“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, said in a statement Tuesday. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

The patents that Apple alleges HTC is infringing are related to the iPhone’s graphical user interface, and the iPhone’s underlying hardware and software design. The company is asking for a permanent injunction, which would prevent HTC from importing and selling infringing devices in the United States. Apple also said it is seeking damages, but it did not specify an amount.

HTC said it was caught off-guard by the legal action. In a statement earlier Tuesday, the company said it had heard of the complaints only through media reports and Apple’s press release. The company said it was reviewing the filings. Until it completes its review, a company representative said she is unable to provide “comment on the validity of the claims being made against HTC.”

Early posturing
“HTC is a mobile-technology innovator and patent holder that has been very focused over the past 13 years on creating many of the most innovative smartphones,” the company said in its statement. “HTC values patent rights and their enforcement, but is also committed to defending its own technology innovations. ”

• See also: Apple sues HTC–court filings

Apple has been around the patent infringement block many times with regard to its iPhone, which quickly became both a technological and a cultural touchstone when it debuted in January 2007. But its lawsuit against HTC marks the first time it has aggressively initiated infringement accusations against another phone maker without being prompted.

It’s also interesting that Apple has chosen to target HTC in this suit and not other cell phone manufacturers, such as Motorola, Samsung Electronics, or Palm, which have also built phones initially touted as “iPhone killers.”

Another interesting point is the fact that Apple did not name software makers Google or Microsoft in its filings. In its complaint to the International Trade Commission, Apple named 12 phones that it claims use technology that infringes its patents. Five of those phones–including the Nexus One, which is sold directly by Google–use Google’s Android operating system. And seven of the phones named in the complaint use Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software.

Neither Google nor Microsoft were named as co-defendants in the federal patent case or the ITC complaint. This may be because the technology in question is software that HTC layers on top of the operating systems. If through the course of this case, Apple targets software features that are inherent in either the Google Android or the Windows Mobile operating systems, then Google and Microsoft would be forced to defend the technology in their operating-system software.

Typically, when a company licenses its technology to another company for use in a product, there is an indemnity clause that requires the licensor to defend its technology, should it come under legal attack. This is what happened in a patent case that Lucent Technologies filed against PC makers Gateway and Dell in 2003.

Microsoft, which was not named in the original suit, ended up joining the lawsuit because the infringement claims in the lawsuit had to do with MP3 and MPEG video-encoding and compression technologies that were supplied in Windows software running on the Gateway and Dell hardware.

This case has dragged on for years. In 2007, a San Diego jury found for Alcatel-Lucent and against Microsoft. And Alcatel-Lucent was awarded a record-breaking $1.52 billion in damages. Microsoft appealed. Part of the case ended up getting thrown out. But another part of the case continues to this day and is still unresolved.

“The Alcatel-Lucent-versus-Microsoft case is analogous to this one because in each case, Microsoft provides software to hardware vendors, and the hardware vendors are the ones getting sued,” said Jason Schultz, director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law. He explained that two main questions need to be answered to know if Google and Microsoft will eventually be pulled into the dispute.

The first is whether Apple’s infringement claims include technology in the underlying operating-system software supplied by Google and Microsoft. And the second is whether indemnity is included in the licensing agreements between Google and HTC,k and Microsoft and HTC, respectively.

“Even without specific agreements requiring them to jump in, Google and Microsoft may defend their technology, anyway,” Schultz said. “If Apple is successful with its suit, it could have a chilling effect on the promotion of Android and Windows Mobile phones.”

Google wouldn’t comment specifically on the case, but it said it would defend its technology.

“We are not a party to this lawsuit,” a Google representative said in an e-mail. “However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners [that] have helped us to develop it.”

A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment.

iPhone’s days in court
Since the iPhone’s arrival, Apple has been the target of several patent infringement lawsuits. The company has been accused of copying multitouch technology, visual-voice mail technology, and digital-camera and imaging technology.

The most bitter battle for Apple so far has been against Nokia, the world’s largest maker of mobile phones. In October, Nokia filed a suit against Apple claiming it is infringing on 10 of its patents related to its wireless handsets.

Apple countersued a couple of months later, claiming that Nokia is infringing 13 of its patents.

In December, Nokia lodged yet another complaint against Apple with the U.S. International Trade Commission, alleging that Apple infringes seven Nokia patents “in virtually all of its mobile phones, portable music players, and computers.” The alleged patent infringement is connected to key features in Apple products, including user interface, camera, antenna, and power management technologies.

Meanwhile, Kodak recently filed complaints with the International Trade Commission against Apple and Research In Motion related to digital-camera patents. The photo company claims that the camera technology used in Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry to preview images infringes on a digital-imaging patent owned by Kodak. The lawsuit was filed concurrently with the U.S. International Trade Commission and in U.S. District Court in Delaware.

Technology companies have increasingly been filing patent infringement cases with the ITC because the process there tends to move much more quickly than in the federal court system.

“ITC cases are much faster and can be over in 18 months,” said Steven Lieb, a patent lawyer and partner at Frommer Lawrence & Haug, a New York law firm. “You can’t get damages, but you can get injunctive relief.”

But Schultz said faster isn’t necessarily better.

“A lot of mistakes can be made when you’re burning through documents as quickly as you do in an ITC case,” he said. “Judges and administrative folks in the ITC cases handle things on the fly. So while you get a decision much faster, it’s not always a better decision. It’s something to be watched.”

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According to the survey, which was mentioned in a research note to clients by RBC analyst Mike Abramsky, 13 percent of the 3,200 folks surveyed said they were likely to buy an iPad when it’s released. According to ChangeWave, initial iPhone demand was at 9 percent prior to the launch of the original iPhone.

Perhaps more importantly, the survey found that just 8 percent of respondents bristled at iPad pricing, compared to the whopping 28 percent that scoffed at the iPhone’s original pricing.

The survey found that 19 percent of respondents who said they might buy an iPad would pick up the entry level, $499 model. Another 19 percent of respondents said they would buy the top of the line $829 version. The other versions of the iPad had less interest.

Another interesting fact: 68 percent of respondents said they plan to use the iPad to surf the Web, while 44 percent will check e-mail, and 37 percent will read e-books.

Writing in a research note to clients, Abramsky said that while he doesn’t expect the iPad to enjoy the kind of success the iPhone did on its original launch day, the survey “data portends well for healthy initial iPad uptake.”

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Hulu and its owners, three of the big broadcast TV networks, want to bring some version of the Web video service to Apple’s device.

But the most likely scenario is one in which access to Hulu on the iPad comes as part of a subscription package, multiple people familiar with the company tell me.

Hulu has been free for Web users since it launched in 2008. But its broadcast owners–GE’s NBC Universal, News Corp.’s Fox and Disney’s ABC–have repeatedly said they want to introduce some sort of premium version.

Depending on who you talk to, the pay service is either supposed to help the money-losing Web site turn a profit or compensate the networks for the eyeballs and dollars Hulu is supposedly siphoning away. Or both.

The problem is figuring out a way to keep the existing site free while adding new bells and whistles that consumers pay for. One idea the company and its backers like: Turning Hulu from a “one screen” service–one you’re only supposed to watch on your computer–to a “three screen” offering by adding support for TVs and mobile devices.

“Just three screens alone is pretty enticing,” for consumers, says an executive at one of Hulu’s parent companies.

If you want, you can hook up your computer to your big-screen TV with a cable and watch Hulu that way. But Hulu hasn’t aligned itself with devices and software that make the process easier, as Netflix has. Meanwhile, there’s no Hulu for devices like Apple’s iPhone, even though rival YouTube, owned by Google, loves smartphones.

And while you could argue that the iPad isn’t necessarily a mobile device, since 3G Internet access is an optional feature, Hulu and the broadcasters that own it are likely to classify it as one. Like many other content owners, the video service sees the device as an opportunity to charge for something it has been giving away on the Web.

All the sources I talked to cautioned that Hulu and its owners had yet to agree on a definitive plan for a premium service. And this needs to be resolved before they can tackle device-specific issues.

“It’s a tricky balancing act that we’re trying to fine-tune before we go out,” one source tells me. “Everyone’s concerned about making a strong offering at a good price, and not undercutting the existing business.”

And if Hulu does decide to head to the iPad, it will involve some work for both engineers and lawyers.

Hulu, like almost all Web video, uses Adobe’s Flash, which is a no-go for the iPad, so that would require a workaround of some sort. It’s doable, but not a snap.

And if Hulu decides to define the iPad as a mobile device, it would also need its content owners to grant it mobile rights, which it doesn’t actually have. Again, doable. But the broadcasters are already making money from other mobile services, like Verizon’s V Cast. So they have to tread carefully.

All of which makes it very unlikely that you’re going to see Hulu on the iPad when it begins shipping at the end of March, no matter how badly Apple would love it.

A rumor that the service would launch alongside the iPad surfaced in the wake of Steve Jobs’s New York media tour earlier this month. And I don’t think that’s a coincidence. But I don’t think that makes it so, either.

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Instead of creating and distributing mobile applications themselves to their subscribers, mobile operators are increasingly adding access to multiple wireless stores on their devices. In many ways, the switch makes mobile operators look more like owners of a shopping center, while device makers, operating system developers, and other third parties own the shops that sit in these virtual carrier malls. While this new model has spurred a great deal of innovation, it’s also fragmented the market. And even though, operators may not be selling these virtual goods to consumers, they still want a portion of the profits.

“We want to be a facilitator like a shopping center in providing options for customers,” said Hugh Bradlow, CTO at Australian operator Telstra during a keynote Wednesday at MWC. “We may have our own store, but (we’ll also) provide options. There is a place for shopping center owners and most of them are rich.”

Changing the model
Traditionally, wireless operators created and distributed their own mobile applications. But the emergence of the iPhone and its iTunes App Store, has changed the market. In addition to providing their own application stores on their branded devices, many subscribers are now downloading applications from third-party application storefronts.

In addition to Apple’s iTunes App Store, there are now dozens of third-party application stores, including Google’s Android Market, Research In Motion’s store for BlackBerry, Microsoft’s Marketplace for Windows Mobile, and Nokia’s Ovi store. And there are no signs the trend is slowing, as other handset makers, such as Samsung, talk about building their own application stores.

Bradlow’s sentiment is echoed by other operators around the world. John Donovan, CTO for AT&T’s wireless business, said during an interview at MWC that his company wants its customers to have as many choices as possible when it comes to mobile applications. And he said that AT&T had no interest in being a mobile app shopkeeper.

“We don’t want to run application stores to compete with these other stores,” he said. “But we need to be involved. It’s like we are helping stock the inventory. We put the products on the shipping dock so the goods can be delivered.”

Sprint Nextel has a similar view of the app landscape. Last week, the company announced it would be offering a preloaded link on some of its feature phones to the GetJar application store, which provides free applications to almost any handset. Sprint also offers preloaded buttons on its Android phones for the Android Market and it will eventually offer access to RIM’s store for BlackBerry apps on BlackBerry devices that are sold for its network.

“We think it’s important for carriers to get out of the way when it comes to these other app stores,” said Kevin McGinnis, director of product management at Sprint. “We want to give our customers a robust set of choices. And we don’t need to have our brand on everything.”

The diverse and growing mobile-application market offers many benefits for consumers. For one, there are more choices than ever in terms of mobile applications. Apple alone has 140,000 applications in its store. GetJar has over 60,000, and Android is said to have over 50,000.

The competition among app stores, devices and operating systems has also kick-started innovation, which is another benefit for mobile subscribers. There are applications for almost everything. You can monitor your heart rate, identify songs, stream music, manage your travel plans, and play games with people halfway around the world on your cell phone. If you can imagine it, there’s likely an app for it.

The downside of App Store mania
But the application boom also has some trade-offs. For example, the market is incredibly fragmented. For instance, applications developed for Apple will not work on Android devices and vice versa. This means consumers can’t move apps downloaded or purchased on an iPhone onto Android phones, BlackBerry devices, or any other type of phone. If a subscriber switches devices, he’d have to download those applications again for the specific operating system or platform his phone uses.

Not only does this limit and sometimes confuse consumers, but it’s a lot more work for developers. Application developers have to pick and choose which operating system or app store they develop for first. Even large developers have to pick and choose where to spend their resources. And the problem is even more acute for smaller developers. This is one reason why devices such as the Palm Pre have a limited library of applications, while more popular devices, such as the iPhone, Android, and even Blackberry have many more applications.

Because operators are not controlling the application development process, it also means that some applications can be created that don’t work well on certain networks. This is why AT&T would not allow services, such as Sling Player to operate over its 3G network. Sling Player, which redirects TV signals over the Internet to portable devices, ate up too much of the AT&T’s network resources, the company has said.

Eventually, AT&T worked with Sling Media, the developer of Sling Player, to ensure the application limited its bandwidth consumption, and the application was approved for the network.

Donovan said in the future AT&T plans to develop baseline requirements for applications running on its network to ensure that the applications developed use the network in the most efficient way possible.

“We can’t work with every developer individually,” he said. “But what we’d like to do is provide tools and APIs to help developers create applications that use the network more efficiently. This isn’t just about providing terms and conditions but showing them that A,B and C are required. And here is how you can get here.”

AT&T plans to do this through its developer community. And the company is also working with the GSM Association’s newly announced Wholesale Applications Community, which plans to create standards and APIs to help application developers create an application once instead of developing it several times for each operating system. Twenty-four operators, including AT&T and Orange, have already signed up to the project.

AT&T hopes that through this effort it can also provide standards that developers can use to create efficient applications. Olaf Swantee, a senior executive vice president at Orange Group, said the new standards will help developers, who are creating Orange-specific software and applications, create applications that can be used across all Orange devices, regardless of which operating each device uses.

“Operators and the developers we work with have to develop basic services and applications, like the menu and other things on all the different operating systems used on our network,” he said. “But it would be really helpful if a developer could develop that code once to a standard, and then it could be used on various devices and on apps in various stores.”

Show me the money
Even though mobile operators seem willing to work with developers and many don’t seem to mind relinquishing complete control of app distribution, they still want a cut of the business.

“There are lots of ways to monetize applications,” AT&T’s Donovan said. “And there are business models where we can share revenue (with developers and app store owners.)”

Telstra’s Bradlow concurred, noting the considerable investments operators have made in their networks to enable these applications, “Application developers can’t expect to get all the return on a small percentage of the investment.”

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Symbian 3, marketed as “Symbian^3,” brings a host of much-needed improvements and enhancements in three key areas: user interface, multimedia, and performance. It won’t be “feature complete” until the end of the first quarter, and then it will be another four to six months from that point until we see actual devices, but the outlined changes look promising.

In the area of usability, Symbian 3 makes a shift to a single-tap interaction model across the user interface, so you’ll no longer have to go through multiple steps to complete a simple task or muddle through the confusion of which menus require one tap or two, as we’ve recently experienced on Symbian devices like the Nokia N97 Mini.

In addition, the platform now allows for multiple home screens with a widget manager to help you customize each panel with the information you want, such as e-mail, weather, social networking, news feeds, and more. A simple swipe gesture will help you navigate between the screens, and multitouch support enables gestures such as pinching to zoom and flicking to scroll, making Symbian phone use much easier.

Along the same lines, Symbian has implemented one-click connectivity for all applications, so you can set global settings for how the phone connects to the Internet so it doesn’t ask you each time whether you want to connect via cellular network or Wi-Fi. A new networking architecture in Symbian 3 also ensures that the devices will be 4G-ready.

Multimedia will be huge, as Symbian 3 offers HDMI support, so you can plug your phone into a TV and watch an HD movie at 1080p quality without a Blu-ray player. Discovering new music will be easy with a song identification application, as well as the ability to purchase tracks from the phone via a music store of your choice. Finally, with 2D and 3D graphics acceleration, the handsets should be capable of high-performance gaming.

These are just a few of the Symbian 3 highlights. Unfortunately, when we met with Symbian, it didn’t have any devices to demo Symbian 3. The photo gallery below shows some of the work done with the user interface, but it’s pretty bare-bones. The YouTube clip above gives you a better look of what to expect. Also, remember, Symbian 3 is a stepping stone to Symbian 4, expected to be completed by the end of the year, bringing a major operating-system overhaul.

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The company had initially planned to spin off the mobile devices unit on its own. Now Motorola plans to spin off the mobile devices and home units into one company led by Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola. Jha will have a portfolio of mobile devices and home entertainment technology such as the company’s set-top boxes.

The second company will comprise Motorola’s enterprise mobility solutions and networks businesses (statement). That company will be led by Motorola co-CEO Greg Brown.

Brown and Jha will assume their roles as CEO of their respective divisions effective immediately.

Motorola shareholders will get shares of both companies via a tax-free stock dividend. Both companies will use the Motorola brand.

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Opera said the browser would offer consumers up to six times faster download speeds than Apple’s own, and cut data traffic by up to 90 percent. Massive data traffic from iPhone mobile phones has caused problems for many operators’ networks.

Analysts said Apple could try to stop rivals from access to the iPhone so as to maintain control of its Internet browsing function, which has been a key behind the success of the smartphone.

“This is a provocative move by Opera which will result in a tricky and high profile PR exercise for Apple should it decide not to allow Opera mini through the App Store,” CCS Insight analyst Geoff Blaber said.

Opera said it saw no reason why its browser, the world’s most widely used on cellphones, should be rejected. “We have not submitted it yet to the Apple App Store. However, we hope that Apple will not deny their users a choice in Web browsing experience,” said Jon von Tetzchner, co-founder of Opera.

In Europe Opera was the key driver behind the European Union’s push to have Microsoft Corp open Windows to other browsers.

Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates, said there was little chance Apple would allow Opera browser to be installed on the iPhone.

“Apple doesn’t want Opera on the iPhone. The company isn’t open and already offers its own browser,” Kay said.

Rob Enderle, analyst at Enderle Group, said FCC’s continuing review of Apple’s anti-competitive practices — after Google said it tried to stop access of Google Voice application — was likely to help Opera.

“They won’t like it but will likely allow the application through after a review period,” he said.

Opera shares rose on the news and closed 0.5 percent higher at 19.80 crowns on Oslo bourse. DJ Stoxx European technology shares index fell 0.5 percent.

An Apple spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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During its fourth quarter 2009 conference call, Chief Operating Officer John Stankey said AT&T plans to spend between $18 billion and $19 billion in 2010 upgrading its wireless and backhaul networks to handle the onslaught of new traffic. This is roughly $2 billion more than the company had invested in the previous year.

Specifically, Stankey said AT&T will add 2,000 new cell sites and upgrade existing cell sites with three times more fiber links than it had in 2009. This will increase capacity for the backhaul network that connects the cell towers to AT&T’s main network. The backhaul portion of the network is a critical component to AT&T’s network. With these upgrades in place, Stankey said the company will be able to easily upgrade in the future to 4G wireless technology.

AT&T will begin testing its 4G network using LTE, the same technology Verizon Wireless is using for its 4G network, starting in 2010 with a few commercial deployments ready in 2011 and more commercial deployments in 2012.

AT&T, which is the only wireless operator in the U.S. selling the iPhone, has been the target of much criticism over this past year, as many iPhone subscribers, particularly in densely populated urban areas, have complained about dropped calls, slow Internet access, and poor all around service. Some critics claim the company has not been spending enough on network upgrades to keep up with growing demand.

Stankey acknowledged that AT&T has faced some difficulties, particularly in cities like New York and San Francisco. But he said the company is “closing the gap.”

He said there are periods of time during the week in some sections of Manhattan where nearly 70 percent of the phones active on its network are data-intensive devices. He said to deal with this surge in usage, AT&T is increasing 3G radio capacity in those trouble areas by more than one third. The company will also add additional radio network controllers on existing cell sites.

As for San Francisco, Stankey blamed the poor network performance on zoning issues that have prevented the company from getting new cell phone towers up. But he said the company was been working to resolve these issues. And AT&T expects to add new cell towers in the Bay Area in 2010. And it’s boosting capacity at convention centers, sports stadiums and along public transportation routes.

But keeping up with demand on AT&T’s network is a bit like shooting a moving target. Usage on the network keeps increasing as AT&T adds new devices and subscribers. In the fourth quarter, AT&T added 2.7 new mobile subscribers. Overall usage on AT&T’s network grew 200 percent in 2009 alone. And the company is now servicing more than twice the number of smartphones as its competitors; again, it is the exclusive carrier in the U.S. for the iPhone, one of the most data intensive devices on the market. And in the fourth quarter, AT&T activated an additional 3.1 iPhones.

The company is also adding even more smartphones to its lineup as well as other data intensive devices, that will eat up bandwidth. In January, at CES in Las Vegas, AT&T said it would soon offer two Palm smartphones and several Google Android handsets this year.

On Wednesday, Apple announced that AT&T will be the exclusive carrier to provide 3G wireless service to the new iPad tablet. Many Apple fans and industry watchers groaned at this news, suggesting that if AT&T can’t handle the iPhone it won’t be able to the iPad.

But Stankey said AT&T has already made significant progress in upgrading its network in the fourth quarter and will continue to make upgrades in 2010 to keep up with demand. He also said that much of the usage on the iPad will be offloaded to Wi-Fi hotspots, which will not affect AT&T’s 3G network.

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Harried by shrinking sales Download Free eBook - The Edge of Success: 9 Building Blocks to Double Your Sales and the increasing popularity of Android smartphones, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) on Thursday announced that it is now offering a new version of its Ovi Maps mobile navigation app for free.

The offering makes detailed maps available for more than 180 countries; it also has turn-by-turn voice navigation for 74 countries in 46 languages. Traffic information is available for more than 10 countries.

With this announcement, Nokia is throwing down the gauntlet to Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), whose navigation app, Google Maps Navigation, is available for free on some smartphones running the Android mobile OS.

The Nav Challenge

In addition to maps for more than 180 countries, turn-by-turn navigation and traffic information for some countries, Ovi Maps offers pedestrian and car turn-by-turn voice navigation. It also offers free access to travel guides from Lonely Planet and Michelin, and has 6,000 three-dimensional landmarks for 200 cities worldwide.

The new version of Ovi Maps uses a hybrid technology optimized for use on mobile networks. Vector graphics and a combination of pre-loaded and online maps reduce bandwidth usage to a fraction of that required by the bitmap technology most mobile map providers employ, Nokia claims.

The reduced bandwidth requirement gives Nokia’s app the edge in speed and price, Chris Hazelton, a research director at the 451 Group, told TechNewsWorld. “By using map data on the device and data downloaded wirelessly, Ovi Maps can provide a quicker application experience than maps that make users [wait] for data to load in a Web browser,” he explained. “If you are roaming, Nokia’s map application is cheaper to use because it doesn’t require you to download so much data, which can be expensive.”

Ovi Maps is available immediately for download on 10 Nokia handsets, including the N97 mini, 5800 XpressMusic and E72. The others are the 5800 Navigation Edition, E52, E55, 5230, E6710 Navigator, 6730 Classic and X6.

Current owners of Nokia smartphones that are compatible with the new Ovi Maps app can download it free from www.nokia.com/pams. From March onward, new Nokia GPS-enabled smartphones will come pre-loaded with the new version of Ovi Maps.
Can Nokia Battle Google?

Nokia’s Symbian platform currently dominates the global market and will continue to do so until at least 2012, according to figures from research firm Gartner (NYSE: IT). However, it will be losing ground, mainly to Android.

Symbian’s share of the worldwide smartphone platform market will fall from the 49.3 percent it had at the beginning of 2009 to 39 percent by the end of 2012, according to Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney’s projections. Meanwhile, Android’s share will grow from 1.6 percent to 14.5 percent.

Android will run second to Symbian globally by the end of 2012, followed by the iPhone operating system in third place, if Gartner’s predictions hold true.

However, there’s more to the story than just these figures. Nokia is having a degree of difficulty penetrating the smartphone market in the U.S. and is closing its two flagship stores in New York and Chicago. Most consumers in its biggest market, the developing world, can only afford the company’s most basic mobile phones, not the smartphones able to run advanced applications Click to learn how AT&T Application Management can help you focus on the growth and profitability of your business..

Because Nokia prefers not to team up with carriers, it doesn’t get much support. For example, it introduced the E72 and 5800 navigation phones in the U.S. in December, but “neither device was picked up by a U.S. carrier, so it’s likely they did not sell very well,” Hazelton pointed out.

Android, on the other hand, has proven popular with U.S. carriers; three are carrying Android phones currently, and AT&T (NYSE: T) has indicated it too will put Android phones on its shelves soon.

The difference in U.S. carriers’ attitudes toward Nokia and Google could see few takers for the new Ovi Maps stateside. “This is a major issue for Nokia because none of its devices is subsidized by U.S. carriers,” Hazelton said.

“AT&T, Sprint (NYSE: S) and Verizon Wireless all offer their own navigation apps that cost about $10 a month.” Hazelton pointed out. “Offering a free map service to carriers who already have their own paid navigation services is not likely to see them being willing to subsidize Nokia phones.”

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“We’ve cut some people off,” Verizon Online spokeswoman Bobbi Henson said. “We do reserve the right to discontinue service. But we don’t throttle bandwidth like Comcast was doing. Verizon does not have bandwidth caps.”

What this means is that Verizon, one of the country’s biggest broadband providers, appears to have adopted an approach to illegal file sharing that sounds very similar to one promoted and pushed heavily by the music industry.

In December 2008, the Recording Industry Association of America, stunned the digital-music world by announcing that it would no longer file lawsuits against individuals accused of file sharing. Instead, the RIAA said it had “agreements in place” from a group of major Internet service providers that would adopt a “graduated response” to copyright infringement.

The RIAA said a graduated response would start with a warning. A notice would inform a customer that he or she had been accused of illegal file sharing. If the person continued, the ISP would send more–perhaps more strongly worded–warnings. When it comes to chronic offenders, the RIAA has tried to convince ISPs to suspend or terminate service.

But a year after the RIAA made its announcement, not one major ISP had acknowledged supporting the RIAA’s plan. The question raised by Henson’s statement is whether Verizon has quietly signed on. An RIAA representative declined to comment.

While Verizon did not disclose how many customers it has cut off, Henson said the numbers are small. She added that litigation in this area is down significantly and that the number of subpoenas or court orders Verizon gets “are isolated and not at all widespread.”

But Henson also noted that what’s really important about this is that issuing warning letters is proving to be effective. Verizon has been sending letters to DSL and Fios broadband subscribers since last April and warning them that they–or someone in their household–may have been illegally downloading copyrighted content.

Can a simple scolding e-mail turn illegal downloaders into model Internet citizens?

“We’ve found that we don’t have to warn most people a second time,” Henson said. “Most people stop. Or they tell whoever is doing it to stop.”

Henson said a lot of people are unaware that someone in their house is downloading copyrighted material–most notably music, movies, and games–until they get the warning e-mail. “You get a teenager doing it, and the parent gets the e-mail, and they tell them to cut it out.”

Verizon says it isn’t actually monitoring what its customers download on the Internet. Rather, copyright owners are capturing Internet Protocol addresses and requesting that Verizon send out e-mail warnings. Henson, who did not disclose how many such warnings Verizon has sent, was careful to note that her employer does not give information about its users to copyright owners without “due process,” which means that Verizon must receive a court order before it would hand over any contact information. She also added that customers who believe they received an email warning in error could contact Verizon.

Once a warning e-mail is received, just how many customers jump ship to another ISP or seek ways to mask their IP addresses (to circumvent detection) isn’t known. But at least one reader who sent us his warning e-mail claimed that he’s been scared straight.

I’m “stopping cold turkey,” said the reader, who, not surprisingly, wishes to remain anonymous. “With Netflix at $10 a month, it’s not worth it for me to risk a possible big fine. I’m going legit.”

Below is the text of the e-mail the reader received, edited to protect the customer’s anonymity:

Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:06:57 -0500
From: notification@copyright.verizon.net
To: XXXXXXXXX@HOTMAIL.COM
Subject: Notice of Claim of Copyright Infringement

Dear Verizon Online Customer:

We are writing to advise you that Verizon recently received a notification from a copyright owner of a possible copyright violation that appears to involve your Verizon Online account (the “Complaint”). The work(s) identified by the copyright owner in its Complaint are listed below.

We are contacting you because our records indicate that the Internet Protocol (IP) address provided to us by the copyright owner was assigned to your service on the date and time identified by the copyright owner. While this activity may have occurred without your permission or knowledge by an unauthorized user, or perhaps by a minor who may not fully understand the copyright laws, as the primary account holder, you are legally responsible for all activity originating from your account.

Copyright work(s) identified in the Complaint:

Copyright infringement level: 1
Notice ID: XXXXXXXX
Title: XXXX (XX)
Protocol: BitTorrent
IP Address: XXX.XX.XXX.XXX
DNS: pool-XX-XXX-XXX-XXX.XXXXXX.XXXX.verizon.net
File Name: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
File Size: XXXXXXXXXX
Timestamp: XX-XX-20XX XX:XX:XX UTC

Copyright infringement is a serious matter that violates U.S. copyright law and subjects infringers to criminal and civil liability. It also violates our Acceptable Use Policy (http://www2.verizon.net/policies/acceptable_use.asp) and Terms of Service (http://www2.verizon.net/policies/tos.asp). If you, or someone using your Internet connection, are engaged in the conduct alleged by the copyright owner, we urge you to stop (and ensure that anyone else who might have access to your Internet connection also stops).

Protecting Your Privacy: The copyright owner has not asked Verizon to identify you, and Verizon will NOT provide your identity without a lawful subpoena or other lawful process. However, if the copyright owner does issue a lawful subpoena or other lawful process that seeks information about your identity or account, Verizon will be legally required to provide the requested information to the copyright owner.

If you have questions regarding this notice or would like to view Frequently Asked Questions about copyrights and piracy, please visit us at www.verizon.net/copyrightfaq.

We appreciate your cooperation on this matter.

Sincerely,

Verizon Online

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