Communications Technology

Internet giant Google unveiled a free navigation system for mobile phones Wednesday in a move seen as a potential challenge to the makers of standalone GPS navigation devices.

US telecom carrier Verizon Wireless and US handset maker Motorola announced simultaneously that a smartphone going on sale in the United States next week, the Droid, would be the first to feature Google Maps Navigation.

The Droid, which will cost 200 dollars and is being touted as a challenger to Apple’s iPhone and the Blackberry from Research in Motion, is powered by Android 2.0 software, Google’s next-generation mobile phone operating system.

Google Maps Navigation, which will only work on smartphones running Android 2.0, includes many of the features of a traditional GPS device such as 3D map views and turn-by-turn voice guidance.

Google’s Internet-connected system allows navigation using voice search in English, provides live traffic updates, includes satellite imagery from Google Maps and features “street view” — real ground-level pictures of destinations.

Google Maps Navigation also allows users to conduct a search along their route for gas stations or restaurants, for example.

Industry analysts said the free Google feature could pose a threat to the personal navigation devices for drivers made by companies such as Garmin of the United States and TomTom of the Netherlands.

“Global positioning devices were already on the road to becoming irrelevant and Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 may speed up the trip,” wrote Larry Dignan, editor-in-chief of technology blog ZDNet.

Analyst Rob Enderle of Silicon Valley’s Enderle Group said he did not expect it to happen overnight, however.

“Most folks tend to be much more comfortable with the standalone devices at the moment,” Enderle told AFP. “I think primarily because the phones don’t lend themselves yet to in-car navigation.

“The displays are too small and have a tendency to wash out,” he said. “The in-car experience just isn’t good enough to get rid of what is now a relatively inexpensive device.”

Shares in Garmin plunged by 16.23 percent in New York, however, to 31.65 dollars while TomTom was down 20 percent in Amsterdam.

Verizon and Motorola said the Droid, which features a touchscreen, a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, a five-megapixel camera and DVD-quality video capture and playback, will go on sale in the United States on November 6.

Verizon is the latest US telecom carrier or manufacturer to adopt Android software in a bid to mount a challenge to the market-leading Blackberry and iPhone.

Motorola released another Android-powered device, the Cliq, in September and is pinning hopes of a turnaround in its flagging fortunes on smartphones using Google’s operating system.

Android is already being used to power smartphones from T-Mobile and US wireless carrier Sprint Nextel and Taiwan’s HTC are also releasing a mobile phone powered by Android, the HTC Hero.

The Wall Street Journal reported this month that US computer maker Dell is teaming with telecom colossus AT&T, the exclusive US carrier for the iPhone, to launch an Android-based smartphone next year.

Industry tracker Gartner said this week that smartphones, which currently account for 14 per cent of overall mobile device sales, will make up around 37 per cent of global handset sales by 2012.

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Google on Tuesday made it more tempting for people to try its nascent Voice service that lets users merge home, office and mobile phones into a single number.

People can keep their current mobile telephone numbers and “still get many of Google Voice’s features,” product managers Craig Walker, Vincent Paquet, and Pierre Lebeau said in the blog post.

Previously, it was required to switch to a “Google number” to get Voice services.

Those that switch to Google numbers get a richer array of features, including cheap international calling and merging home, office, and mobile telephones.

“We know not everyone wants to switch to a new phone number,” Walker, Paquet, and Lebeau said in the post.

“So, it made sense to create a lighter version of Google Voice for people who are willing to trade some features for the ability to use their existing numbers.”

Google Voice can take voicemail messages, playing them back on demand or converting them into transcripts delivered by email or SMS.

Voice is in an invitation-only test mode in the United States. Invitations can be requested online at services.google.com/fb/forms/googlevoiceinvite/.

“Google Voice is about giving you more control over your communications,” Walker, Paquet, and Lebeau said. “We hope this new option makes it easier for you to manage your messages and personalize your voicemail experience.”

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HELSINKI/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Top global cellphone maker Nokia Oyj on Thursday charged Apple Inc with infringing Nokia patents, accusing the iPhone maker of trying to hitch a “free-ride” on Nokia’s technology investments.

Nokia dominates the global handset market but it has lost some ground to new smartphone entrants like Apple, which entered the market with its iPhone in mid-2007.

The 10 patents in the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. state of Delaware, relate to technologies fundamental to devices using GSM, UMTS and/or wireless local area network (LAN) standards, Nokia said.

In its complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, Nokia said it was seeking compensation for Apple’s use of the patents and a declaration that Nokia is entitled to an injunction until Apple pays compensation, along with interest, for past infringement.

It did not specify an amount.

“Apple’s wireless communication devices take advantage of the decades of continued investments by Nokia to build today’s communication protocols,” Nokia said in the filing. “By refusing to compensate Nokia for its patented technologies, Apple is attempting to get a ‘free-ride’ on the billions of dollars that Nokia has invested.”

Apple declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Analysts said the suit could have an impact on the iPhone maker, who is likely one of the biggest net payers of royalties in the industry. As a latecomer, Apple has limited intellectual property assets compared with rivals, when all vendors work under cross-licensing agreements.

“It’s quite likely Nokia has a case,” said Tero Kuittinen, an analyst with MKM Partners. “Plenty of companies come to handset manufacturing and don’t pay for all the IP in early years. Several Asian vendors started paying GSM license fees years after they began manufacturing GSM phones.”

PATENT FIGHT

The patents cover wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption and are infringed upon by all iPhone models shipped since the iPhone was introduced in 2007, Nokia said.

About 40 companies have entered into license agreements with Nokia, including virtually all the leading handset vendors, but it has not struck a deal with Apple.

In its court filing, Nokia said it made various offers to Apple for a license agreement, which Apple rejected.

“This is about competition against Apple,” said Alfred Zaher, partner and intellectual property attorney at Blank Rome LLP in Pennsylvania. He added that if Apple settles the lawsuit, it may represent tens of millions of dollars, at most, over a 10-year period.

However, he said Nokia is facing an eroding market position that could represent billions of dollars.

“I don’t think Apple is as concerned about the patent infringement lawsuit from a global perspective as would be Nokia, looking at its market share and what it’s losing,” Zaher said.

Even if Apple were to pay past due royalties, “it would still enjoy a market share it otherwise would not have but for a period of ‘free-riding,’” the complaint said.

Nokia said that because it was difficult to predict whether it can regain market share lost to Apple, “Nokia’s harm cannot be compensated by payment of” past due royalties alone.

Legal battles over as many as 10 technology patents can easily take several years.

“Nokia’s enormous patent portfolio doesn’t make this a big surprise but it could have severe repercussions for Apple and its component supplier,” said CCS Insight analyst Geoff Blaber.

“Once again intellectual property has become the secondary battleground in a highly competitive mobile phone market.”

Last year, Nokia ended a more than three-year legal battle with U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm which spanned three continents and involved more than a dozen separate cases.

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