Earlier this week, one of my clients announced that they were eliminating the Palm Treo 650 from their enterprise lineup, due to frustrating call quality issues, and ultimately, to many missed sales opportunities from those dropped calls.
At first, I wanted to talk them out of it, especially since I felt some loyalty to the platform... ironically, I was one of the two original founders of the Capital Area Palm Users Group (now defunct) in 1998… but I couldn't find a valid reason to so. You see, I had experienced the same disappointment myself, and had migrated away from the platform in the last year, trying Windows Mobile devices to no avail, and now investigating Symbian OS SmartPhones.
Now this post ins't about the Palm per se, but it is about FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.).
As asked, my role as consultant was to find a solution for their needs. They had three scenarios, keep the Palm and live with the problems, get wireless cards for their laptops and additional handsets for voice calls, or find a device that would enable the same capabilities as the Palm, but had a better phone.
With Cingular decided as the provider, I went to work divining the hardware. For the combo solution I recommended purchasing the Motorola RAZR V3 or SLVR L7, both being stable quad band phones (I am aware of the slow address book...), and offering a choice of form factors, working in tandem with the Serra Wireless AirCard 860 PC Modem. For the SmartPhone only solution I recommended any one of the following, the Blackberry 8700c, the Cingular 2125, or the Cingular 8125.
As you can see, I recommended the Blackberry 8700c. Understand that I am not only cognizant, but intimate, with the ongoing litigation between NTP and RIM, as I cover cell phone news for one the most heavily trafficed cell news portals on the net, yet I still made the recommendation, and here is why...
Basically, I have three reasons for thinking that the court and NTP don't want RIM shut down...
Lets start by looking at NTP… they don't produce anything… they are a patent farm managed by a law firm in care of the late patent collectors/inventors estate. NTP only makes money if RIM continues to manufacture and sell the Blackberry. Ultimately, NTP wants licensing fees for their patents that RIM disputes. Forcing RIM to discontinue sales in their largest market, the U.S., just doesn't make sense for NTP, and their fiscal goals.
Additionally, the Federal Government has filed two separate 'friend of the court" briefs, stating that a shutdown of RIM's blackberry service could impact them heavily, and may even effect national security as well as even prevent rescuers in the event of a national emergency, such as the Katrina hurricane that destroyed New Orleans.
Lastly, RIM's own in house Hollywood cavalry, seems to have come up with a work around that eliminates infringing on NTP patents, the workaround is shipping with all new Blackberry's, so only users with older devices would be effected, and even then, they only need to download a patch to regain full functionality of their Blackberry's
Notice that I didn't invoke the ridiculous patent dispute itself, or the fact that almost everyone in the tech business can give examples of prior art, or the fact that almost all the patents in dispute have all been but reversed by the U.S. Patent Office. What we are talking about, and what NTP is essentially suing for, are damages during the period when the patents were enforceable. The Judge whether wisely, or not, is holding firm to the principle of keeping the issues separate, and it is my understanding that legally this has merit, since the patents were granted and enforceable during that time that RIM sold the device in the U.S..
In the end we may see some conclusion this Friday, February 24th, when the court goes back into session for the final ruling. I am suggesting to my clients that RIM will most likely settle with NTP to avoid further negative publicity and stem confidence issues with the Blackberry platform itself. Will RIM be forced to pay more than the earlier settlement? Probably, but I can't imagine NTP asking for more than 20% in addition to the original settlement, or roughly an additional $200 million than the original $450 million the companies agreed upon. Ultimately, NTP is running out of reasons and room to maneuver, and it's in both companies best interest to settle.
The only thing I wonder is what will happen when all the patents are overturned, which looks to be the progression, as the U.S. patent office has already stated in it’s initial findings. In that case the U.S. Patent Office is, for all practical purposes, admitting that they issued patents without merit, having found numerous instances of prior art, so what happens, does RIM sue NTP for the penalties paid to be returned?
You can read live coverage as the opera unfolds tomorrow at MobileTracker.Net.
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