Tag: mobile technology trends

Apple and Ericsson end mobile technology war to propel devices forward

| December 28, 2015

The two tech giants have agreed to stop their patent battles so they can create a new smartphone generation together.

Apple Inc and Ericsson AB, the Swedish telecom firm have come to an agreement to settle over alleged patent infringements, so that they can move forward together in improving mobile technology.

This is meant to lay the foundation for the next generation of smartphones that will be considerably faster.

Ericsson is the largest manufacturer of wireless equipment in the world. By the time of the writing of this article, it had not disclosed all the terms of the agreement that was reached between itself and Apple. However, it did state that the settlement includes a type of cross-license that includes the patents owned by both Ericsson and Apple, including the LTE, UMTS and GSM standards used in mobile technology such as smartphones.

Ericsson came to a similar form of mobile technology settlement with Samsung in 2014.

Mobile Technology - Working TogetherApple, the second largest smartphone maker in the world after Samsung, holds onto a worldwide market share of 13 percent, according to data from Gartner. It will be making an opening payment to Ericsson as a part of the agreement and this amount will be followed by additional payments in the form of royalties.

That said, the specifics of the financial side of the agreement were not revealed by either company. Still, this was seen as highly appealing to investors, who initially cause the price of Ericsson shares to spike by 5 percent.

The disputes in question between Ericsson and Sony were involving 41 separate patents. They were initially filed by Ericsson in February with regards to some of the mobile technology that was used in both iPads and iPhones. This occurred following Apple’s choice to decline a prior licensing agreement it had been maintaining with Ericsson, as Apple claimed that too much money was being asked for the renewal. This new agreement has set all the patent litigation aside. This type of legal battle is highly common in the mobile tech world as it is estimated that any given smartphone has around 250,000 patents.

Will mobile technology trends kill the smartphone by 2021?

| December 16, 2015

A recent study has shown that consumers feel artificial intelligence will have taken over this tech in half a decade.

According to a survey conducted by researchers commissioned by Ericsson, many consumers are under the impression that within the span of five years from now, mobile technology in the form of smartphones will no longer exist.

This research was conducted by ConsumerLab, with the participation of 100,000 customers across 40 countries.

The study looked into the predictions and expectations of consumers with regards to mobile technology that will be used over the years to come, as well as what they would like to see in the future. Approximately half of the respondents to this survey said that by 2021, the most common forms of mobile tech – more specifically, smartphones – would no longer be in use by the year 2021. The reason, according to the survey respondents, would be that developments in artificial intelligence will have superseded many of the current functions of smartphones.

Many people feel that the concept of current mobile technology still carries too many levels of impracticality.

Mobile Technology & the FutureAccording to Ericsson ConsumerLab’s Rebecka Cedering Ångström, “A smartphone in the hand, it’s really not that practical. For example, not when one is driving a car or cooking. And there are many situations where display screens are not so good. Therefore, one in two think that smartphones will belong to the past within five years.”

Cedering Ångström also forecasted that the evolution of tech will make it possible for consumers to enjoy their downtime more effectively. She gave the example that someone could not only watch a football game, but they could also decide from which vantage point they would like to view it, or choose tow different places at once. She also pointed out that shopping could also be an experience that could be vastly improved through the use of virtual reality advancements, such as the ability to use VR to “try on shoes and see how they fit on your own feet.”

The Ericsson ConsumerLab head of research, Michael Björn explained that while some of the mobile technology future trend predictions discussed in the company’s report may seem to be rather futuristic, it shows that there is solid “consumer interest in new interaction paradigms such as AI and virtual reality (VR), as well as in embedding the internet in the walls of homes or even in our bodies.”