My hunch is that there is some validity to the counter suit by Apple and there will be a settlement that might not even include licensing fees.

This might just take years to play out unless a judge decides that he/she wants to make a name for themselves.

Nokia opens new front in Apple patent battle| Reuters.

Apple

It feels like I have sommething new and I don’t need a new phone yet.  At lease AT&T grabbed some sales that they might not have had otherwise.  They relented and allowed a hardware upgrade price of $199 rather than $399 for a big chunk of users.  That probably didn’t benefit AT&T nearly as much as it benefited Apple.

Thanks for the free 3.0 upgrade Apple.  I’ll get my phone when I get around to it.

Palm Pre - Smart Phone

Apple has always had this mystique and a history of amazing innovation.  If you are an iPhone user, would you switch to a pre? Assuming it is a wonderful device, would you give up your iPhone?  I didn’t think so… I won’t.  App store?  Well, the Pre will have one, but they are still working out the bugs.  How much fun is your iPhone because of some of the great apps on it?  The ones that you selected?  I love mine for that.  I get my news, weather, etc. from my phone.  Pre… you better hope that there are plenty of free apps in the store to draw the users in.  For that matter, you better hope that they don’t crash the phone as they did pre-release. (good idea with the online backup though)

Release date: With the Apple WWDC (worldwide developers conference) coming up 6/8 – 6/12, you can expect some innovate new changes to the iPhone.  The timing of the Palm-Pre’s release is 6/6/2009 was certainly selected to play in advance of the WWDC.  However, that might not be the best move.  An announcement post WWDC, might have been able to redirect the spotlight from Apple.  A release prior to will be washed out with the return of Steve Jobs!  Don’t think Jobs doesn’t know that his appearance at the conference will be the lead story in the mainstream news as well as with the tech press.  Don’t be surprised if he grants a few high profile interviews to reach the mainstream and squelch the talk of this “pre”.

Carrier: The Palm-Pre is being release exclusively with Sprint to start.  Sprint really needs something to put the wind back in their sails.  The really had something back in the day with the PTT (push to talk) but that momentum died.

The next generation of the phone is certain to change a bit and address the few complaints that current users might have.  Battery life is the biggie but, as Google’s gPhone found out, battery life is an issue for any smart phone.  As long as I can get through a whole day, I don’t mind the battery life issue.  Short of that and it would be trouble.

Bottom line, I am keeping my iPhone.  The next generation can’t come soon enough for me (I still have a 1st generation phone on the Edge network).  I would not consider a change to a new phone.  I will simply wait until Apple meets my demands.  It isn’t in price issue, in fact, it will cost you more out of pocket to buy a Palm-Pre.  Your $100 rebate will be in the mail and that will bring the price down to the iPhone level.

Good luck Palm!  It is a tough road.

I own 5 shares of AAPL right now.  Not sure why I only own 5 shares of AAPL.  They have weathered the economic storm as well as anyone.

Apple Earnings