcomm won a round in a different battle with Nokia as a U.S. trade court tossed out a lawsuit asking for Qualcomm chips to be barred from the United States due to pending arbitration and another round at the District Court in The Hague on Nov 14.

Taipei, Taiwan — Nov 26, ‘07 — Taiwan-based GPS navigation device maker Mio Technology is expected to expand its product mix to include 3G GPS PDA phones in the second half of 2008, according to market sources. Reports DigiTimes.

DigiTimes further writes, “Mio’s move is a countermeasure against the strategy adopted by a number of handset vendors, including High Tech Computer (HTC), Asustek Computer, E-Ten Information Systems and BenQ, who have all extended their smartphone product lines to include 3G GPS smartphones, the sources noted.

Mio’s 3G GPS PDA phone is expected to be built using the 3.5G platform from Qualcomm and will feature integrated application services, including photo navigation, TMC (traffic message channel) and LBS (location base service), indicated the sources.” More at DigiTimes.

IRVINE, Calif — Nov 23, ‘07 — Chip maker Broadcom said Friday it will try to stop rival Qualcomm from making, using, selling or developing cellular chips based on contested patents.

It’s the latest legal cannonball hurled by Broadcom in its wide-ranging court battle with industry Goliath Qualcomm over the rights to technology for cell phones.

The move comes two days after Broadcom chose to accept a reduced damage award of $19.6 million rather than retry its case against Qualcomm in a California federal court.

U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna initially indicated he would award Broadcom $39.3 million in damages, double what a jury awarded in May. The panel found that Qualcomm willfully violated three of Broadcom’s patents on technologies that help cell phones process video and walkie-talkie conversations and hand off calls between different networks.

Selna overturned his own ruling after a federal appellate court raised the bar for proving patent infringement. That ruling came in a dispute between an individual investor and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology against Seagate Technology, the world’s largest maker of hard drives.

Broadcom spokesman Bill Blanning said the company was glad Selna allowed the original jury verdict to stand and hoped he would grant the company’s request for an injunction on Qualcomm’s production of third-generation WCDMA and EV-DO cellular chips.

Qualcomm plans to ask the judge to approve a system of royalty payments by its customers to Broadcom in lieu of ordering an injunction, said spokeswoman Christine Trimble. Earlier this year, Verizon Wireless agreed to pay Broadcom $6 for each phone with a patent-infringing Qualcomm chip — up to $40 million a quarter or $200 million over the life of the agreement.

Qualcomm, based in San Diego, is the world’s second-largest chip supplier for mobile phones after Texas Instruments but earns much of its money from licensing fees on its patented technology. Broadcom, based in Irvine, is a newcomer to the cell phone business but has scored several legal victories against Qualcomm this year.

Qualcomm is also embroiled in several legal battles with leading mobile phone maker Nokia. They are currently in arbitration proceedings after failing to renew a technology license agreement that expired in April. More at Broadcom.

Just a week after the District Court in The Hague dismissed a complaint filed by Nokia seeking to limit Qualcomm’s intellectual property rights, on Wednesday, November 21 Qualcomm won another round in its patent battles with wireless phone maker Nokia, as a US trade court tossed out a lawsuit asking for Qualcomm’s chips to be barred from the United States.

The U.S. International Trade Commission dropped the Nokia lawsuit due to pending arbitration, the commission said. “The case is finished at the ITC,” said ITC staffer John Greer.

Nokia had alleged infringement of patents on technology that made its telephones smaller and more efficient. Nokia had requested the ITC bar the importation of the infringing chips.

An ITC administrative law judge granted Qualcomm’s motion to dismiss the suit on October 18. Nokia protested, requesting a review of the decision, but the commission upheld it.

Alex Rogers, Qualcomm’s senior vice president, legal counsel, said Nokia had been barred from filing patent lawsuits against Qualcomm because of arbitration underway in Los Angeles.

The arbitration petition was filed in April, Rogers said in a telephone interview, while ITC documents show the trade court opened its investigation into the Nokia suit in September. “From our point of view, Nokia is not entitled to sue Qualcomm for patent infringement,” Rogers said.

There are more than a dozen lawsuits pending between Nokia and Qualcomm on three continents.

Nov 15, ‘07 — The board of the GSM Association voted to back LTE (3GPP Long Term Evolution) as the mobile broadband standard to succeed HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access), the CEO of the group said Tuesday.

The vote is an indication that GSM operators are unified in their support for LTE, and gives them a united front as LTE competes with Qualcomm’s UMB (Ultra Mobile Broadband) and with WiMax, backed by the computer industry, to become the next mobile broadband technology.

LTE is several times faster than HSPA and could help spur demand for more downloading over cellular networks. Japan’s NTT DoCoMo may become the first operator to widely deploy the new technology, which is expected to be ready by the end of this decade.

Rob Conway, CEO of GSMA, announced the association’s backing of LTE during a speech at the GSM Association’s Mobile Asia Congress in Macau, China, and called on the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the leading United Nations agency for communication technologies, to ensure the industry wins the spectrum needed to offer mobile broadband.

NTT DoCoMo is pushing aggressively ahead with plans to speed up its mobile broadband services in Japan, and is looking to LTE to take care of the job. The company counts over half of Japan’s mobile subscribers as its customers and has already started running tests on LTE technology to become its “Super 3G” offering. One advantage to LTE is that it can be used on existing 3G networks.

Download speeds on Super 3G could reach up to 300Mbps (megabits per second), Masao Nakamura, the CEO of NTT DoCoMo, said in a speech, a huge improvement over HSDPA.

DoCoMo is also researching 4G (fourth generation) mobile technology. When it’s commercialized, 4G will promise 1Gbps download speeds, said Nakamura, but in testing DoCoMo has achieved speeds as high as 5Gbps.

Testing on LTE is expected to be finished by 2009, said Matthias Reis, head of the LTE business program at Nokia Siemens Networks. Operators are currently using HSPA, and starting to roll out HSPA+ and IHSPA (Internet-HSPA). By 2009, testing will be done and operators will be able to start rolling out the technology, he said.

Meanwhile the GSMA continues to back current generation wireless technologies. Separately Tuesday, in partnership with Microsoft, it announced a contest to design laptop PCs with HSPA-enabled chipsets to make it easier for the average user to access the Internet via a mobile network.

SAN DIEGO  —  November 14, 2007 — Qualcomm today announced that the District Court in The Hague has dismissed a complaint filed by Nokia seeking to limit Qualcomm’s intellectual property rights. In the action, Nokia sought a declaration from the court that Qualcomm’s European patents are exhausted with respect to chips placed on the European market by Texas Instruments (TI) in light of the Patent Portfolio Agreement entered into between Qualcomm and TI in 2000.

In dismissing Nokia’s complaint, the Court ruled first that it was only accepting jurisdiction as to The Netherlands and not with respect to any other countries in Europe. Second, the court concluded that Nokia’s complaint was too vague and non-specific in failing to adequately allege any specific instances of possible exhaustion regarding any specific Qualcomm patents used by any specific Nokia products. Nokia has three months to appeal the Court’s decision.

“We are very pleased with the recent rulings by the Dutch and German courts in dismissing Nokia’s patent exhaustion claims, and we are particularly gratified that this ruling highlights that one should view Nokia’s fundamental theory of exhaustion with a significant degree of skepticism,” said Don Rosenberg, executive vice president and general counsel of Qualcomm.

“It is obvious that Nokia was trying to weaken Qualcomm’s position in our licensing negotiations and they failed. This is the second time in as many months that a court in Europe has rejected Nokia’s attempts to have a declaration of exhaustion against Qualcomm’s patents.”

Qualcomm’s agreements with ASIC suppliers include as material terms express provisions that such agreements (1) are not intended to result in the exhaustion of any of Qualcomm’s patents, and (2) reserve for Qualcomm the right to seek royalties from handset manufacturers incorporating chips from any such ASIC supplier.

Separately, on October 23, the Regional Court of Mannheim, Germany dismissed similar claims seeking a declaration of patent exhaustion by Nokia. The Mannheim court dismissed Nokia’s complaint for lack of admissibility, noting that Nokia lacked a “legal interest” in pursuing such claims. Nokia has until the end of November 2007 to appeal that decision. In both cases, Nokia is required to pay court costs as well as Qualcomm’s attorney fees for defending the actions. More at Qualcomm.

SAN DIEGO  —  November 14, 2007 — Qualcomm today announced that it is delivering the first groundbreaking chipset products from the Snapdragon platform to numerous device manufacturers. The QSD8250 and QSD8650 are now shipping to customers worldwide, offering an unprecedented combination of mobile data processing, multimedia performance, 3G wireless connectivity and the lowest levels of power consumption for all-day battery life.

The Company will be demonstrating the Snapdragon platform running both Windows Mobile and Linux to deliver productivity applications, entertainment applications and advanced user experiences at Qualcomm’s New York Analyst Meeting.

The QSD8250 supports HSPA data rates of up to 7.2 Mbps on the downlink and 5.76 on the uplink, with full backward compatibility. The dual-mode QSD8650 supports HSPA, as well as CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev. B, with full backward compatibility. The two solutions feature a custom gigahertz microprocessor core paired with Qualcomm’s sixth-generation DSP core running at 600 MHz for unsurpassed mobile performance delivering an instant-on and always-connected user experience.

Snapdragon’s support for HD video decode, 12 megapixel camera, GPS, broadcast TV (using MediaFLO, DVBH-H and/or ISDB-T), Wi-Fi and Bluetooth deliver even greater opportunities for device manufacturers to design compelling mobile products that make the promise of constant, seamless connectivity in an extremely thin and small form-factor a reality. More at Qualcomm.

New Low-power QSC Solutions Offer Latest Modem Technologies, Multi-band Transceiver, High-performance Application Processor, Bluetooth, FM Radio and GPS in a 12mm x 12mm Package.

SAN DIEGO  —  November 13, 2007 — Qualcomm today introduced three new 45 nm single-chip solutions designed to enable mass-market smartphones with an unsurpassed range of capabilities. The QSC7230 for HSPA+ devices, QSC7830 for CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev. B devices, and multi-mode QSC7630 for both HSPA+ and EV-DO Rev. B, all feature the highest levels of integration in the wireless industry today and deliver support for third-party operating systems. These three single-chip solutions are the fifth generation of dual-core solutions from Qualcomm, comprising the next evolution of the Company’s MSM7xxx-series dual-core chipsets.

The products offer the most advanced cellular modem technologies, a multi-band RF transceiver supporting all frequency bands worldwide, an ARM11 application processor running up to 600 MHz, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, FM radio and GPS - all in a single 12×12 package. Additionally, the three chipsets feature new power-saving innovations to deliver more than 80 hours of music playback, a full day of talk time, and more than a month of standby time.

The QSC7230 supports UMTS Release 7 (HSPA+) and Cat. 9 UMTS for 10.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA data speeds. The QSC7830 supports EV-DO Rev. B for up to 14.7 Mbps on the downlink and 5.4 Mbps on the uplink. The QSC7630 supports both EV-DO Rev. B and HSPA+. All three products feature full backward compatibility to previous-generation networks, as well as:

· ARM11 applications processor running at up to 600MHz
· Support for 5 megapixel camera, VGA display resolution and TV-out
· Support for third-party operating systems such as Windows Mobile and Linux
· 45 nm CMOS process technology
· 2D and 3D hardware-accelerated graphics
· Fully integrated GPS, FM radio and Bluetooth, eliminating the need for many external components
· Integrated support for worldwide cellular frequency bands

- For CDMA2000: 450MHz, 700MHz, 800MHz, J-800MHz, 850MHz, 1500MHz, AWS, KPCS 1.8GHz, 1.9GHz, 2.1GHz, 2.5GHz
- For UMTS: 700MHz, 800MHz, 850MHz, 900MHz, 1500MHz, AWS, 1800MHz, 1900MHz, 2.1MHz, 2.6GHz
- 4-band EGPRS support in 900MHz, 1800MHz, 850MHz, 1900MHz

· 12mm x 12mm package size

The QSC solutions are scheduled to sample in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Qualcomm Makes First Call with Chips Using TSMC’s 45 nm Technology

Qualcomm today also announced that it has made the first phone call on a 3G chip manufactured with 45 nanometer (nm) process technology. The next generation of CMOS semiconductor manufacturing, 45 nm technology enables chips that feature higher speeds, lower power consumption and enhanced integration, all with reduced die cost by providing more die per wafer. Qualcomm’s call was made on the first 45 nm chips received from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry. More at Qualcomm here and here.

LONDON — November 12 2007 — HTC today launched the HTC Touch Cruise, the third member of the HTC Touch product family and the first to feature in-built GPS for personal navigation.

Building on the popularity of the HTC Touch and the HTC Touch Dual, the HTC Touch Cruise also includes 3G-HSDPA wireless connectivity.

Users on the move will easily be able to interact with the HTC Touch Cruise’s navigation functionality and can take advantage of HTC’s TouchFLO technology, which enhances finger touch scrolling and browsing of Web pages, documents, messages and contact lists, controlled by simply sweeping a finger across the screen.

The new Touch Cruise boasts super fast HSDPA/3.5G connectivity plus Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0, making it a highly connected device for consumers on the move. Its 2.8″ screen is great for enjoying mobile multimedia and because it runs on Windows Mobile 6, the built-in Windows Media Player is ideal for music and movies.

The HTC Touch Cruise utilizes mapping and navigation solutions from TomTom. Other key features include a three megapixel auto focus camera, FM radio and Micro SD memory card slot for adding to the 128MB RAM. The device will be available form both retailers and SIM free from HTC from this month.

Key Specs
- Windows Mobile 6.0
- GSM/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA up to 3.6Mbps
- 2.8″ QVGA Touch Screen
- Qualcomm 7200 chipset
- Built-in GPS receiver
- TomTom mapping
- 400MHz CPU
- TouchFLO UI
- 256MB ROM /128MB RAM
- Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, FM Radio
- Micro SD Slot

More at HTC.

In line with earlier rumors and  speculations, Google has finally unveiled its plans, open platform for mobile devices - Android - to dominate the Mobile industry along with (almost every one in mobile industry worldwide except Microsoft, Nokia & Apple obviously) HTC, Intel, T-Mobile, Sprint, Qualcomm, Broadcom, SiRF, Samsung, nVIDIA, eBay, LG, Motorola, NTT DoCoMo, TI and others.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.; BONN, Germany; TAOYUAN, Taiwan; SAN DIEGO, Calif.; SCHAUMBURG, Ill. –November 5, 2007 – A broad alliance of leading technology and wireless companies today joined forces to announce the development of Android, the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. Google Inc., T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm, Motorola and others have collaborated on the development of Android through the Open Handset Alliance, a multinational alliance of technology and mobile industry leaders.

This alliance shares a common goal of fostering innovation on mobile devices and giving consumers a far better user experience than much of what is available on today’s mobile platforms. By providing developers a new level of openness that enables them to work more collaboratively, Android will accelerate the pace at which new and compelling mobile services are made available to consumers.

Thirty-four companies have formed the Open Handset Alliance, which aims to develop technologies that will significantly lower the cost of developing and distributing mobile devices and services. The Android platform is the first step in this direction — a fully integrated mobile “software stack” that consists of an operating system, middleware, user-friendly interface and applications. Consumers should expect the first phones based on Android to be available in the second half of 2008.

The Android platform will be made available under one of the most progressive, developer-friendly open-source licenses, which gives mobile operators and device manufacturers significant freedom and flexibility to design products. Next week the Alliance will release an early access software development kit to provide developers with the tools necessary to create innovative and compelling applications for the platform.

Android holds the promise of unprecedented benefits for consumers, developers and manufacturers of mobile services and devices. Handset manufacturers and wireless operators will be free to customize Android in order to bring to market innovative new products faster and at a much lower cost.

Developers will have complete access to handset capabilities and tools that will enable them to build more compelling and user-friendly services, bringing the Internet developer model to the mobile space. And consumers worldwide will have access to less expensive mobile devices that feature more compelling services, rich Internet applications and easier-to-use interfaces — ultimately creating a superior mobile experience.

Open Software, Open Device, Open Ecosystem

“This partnership will help unleash the potential of mobile technology for billions of users around the world. A fresh approach to fostering innovation in the mobile industry will help shape a new computing environment that will change the way people access and share information in the future,” said Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt. “Today’s announcement is more ambitious than any single ‘Google Phone’ that the press has been speculating about over the past few weeks. Our vision is that the powerful platform we’re unveiling will power thousands of different phone models.”

“As a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance, T-Mobile is committed to innovation and fostering an open platform for wireless services to meet the rapidly evolving and emerging needs of wireless customers,” said René Obermann, Chief Executive Officer, Deutsche Telekom, parent company of T-Mobile. “Google has been an established partner for T-Mobile’s groundbreaking approach to bring the mobile open Internet to the mass market. We see the Android platform as an exciting opportunity to launch robust wireless Internet and Web 2.0 services for T-Mobile customers in the US and Europe in 2008.”

“HTC’s trademark on the mobile industry has been its ability to drive cutting-edge innovation into a wide variety of mobile devices to create the perfect match for individuals,” said Peter Chou, Chief Executive Officer, HTC Corp. “Our participation in the Open Handset Alliance and integration of the Android platform in the second half of 2008 enables us to expand our device portfolio into a new category of connected mobile phones that will change the complexion of the mobile industry and re-create user expectations of the mobile phone experience.”

More at Google.

SAN FRANCISCO  —  October 23, 2007 — Qualcomm, a leading developer and innovator of advanced wireless technologies and data solutions, today introduced Gobi™ global mobile Internet, an embedded solution for notebook computers. Notebooks featuring the multi-mode Gobi solution can take advantage of the high-speed mobile Internet services offered by leading network operators in virtually all parts of the world, as well as GPS. The Gobi solution is meeting the demand from leading notebook manufacturers for worldwide connectivity capabilities beyond Wi-Fi and is being certified to operate on CDMA2000 EV-DO and UMTS HSPA networks worldwide. The Gobi solution is available today, and enterprise and consumer notebooks powered by Gobi are expected to be commercially available in the second quarter of 2008.

“Gobi-enabled notebook computers with global mobile Internet unify the most important wireless carrier network technologies deployed around the world, providing comprehensive support for all 3GPP and 3GPP2 technologies,” said Dr. Sanjay K. Jha, chief operating officer of Qualcomm and president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. “We are leveraging Qualcomm’s expertise in multi-mode wireless chipsets to bring unparalleled connectivity to notebook users, who can now be confident they can instantly access the Internet without searching for a hotspot - today.”

The embedded Gobi solution for notebook OEMs through Qualcomm customers includes Qualcomm’s MDM1000™ chipset, associated software and API, and a reference design for a software-defined configurable data module supporting both EV-DO Rev. A and HSPA with full backward compatibility, as well as GPS functionality. By supporting both the 3GPP and 3GPP2 standards, notebook manufacturers can deliver products with global connectivity capabilities while benefiting from greater efficiencies and a simplified user experience.

To make it easier for Qualcomm customers and notebook OEMs to feature the Gobi solution in their notebooks and certify their products with operators, Qualcomm has introduced a common software API with support from numerous connection manager software vendors, including Birdstep Technology AB, Diginext B.V., PCTEL Inc. and Smith-Micro Software Inc.

More at Qualcomm

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A federal judge has said it’s up to chipmaker Broadcom Corp. if it wants a new trial on a claim that rival Qualcomm Inc. deliberately violated its patents.

U.S. District Judge James Selna tentatively overturned a $39.3 million award against Qualcomm because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently made it more difficult to prove intentional patent infringement, a finding that allows a judge to triple a jury’s award. On Aug. 20, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington overturned a 24-year-old standard that patent owners merely had to show that the accused infringer knew about the patent and failed to avoid violating the invention.

“It would be an understatement to say that the Federal Circuit rewrote decades of case law interpreting the requirements for demonstrating willful infringement,” Selna wrote. If Broadcom drops its claim that Qualcomm acted deliberately, the verdict holding San Diego-based Qualcomm liable would stand, but the amount of the award would be revised, Selna concluded in his ruling Monday. David Rosmann, an attorney for Irvine-based Broadcom, said the company has not yet decided whether to seek a new trial.

The judge asked both companies to submit any additional briefs by Oct. 26 and said he would issue a written ruling the following week.

AP Business Writer, Elliot Spagat reports in San Diego, CA, “Chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. dueled Friday in federal court with its hired attorneys over who shoulders the blame for what a judge called “gross misconduct on a massive scale” at a past trial. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Major is considering sanctions against 19 attorneys who represented Qualcomm in a patent lawsuit the cell phone chipmaker filed against rival Broadcom Corp.

The possibility of sanctions has threatened the careers of attorneys from two Silicon Valley firms and prolonged a damaging episode for Qualcomm. The company’s legal activity has helped it become the world’s second-largest chipmaker for cell phones. The judge said she was struggling to understand how Qualcomm and its lawyers committed “the fundamental and monumental error” of failing to share more than 200,000 pages of documents with Broadcom until after trial. Neither lawyers for Qualcomm nor the 19 attorneys it hired - and is now arguing with - had clear answers.

Joel Zeldin, an attorney for 11 of the lawyers, said Qualcomm hamstrung his defense by deciding to keep its communications with its attorneys confidential. “The lawyers really can’t defend themselves and that’s a real due-process concern,” he said.

Qualcomm attorney William Boggs defended the San Diego-based company’s decision to prevent disclosure of privileged communications with the hired lawyers, and he urged the judge not to fine them. Boggs called the failure to produce the thousands of documents an unintentional mistake. Qualcomm already has been fined $8.5 million and ordered to pay Broadcom’s attorney fees.

The sanctions hearing focuses on the actions of two law firms that worked the case for Qualcomm - Day Casebeer Madrid & Batchelder LLP of Cupertino and Heller Ehrman LLP, which has offices in Menlo Park. In statements filed with court this week, the lawyers said they never sought to mislead anyone.

After a daylong hearing, the judge said she would issue a written ruling. She gave no indication of whether she would take the unusual step of punishing the lawyers, what penalty she might impose or when she would rule. She was clearly troubled by Qualcomm’s behavior at the trial, which it lost in January. “If there isn’t some kind of sanction for that conduct, what’s the deterrence?” she asked.

Qualcomm had sued Irvine-based Broadcom Corp. in October 2005, claiming it violated Qualcomm’s patents on H.264 technology, which is used to compress video signals in DVD players, digital televisions and music players. Near the end of the trial, Qualcomm engineer Viji Raveendran disclosed that her lawyers discovered 21 key e-mails that had not been shared with Broadcom as required during discovery, the phase before trial when parties exchange information. Broadcom demanded an explanation and learned months later that Qualcomm also failed to share the thousands of pages of documents.”

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