Smartphone-related reports this quarter are all about Samsung and Apple, their lawsuits, their popular phones and their record profits — but behold, HTC still has a chance to compete and one analyst is claiming that the maker of the HTC one X can take the third spot in the race.

As reported by Barrons, Bernstein Research’s Pierre Ferragu said in a note that HTC remains to be the only contender “to be a profitable #3 Smartphone vendor,” despite slipping sales and disappointing smartphones. the HTC one X is the company’s “flagship” device, but many were not impressed mainly due to poor battery life.

Side note: for starters, HTC’s one X features a 4.7-inch Super LCD HD display and a quad-core CPU, but the company has decided to use an 1,800mAh battery. Battery life tests show that the HTC one X “can’t deliver a full day use,” and the only way to make the battery life longer is to not use it and put the phone to sleep. Our tests show that the screen consumes 50 to 60 per cent of the battery. in short, at least for us, HTC’s “battery team” failed, whilst the design team wins.

Ferragu also claims that the Taiwan brand is “not as visible as either of the giants’, but still it is very strong,” citing satisfaction levels among HTC users rating second only to iPhone.

Samsung is currently the biggest phone seller and its new phone, the Samsung Galaxy S3, is reportedly the most popular smartphone of AT&T and Verizon Wireless this month and last month. It is also the most popular device of T-Mobile USA, additional reports say.

The Samsung Galaxy S3, in the United States, is available in almost all major carriers, while HTC’s one X is limited to AT&T’s network only, but the company offers a variant called “Evo 4G LTE” for Sprint and the mid-range HTC one S for T-Mobile USA.

Meanwhile, Apple will reportedly launch the iPhone 5 in September, and it will support LTE, NFC, will include a larger display and a new design.

No word yet on HTC’s next smartphone, but if it can release a smartphone with a respectable battery life and a “more vanilla” Android operating system, then I think it has a chance in the lucrative world of smartphones.

Via Barrons.

iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3? HTC has a chance says analyst

When Apple released the iPhone 4, it was the company’s most successful product launch up until that date. a lot lot of consumers, however, were frustrated to find that there were major reception problems, in a scandal which became known as Antennagate. it led to the departure of Apple’s executive in charge of iPhone hardware, though it is even cited in Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs bio as an example of when Jobs put design over functionality.

The issue led to a big thumbs down for the device from Consumer Reports.

The whole thing even inspired this, which Apple played at its own press event:

Jobs said at the event, Apple hadn’t figured out its “way around the laws of physics yet.” He recommended iPhone owners install an update, and announced that Apple would give them free cases, and that those who had bought one would get a refund (if they were not from third-parties).

Still, there were a number of lawsuits, which resulted in their consolidation into one class action suit. now, a settlement has been reached, according to CNET, which reports that those who bought an iPhone 4 will be entitled to $15 in cash or a bumper case from Apple.

More details will emerge at iPhone4Settlement.com in the coming weeks, the report says, though there is nothing at that URL at the moment.

iPhone 4 Owner? Apple May Owe You $15.

OriginaliPhone 4 buyers can get either $15 or a new bumper case from Apple as part of a newly settled class-action lawsuit.

An iPhone 4 being tested inside one of Apple's anechoic chambers, a photo released during Apple's antenna press conference in 2010.

(Credit:Apple)

A settlement has been reached in a class-action lawsuit targeting the antenna performance of Apple’siPhone 4.

As part of a preliminary approval made this afternoon, U.S. residents who bought Apple’s iPhone 4 will be entitled to $15 in cash or a bumper case provided by Apple.

The settlement comes from 18 separate lawsuits that were consolidated into one. All share the claim that Apple was “misrepresenting and concealing material information in the marketing, advertising, sale, and servicing of its iPhone 4–particularly as it relates to the quality of the mobile phone antenna and reception and related software.”

The settlement has its own Web site, www.iPhone4Settlement.com, which will be up in the coming weeks (the site doesn’t go anywhere right now). there, customers will be able to get information about the settlement and how to make a claim. as part of the arrangement, e-mails will also be sent alerting original buyers to the settlement before April 30, 2012. the claims period is then open for 120 days.

“We believe that the Apple iPhone 4 settlement is fair, adequate, and reasonable,” Ira Rothken, co-lead counsel representing the class, told CNET. “We believe that it allows members of the class to choose, and they can get $15 of cash or a bumper, so we believe that type of choice is proportional to the circumstances.”

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shortly after the release of the iPhone 4, owners began posting videos of themselves holding the phone tightly, showing that the device would eventually lose some reception, something that was criticized as being a hardware flaw.

Apple did not weigh in on the matter for three weeks, deciding instead to hold a press conference to address what had been dubbed “antennagate” with a sea of data to show that other phones had similar issues. the company then offered to let people return the phone for a full refund, or claim a complementary case from Apple or third-party case makers–an offer it kept going for two months. It also issued a software update that changed how the phone determined how many reception bars were displayed.

Apple’s latest iPhone, theiPhone 4S, was released in October of last year. according to testing done by Consumer Reports about a month after its release, the device was free of the issue.

Rothken says the class is comprised of 25 million members. besides the e-mails to those members, the settlement requires a summary notice of the settlement to be posted in print versions of USA Today and Macworld.

Settlement reached in iPhone 4 antennagate suit

Most of the Apple-related legal news that’s come up lately has involved Samsung, including a couple of new lawsuits and a decision by a Dutch court that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 doesn’t infringe on an Apple design right. Today we’ve got another legal combatant entering the fray, though, as it’s been revealed that Motorola has brought a new lawsuit against Apple in Florida. In it, Motorola targets both the iPhone 4S and iCloud for alleged patent infringement. There are six patents involved in the suit, all six of which Moto claims are violated by the iPhone 4S, while all except two of them (’987 and ’737) are also said to be infringed upon by iCloud. the full list of Motorola patents, courtesy of FOSS Patents, is:

Continuing on with the Apple legal news, it seems that the Cupertino firm has appealed an International Trade Commission ruling from last month, when the agency decided that HTC had indeed infringed upon a single Apple patent. At the time, HTC didn’t seem too concerned about the ITC’s decision, saying that it already had a workaround planned in order to avoid having its offending products banned. now Apple has appealed the ruling, likely in an attempt to get more patents included in a win and make it more difficult for HTC to avoid a ban.

And just like that, we’ve got more legal battles on our hands. Interestingly, FOSS Patents believes that, as a result of the pending merger of Motorola and Google, Moto had to get the A-OK from Google before filing this latest suit against Apple. We’ve yet to actually see Apple and Google go head-to-head in a suit, so if Google did give Moto the green light, this is the closest we’ve come to seeing the company go up against Apple itself. getting back to the case itself, there’s no word yet on when we can expect to hear more on the matter, but we’ll pass along the details as we get them. Stay tuned.

Via Reuters, The Verge, FOSS Patents (1), (2)

Motorola sues Apple, claims iPhone 4S and iCloud infringe on its patents

In an expected move, all Topamax lawsuits filed in Pennsylvania state court by families who claim its use during pregnancy caused their children to be born with severe birth defects have been centralized in Philadelphia for pretrial proceedings.

The complaints all involve similar allegations that Ortho-McNeil Neurologics failed to properly research the pregnancy risks associated with their medication or adequately warn about the risk of birth defects from Topamax, such as cleft lip, cleft palate, genital malformations and other problems.

Topamax is an epilepsy and migraine medication, which was approved by the FDA in 2004 for It became available as a generic in 2006.

In March, the FDA issued a warning that Topamax side effects may increase the risk of oral cleft birth defects, such as cleft lip and cleft palate, among babies born to mothers who took the drug during the first trimester of pregnancy. The FDA urged doctors to avoid giving Topamax to pregnant women or women who are of child-bearing age and at a high risk of pregnancy.

Even though only a small number of cases have been filed to this point, it has been reported that several Topamax birth defect lawyers are investigating and reviewing potential claims for children born with birth malformations or defects after the mother was given the medication during pregnancy. because of this, the number of lawsuits is expected to increase in coming months.

Topamax Lawsuits Move Forward in Pennsylvania