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Samsung issues memo to employees after loss to Apple
Samsung issued a memo to its employees today in response to the Friday verdict finding that the company willfully infringed on a number of Apple patents. Apple CEO Tim Cook was quick to send an email to employees on Friday stating that "The jury has now spoken. We applaud them for finding Samsung's behavior willful and for sending a loud and clear message that stealing isn't right." Samsung's employee memo wasn't so upbeat. The Samsung email (see full text below in press release box) is pure sour grapes, stating that "History has shown there has yet to be a company that has won the hearts and minds of consumers and achieved continuous growth, when its primary means to competition has been the outright abuse of patent law, not the pursuit of innovation." [via 9to5Mac] Show full PR text On Friday, August 24, 2012, the jury verdict in our trial against Apple was announced at the US District Court for the Northern District of California. The following is an internal memo that reflects Samsung's position regarding the verdict: We initially proposed to negotiate with Apple instead of going to court, as they had been one of our most important customers. However, Apple pressed on with a lawsuit, and we have had little choice but to counter-sue, so that we can protect our company. Certainly, we are very disappointed by the verdict at the US District Court for the Northern District of California (NDCA), and it is regrettable that the verdict has caused concern amongst our employees, as well as our loyal customers. However, the judge's final ruling remains, along with a number of other procedures. We will continue to do our utmost until our arguments have been accepted. The NDCA verdict starkly contrasts decisions made by courts in a number of other countries, such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and Korea, which have previously ruled that we did not copy Apple's designs. These courts also recognized our arguments concerning our standards patents. History has shown there has yet to be a company that has won the hearts and minds of consumers and achieved continuous growth, when its primary means to competition has been the outright abuse of patent law, not the pursuit of innovation. We trust that the consumers and the market will side with those who prioritize innovation over litigation, and we will prove this beyond doubt.
The Daily Grind: What's the worst thing an MMO dev's ever said?
The fall season has seen two massive PR fiascos in two MMOs that just couldn't be more different: World of Warcraft and EVE Online. At BlizzCon, Blizzard cluelessly cheered on a video featuring individuals making crass anti-gay comments. And CCP managed to alienate its loyalists with an arrogant, greed-oriented internal memo. For my part, one of the most awful dev quotes surfaced during the bygone days of EverQuest, when a dev named Milo Cooper famously posted to a player, "Shut up and give me my ten bucks per month, little man. My Porsche needs some performance upgrades." (Hey, remember back when games were $10 a month?) Comments like that one just fueled anger among the playerbase, whose members already felt they were paying too much for too little in return from a studio that took them entirely for granted. So what's the worst thing you've ever seen an MMO dev say or do? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
HP TouchPad price drop goes permanent (update: confirmed)
Pricing has long been one of our biggest concerns with HP's webOS-tastic TouchPad. So, when the company offered up a $100 discount on the slate, things certainly seemed headed in the right direction. The drop was only tease, sadly, and the price went right back to normal levels two days later. Apparently consumers liked the price cut as well, and HP, in turn, liked that, moving the company to implement the reduction on a more permanent basis. This is according to a reported internal memo from the company highlighting the decision to permanently price the 16GB and 32GB WiFi versions of the tablet at $399 and $499 "effective immediately." Update: We just heard back from an HP representative, who confirmed the pricing is indeed legit and in fact is in effect on HP's site. [Thanks all]
HP releases 2011 Q2 earnings early, following leak of foreboding internal memo
HP kicked off this morning's Q2 earnings call citing a leaked company memo that recently popped up at Bloomberg. That memo, which had the outfit's CEO, Leo Apotheker warning of "another tough quarter," resulted in a five percent drop in HP shares in after-hours trading Monday, according to the Wall Street Journal, and prompted the release of the outfit's Q2 earning a day ahead of schedule -- an earnings call was originally slated for Wednesday. According to the report, the company managed to pull in $31.6 billion in revenue and $2.3 billion in earnings, compared to $30.8 billion in revenue and $2.2 billion in earnings the same time last year. So what brought about the pot-stirring internal memo? Well, it seems HP's struggled to keep up with the competition when it comes to consumer computer sales. Despite an increase in revenue in every other segment of the company's business, HP's Personal Systems Group (which covers enterprise and consumer sales) saw revenue decline five percent year-over-year, with the portion covering consumer computers down 23 percent. That might seem like a big dip, and it is, but Apotheker says the company is "excited by the tablet opportunities," continuing on to say that the impending release of the company's TouchPad "will be an exciting product release for HP." For now, we'll just have to sit back and see if the webOS slate has the stuff to pull HP out of the consumer computer lurch. Full PR after the break.
Rumor: The9 loses WoW license in China to Netease
The9 has been the target of persistent rumors over the last few months that they're on the verge of losing their license from Blizzard to operate World of Warcraft in China. First, we heard about their financial troubles, and then came rumors that Blizzard was going to ditch them. And now we've got WorldofWar.net reporting a rumor that Netease will be the company to take over the reins there. It makes sense -- Netease has been growing a lot during their history, and they successfully operate Fantasy Westward Journey, an MMO with a US value of $761 million, with 400,000 average concurrent users. They're already supposed to take over Blizzard's Warcraft III and Starcraft II in China, so Blizzard will actually be consolidating their properties.The rumor supposedly comes from a leaked internal memo to The9 employees, which says that an unnamed company (supposedly Netease) is trying to pick up the rights and hardware for the game for a cool $22 million. The9 reportedly paid $73 million for the same capability, so they're losing twice on the deal -- both the license and the money they spent on it.Not good news for The9 if it all turns out to be true, but maybe this means Chinese players will get their expansions a little sooner. Of course, a lot goes into releasing new content overseas (translation is definitely not a small part of it), but having a more capable operator probably won't hurt.Update: Confirmed. Thanks for playing, The9. Their stock is down big time since the announcement, and Netease's is up.
