Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: HP, Lenovo tablet plans, Apple/Samsung go to Jury?

Apple and Samsung met to try and narrow their dispute in the ongoing patent case that is now being heard in a federal courthouse in San Jose, Calif. At the judge's request the two met but could not come to any resolution in narrowing the scope of the case.

With this failure the case is likely to be handed over to the jury for deliberation this week. Apple wants the ban on Samsung tablets to be continued and that the ban also expend to Samsung’s smartphones, both of which it claims infringe on its patents.

Kodak patent sale gets complicated
Kodak, faced with an industry that does not hold its patents in quite the esteem, or at least the dollar value that it does, is said to be considering keeping the over 1,000 patents that it had put up for auction. Once believed to be worth several billion, bids came in significantly lower than it has expected, in the $150-$250 million range, according to reports.

Another rumor making the rounds is that Apple will team with Google to buy the patents from Kodak. Considering the animosity between the two this seems hard to believe. Both have huge cash reserves and at the current expected cost of the patents it would be no hardship for either to purchase them by themselves.

Google/Motorola seek US iPhone ban
The long running battle between Apple and Google/Motorola has witnessed a new front open as Google is seeking to get a ban on iPhone and iPad devices claiming that they violate select patents that Google owns.

The complaint, filed with the US International Trade Commission, claims that Apple violates seven patents including e-mail notification and location reminders. The two have been fighting in court since licensing talks ended two years ago.

HP to focus on consumer tablets, report said
The Verge has been touting an internal memo it has received that shows that Hewlett-Packard’s future tablet plans will inc

lude a big focus on consumer tablets and the group will be led by former Nokia exec Alberto Torres.

As many remember HP delivered its first tablet last year, the Touch Pad, and then quickly killed it off and the division, only to reignite the effort some months later. The previous tablet was based on technology it gained it its Palm acquisition, the new generation is expected to be based on Microsoft’s Windows 8.

Lenovo believes RT tablets will be a hot item
Lenovo said that the pricing on operating systems will allow hardware OEMs that build tablets using the Windows RT version of Windows 8 to offer significantly less expensive tablets that the OEMs that use the Windows 8 models.

According to Bloomberg the tablets will be $200-$300 less, resulting in RT tablets in the $300-$400 range while the Windows 8 tablets will be in the $600-$700 range. Lenovo has already talked about its Windows 8 tablet here.

LG Optimus Vu headed to stores globally next month
The hybrid tablet/smartphone that LG first showed back in February is expected to reach the market sometime in September. The Optimus Vu will sport a 5-inch display with an Nvidia processor, 32GB of storage and a 5MP camera. Pricing and exact availability are not yet known.

Will verdict in Apple’s favor change market?
The New York Times has a piece that speculates that a victory by Apple in its lawsuit could have one interesting consequence; it could force rival tablet and smartphone makers to truly differentiate their products.

The opposite could also be true if Samsung emerges victorious, with a lot of manufacturers doing Apple knockoffs with no real fear of legal action by Apple. One would hope that developers would try to differentiate on their own, but after looking at vanilla PCs for a decade you know it is not true.