Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt will meet with Samsung's mobile executives -- and likely discuss the latest patent clash with Apple -- while in South Korea for the launch of the Nexus 7 Android tablet.
At a press conference in Seoul on Thursday, which was also Google's 14th birthday, Schmidt condemned the latest patent war among the tech giants, saying that one of the worst things in recent years is a belief that one vendor could stop another's product sales.
"[It] literally prevents choice and innovation. That is a bad outcome," he said, adding that Google is trying to stay on the "right side."
Schmidt also said that he's meeting with several key partners in South Korea, including Samsung Electronics, which uses Google's Android for its mobile devices and is involved in patent lawsuits against Apple in 10 countries worldwide, including here.
Last month, a U.S. jury awarded Apple more than $1 billion in damages from the Korean firm. The iPhone maker subsequently asked for a permanent injunction against sales of Samsung's Galaxy phones including the latest flagship Galaxy S III. The court will resume the case in December.
After unveiling Nexus 7 in Japan on Tuesday at its first release in Asia, Google rolled out the device in Korea, where it will go on sale this Friday. The seven-inch tablet, manufactured by Taiwan's Asus, runs on Google's latest Android 4.1, also known as Jelly Bean. The device was first released this July in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia. The 16 GB model will cost 299,000 won (about US$ 268).
Schmidt said Google's strategy is to make the Android platform more open. He called South Korea a leading market for Android access; it boasts the world's second highest rate of application downloads from the Android app store. The country topped nearly 60 percent of smartphone penetration in 2012.
Also touting the evolution of Google subsidiary YouTube that has become a springboard for local artists to gain global access, Schmidt referred to Korean pop star Psy and his hit music video titled "Gangnam Style." It has surpassed 250 million views on YouTube since its release on July 15.
Later Thursday, Schmidt met with Psy at the company's Seoul office and was photographed with him dancing the Korean rapper's signature "horse-riding" move. Unfortunately, no YouTube video was made available.
Comments
Sharmaraja said: Like we all have been waiting to see google samsung htc if nokia or rim wants to join together and sue apple in every possible way Apple once was our favourite company iphones are made in heaven but after the loss of steve jobs the apple simply will stop at nothing and agressively wants to dominte other companies Its a shame how apple has started to react The latest update OS6 shows they do not wish to add third party apps like google maps and youtube but what apple doesnt know is that these google apps were the main reason for apple to succeedApple hope you know the meaning of KARMA Even god wont be on your side anymore