Motorola Xoom Vs Kindle fire Vs Fujitsu Lifebook, what a fight!
Motorola scored a patent victory for its Xoom tablet, even if it's an empty one. A German court ruled that the Xoom tablet, made by Google's Motorola, doesn't copy the design of Apple's iPad, according to the Dow Jones Newswires. Apple has originally claimed that the Xoom infringed upon three of the iPad's design patents.
While the win gives Motorola legal ammunition for its next tablet, it does little for the Xoom. While the iPad continues to dominate the tablet market, the Xoom left a small impression despite its coveted slot as the first Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) device to hit the market. The Xoom performed so poorly that in the U.S., its carrier partner renamed the sequel tablet Xyboard -- which didn't help with sales at all.
Motorola also sought to invalidate iPad's design patent, but the German court in Duesseldorf dismissed the claim. CNET contacted Motorola and Apple for comment. We'll update the story once they respond. Apple's initial lawsuit was part of an effort to get the Xoom banned across Europe. It had hoped to get a punishing enough penalty slapped on Motorola to force it to the bargaining table, where the two would strike out a licensing deal. The Dusseldorf court is also reviewing another tablet case between Apple and Samsung.
Amazon's Kindle Fire may be cooling down. That's according to Cowen analyst Kevin Kopelman, who today cut his forecast on the company's revenue, as well as sales of its Kindle e-reader and Kindle Fire tablet.
The forecast comes ahead of an expected refresh of Amazon's tablet, which made a splash late last year with its $200 price point. Since then, however, several other lower priced entrants have come out, most notably Google's own Nexus 7, which is selling at the same price, and a widely anticipated iPad Mini from Apple. As such, analysts are beginning to wonder how Amazon will continue to fare in the hyper-competitive market.
Amazon, for its part, continues to tout its Kindle line-up regularly, and places the Kindle Fire prominently on its homepage. Cowen's Kopelman believes the Kindle Fire could be hurt by the Nexus 7. He lowered his full-year estimate on Kindle Fire sales to 12 million units from a prior forecast of 14 million. He had Amazon selling 4 million Kindle Fire units in 2011, when it launched late in the year.
Kopelman also cut his growth forecast for the Kindle reader to 3 percent from a prior estimate of 30 percent, now calling the estimate "unrealistic." The Kindle has been hurt by Amazon's focus on the Kindle Fire, a decline in reviews on Amazon's website, Target's removal of the device from its stores in May, delays in the launch of its front-lit Kindle, and the difficult comparisons from the previous two years due to price cuts and advertising subsidies.
He expects Amazon to sell 16.3 million units for the year, up slightly from the 15.9 million it sold in 2011.