Apple and Samsung: A defining rivalry in a changed mobile market

At the end of August, Apple Inc seemed on top of the world. Fresh off a resounding $1.05 billion U.S. legal victory over arch-foe Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the company was gearing up to launch the fifth iteration of its iconic iPhone. Just a week prior, its market value had surpassed Microsoft Corp's and it became the most valuable technology company in history.

That was then. Since winning a landmark U.S. patent infringement case in August, its stock has dived 18 percent, wiping $108 billion from its value. But the shares of defeated party Samsung have surged, rising 16 percent.

The dramatic reversal has sparked raging market speculation. Some pundits say concerns are growing about the seemingly inexorable advance of Google Inc's Android, the rival software championed by Samsung. Others say fears about higher capital gains taxes have prompted investors made rich by Apple's stock-price growth to sell.

But it is the Apple-Samsung rivalry that defines a global mobile device industry with a growing list of struggling players. Together, the two mobile juggernauts account for more than 1 in 2 smartphonessold globally.

Analysts say Samsung is beginning to shed its aura as a "fast follower" and becoming a serious innovator, while Apple has failed to deliver on a truly seminal product in years - the oft-rumored Apple TV remains a well-honed rumor.

"Apple's actions have started to appear as if innovation is slowing and they're defending turf with a zero-sum market view rather than continuing to innovate as a world-beating leader," said Tony Nash, managing director at IHS, a business information provider.

The clash of the gadget titans underscores a broader battle between Apple and Google's increasingly popular Android mobile software, now installed on about two out of every three smartphones sold.

But some Asian analysts also point to Samsung's very different business model as helping it get a leg up on Apple.

The iPad maker's outsourcing structure provides fatter margins, but cedes some control to an army of suppliers, while Samsung's competitiveness is driven by keeping most of its manufacturing in-house.

And while Apple focuses on a few high-end mobile devices, Samsung's product breadth helps it scoop up new, less affluent users who can then be driven towards higher-margin devices, such as the phone-tablet combo Galaxy Note.

"In Asia, Samsung is still in the stronger growth position when it comes to smartphones - bringing large-screen models to the masses, re-introducing the pen with its Galaxy Note series and also, at the lower-end, with its entry-level Galaxy Y devices driving emerging markets like Indonesia and India," said Melissa Chau, Singapore-based research manager at IDC.

SAMSUNG SHIFT

No one is writing off Apple, still the world's most valuable listed company and expected to chalk up 27 percent revenue growth to almost $200 billion in fiscal 2013 - about level with Samsung.

"There have certainly been missteps at Apple ... but if we look at what's been achieved in the year since (co-founder Steve) Job's death, there are things that keep their competitors quaking in their boots," said Rachel Lashford, Managing Director, Mobile and APAC, at consultancy Canalys in Singapore.

Among its strengths, she cited unprecedented demand around new launches, the expansion of content on iTunes and the Apps Store, a possible move to product updates twice a year, efforts to improve parts supply and manufacturing, the dogged legal pursuit of Samsung and cash reserves of more than $120 billion.

Its gross margins of above 40 percent are double Samsung's.

But the South Korean company is now beginning to generate some buzz with recent improvements in its line-up. This week, news emerged that it is likely accelerating the launch of its next-generation flagship Galaxy smartphone - which sports an unbreakable screen.

Codenamed "Project J," the Galaxy S IV could be released as early as March or April, according to leading industry analysts and tech blogs. With smartphones increasingly looking alike, an unbreakable screen could be a big selling point for the Galaxy over the iPhone.

"Samsung's richer product line-up and vertically integrated supply structure are among its strongest advantages over Apple's simpler product range and strength in software," said Kim Young-chan, an analyst at Shinhan Investment Corp in Seoul.

Samsung is estimated to have shipped close to 56 million smartphones in July-September, more than double the number of iPhones, and analysts expect it to sell around 30 million more smartphones than Apple this quarter.

The South Korean firm's shift comes as its Cupertino, California-based rival suffered from some missteps in its iPhone 5 mapping app, supply constraints that have prompted delivery delays and allegations of employee abuse at supplier plants in China.

Charles Moon, Singapore-based principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, a research consultancy, sees these as a sign Apple is adjusting to maturing markets.

"A completely offensive strategy with uncontested gains are a thing of the past," he said. "Apple is not positioned well at the moment following a couple of disappointing quarters and continued negative news flow.

"Regardless of what happens (in the court ruling), Samsung and Android are winning where it counts - outside the courtroom - and this is likely to go on unless Apple can continue to reinvent itself. Very difficult, considering how far they've come, but not impossible. They've done it before," he added.

APPLE MISSTEPS

In the key battleground of China - the world's No. 1 cellphone market - Samsung and Android devices in general appear to be making headway against pricier Apple gadgets.

Third-quarter data shows Apple slid to sixth place in China, its largest market after the United States.Samsung kept top slot, according to research firm IDC, which estimated the Chinese smartphone market at a record of more than 60 million in July-September.

IDC analysts forecast a rebound for Apple with this month's iPhone 5 launch there, but it has so far failed to crack the country's largest carrier by far, China Mobile Ltd.

Apple's "loss of market share and of opportunities like a stalled China Mobile agreement are notable and, potentially, show some strengths of an integrated hardware-led model of players like Samsung against the comprehensive hardware-software ecosystem model of Apple," said Nash at IHS.

"This competition is far from over and my hope is that it forces very strong and continued innovation from Apple, Samsung and others."

Drone Pilots May Need Distractions

Distractions can be lethal while driving, but they may help when flying drones, researchers say.

Operating a drone such as the Predator may seem like playing a video game, involving a joystick to steer the unmanned aerial vehicle and firing missiles at targets seen on computer screens via a camera on the UAV. However, such adrenaline-charged moments are much rarer in real life than in video games. Drone operators, many of them seasoned fighter pilots, typically spend most of their shift just watching and waiting while automated systems keep the droid running. A shift for the operator of a Predator can involve up to 12 hours of such boredom.

"You might park a UAV over a house, waiting for someone to come in or come out, and that's where the boredom comes in," said researcher Missy Cummings, a systems engineer at MIT. "It turns out it's a much bigger problem in any system where a human is effectively baby-sitting the automation."

Such mind-numbing work can impair performance by making it difficult for an operator to leap into action when intervention is necessary. Cummings and her colleagues have been looking for ways to keep drone operators alert during tedious downtimes.

[Military Test: Drones Could Refuel Themselves Mid-Air]

"We need to accept that we're automating the world more and more, and a side effect of this increased automation is that people are going to be bored monitoring those systems," Cummings said. "But we still need smart people to monitor those systems when they fail; we need smart people to intervene when complex systems go wrong."

The researchers have found that most pilots operating a UAV simulation are less bored and perform better when they have some distractions, such as checking their cellphones, reading a book, or getting up to snack.

"We should think about sterile environments, workplaces where we tell people they can't play 'Angry Birds' on their iPhones during really dull and boring moments. When we're enforcing sterile environments, we're almost setting people up to fail," Cummings told LiveScience.

The scientists enrolled 30 volunteers to interact with a UAV simulation in four-hour shifts. Participants each had to monitor the activity of four drones and create "search tasks," or locations UAVs had to investigate. Once a UAV identified a target, volunteers labeled it hostile or friendly based on a color-coded system. The participants ordered UAVs to fire on hostile targets, destroying them and earning points in the simulation. The volunteers were videotaped to see when they were paying attention.

The volunteer who scored the highest during the experiment also was the one who paid the most attention. "She's the person we'd like to clone for a boring, low-workload environment," Cummings said.

However, the volunteers with the next-highest scores performed nearly as well even though they were distracted 30 percent of the time.

"We get bombarded in the news with studies that distractions are bad. Certainly for real-time control tasks such as driving, we're all in agreement, distractions are bad," Cummings said. "However, one of my issues are things like the Federal Aviation Administration's recent decision to fire an air traffic controller for watching movies at 2 a.m. to stay awake while waiting for something to happen. We want to think about how to keep people who work in low-task-load environments engaged so that when something does happen, they can respond appropriately."

While their simulation required human input only 5 percent of the time, the researchers discovered that most of the volunteer operators tried to work 11 percent of the time, showing they wanted more to do to keep from getting bored. This suggests that distractions or busywork once in a while may be good for productivity, by keeping operators engaged when they might otherwise lose focus.

"We know that pilots aren't always looking out the window, and we know that people don't always pay attention in whatever they're doing," Cummings said. "The question is, can you get people to pay attention enough, at the right time, to keep the system performing at a high degree?"

Personality may be another key to concentrating on drone work. Personality surveys of the volunteers  ranked them in five categories — extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience — and found that conscientiousness was a common trait among top performers.

Such conscientiousness may be a two-edged sword. Conscientious people may perform well in environments with relatively light workloads such as UAV operation, but they may hesitate when the time comes to fire a weapon.

"You could have a Catch-22," Cummings said. "If you're high on conscientiousness, you might be good to watch a nuclear reactor, but whether these same people would be effective in such military settings is unclear."

The researchers are continuing experiments to see what conditions might best keep boredom at bay. For instance, regular gentle reminders might help people keep alert. The scientists also are looking into the best length for shifts and the best time of day to hold them.

"We need people who can monitor these systems and intervene, but that might not be very often," Cummings said.

The research might have larger implications, such as for operating automated vehicles like the Google Driverless Car.

"People are already bored when they're driving, and they're going to be really bored when automation drives the car," Cummings said.

The scientists detailed their findings Nov. 14. Their research will appear in the journal Interacting with Computers.

Microsoft CEO sees company becoming more like Apple

Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has signaled a new direction for the world's largest software company, pointing to hardware and online services as its future, taking a page from long-time rival Apple Inc.

Ballmer's comments in his annual letter to shareholders published on Tuesday suggested that Microsoft may eventually make its own phones to build on its forthcoming own-brand Surface tablet PC and market-leading Xbox gaming console.

"There will be times when we build specific devices for specific purposes, as we have chosen to do with Xbox and the recently announced Microsoft Surface," wrote Ballmer.

The new approach mimics Apple Inc, whose massively successful iPhone and iPad demonstrated tight integration of high-quality software and hardware and made Windows devices feel clunky in comparison.

Ballmer, who took over as CEO from co-founder Bill Gates in 2000, said the company would continue to work with its traditional hardware partners, such as Dell Inc, Samsung and HTC, but he made it clear that Microsoft's role in the so-called 'ecosystem' was changing.

"It impacts how we run the company, how we develop new experiences, and how we take products to market for both consumers and businesses," he wrote.

Microsoft already makes money from providing services online, such as access to servers to enable 'cloud computing', or Web versions of its Office applications, but Ballmer's new emphasis suggests an acceleration away from its traditional business model of selling installed software.

"This is a significant shift, both in what we do and how we see ourselves — as a devices and services company," he added.

BONUS CLIPPED

Alongside the shareholders' letter, Microsoft's annual proxy filing, which deals with the shareholders' meeting and other governance issues, showed that Ballmer, 56, got a lower bonus than he did last year, partly for flat sales of Windows and his failure to ensure that the company provided a choice of browser to some European customers.

He earned a bonus of $620,000 for Microsoft's 2012 fiscal year, which ended in June, down 9 percent from the year before, according to documents filed on Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

His salary, which is low by U.S. standards for chief executives, remained essentially flat at $685,000.

It is the third year in a row that Ballmer has not earned his maximum bonus, set at twice his salary.

Microsoft's recent financial year was scarred by a $6.2 billion write-down for a failed acquisition and lower profit from its flagship Windows system as computer sales stood still.

In the company's filing, Microsoft's compensation committee said it took into account a 3 percent decline in Windows sales over the year, as well as "the Windows division failure to provide a browser choice screen on certain Windows PCs in Europe as required by its 2009 commitment with the European Commission."

Microsoft's failure to provide a browser choice in Europe was an embarrassing setback for the company, which has been embroiled in disputes with European regulators for more than a decade and paid more than $1 billion in fines for including its own Internet Explorer browser on Windows. It now faces further fines from a new investigation.

Separately, Microsoft said that independent lead director Reed Hastings, the CEO of online video rental company Netflix, would not seek reelection at the shareholder meeting in November. A new lead director will be chosen at the meeting, Microsoft said. Hastings, 51, said he wanted to focus on Netflix and his education work.

Google buying social-media startup Wildfire

Google is buying a company that specializes in social media marketing as it intensifies competition with Facebook for ad dollars and attention.

The company, Redwood City, Calif.-based Wildfire, helps businesses such as Cirque du Soleil and Spotify manage social media efforts across the Internet.

It's an important area for Google as people spend more time on social networks such as Facebook and as advertisers follow them. Google's social network, Google Plus, hasn't had the traction that Facebook Inc. enjoys. Wildfire will let Google play a role whether the ad campaign is on Google Plus, Facebook, Twitter or elsewhere.

Wildfire's co-founders and other staff will join Google Inc. The deal's financial details were not disclosed.

In recent months, Oracle Corp. and Salesforce.com Inc. also have reached deals to buy similar startups.

Blackberry maker loses patent suit over software

A federal jury in San Francisco has found beleaguered Blackberry maker Research in Motion Ltd. liable for $147.2 million in damages for infringing on patents held by Mformation Technologies Inc.

Amar Thakur, a lawyer for Mformation, said Saturday that the verdict late Friday followed a three-week trial and a week of deliberations by an eight-person jury.

Mformation, of Edison, N.J., sued Research in Motion in October 2008, alleging that Canada-based RIM infringed on its 1999 invention for remotely managing wireless devices. Mformation's software allows companies to remotely access employee cell phones to do software upgrades, change passwords or to wipe data from phones that have been stolen.

Officials at RIM, which has been struggling with plummeting sales, a declining stock and other problems, did not provide a comment Saturday.

Thakur said the jury ruled that Research in Motion should pay his client $8 for each of the 18.4 million Blackberrys that were connected to the Blackberry Enterprise Server, from the day the lawsuit was filed until the time of the trial. That's a total of $147.2 million.

He said the software at issue is the heart of the business of Mformation, a privately held company with several hundred employees.

"We believe it's been fundamental to the success of Research in Motion," Thakur told The Associated Press.

The patent at issue was filed in 2001 and issued in 2005, he said.

RIM, of Waterloo, Ontario, has previously denied it did anything wrong.

RIM has seen its business crumble as it increasingly loses market share. Today's consumers want smartphones that go far beyond handling e-mail and phone calls, with built-in cameras and other cool functions.

Particularly telling is the plunge in the Blackberry's U.S. market share. It's dropped from 41 percent in 2007, the year the first iPhone came out, to below 4 percent in the first three months of this year, according to research firm IDC.

Meanwhile, RIM will miss a chance to bounce back because of repeated delays on its BlackBerry 10 operating software, which is intended to help Blackberrys catch up to rivals such as the iPhone and smartphones running Google's Android software. Not only will devices with the new Blackberry software miss the crucial holiday shopping season, they'll have even more competition when they do go on sale, including a new iPhone expected from Apple this fall.

Last month, RIM reported weaker than expected results. For the quarter that ended on June 2, it lost $518 million, or 99 cents a share. Even after excluding impairment charges, the loss was 37 cents per share. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting a 3-cent per share loss. Revenue fell 43 percent to $2.8 billion, and RIM said it will be cutting 5,000 jobs, or 30 percent of its workforce.

Yahoo, Facebook strike patent truce, ad alliance

Facebook and Yahoo have agreed to settle a months-long patent dispute, averting a potentially expensive battle over the technology running two of the Internet's most popular destinations.

In dropping the lawsuits, the companies agreed to license their patents to each other and form an advertising and content-sharing alliance that expands their existing partnership. Friday's settlement involves no exchange of money.

Now that the antagonism is dissolving into an accord that could benefit both companies, the hundreds of millions of Web surfers who use both Yahoo and Facebook should find even more common ground on the two services..

The advertising alliance could help Yahoo recover some of the revenue that it has been losing as marketers shift more of their spending to a larger and more engaged audience on Facebook's online social network. Facebook, in turn, gains the opportunity to show the ads tailored to fit the individual interests of its 900 million users in other heavily trafficked areas besides its own website.

The truce ends a conflict provoked by Yahoo's short-lived CEO, Scott Thompson, who was dumped from the job two months ago after misinformation on his official biography raised questions about his integrity.

Under Thompson, Yahoo filed the patent lawsuit in March, wielding it as a weapon against a company that Thompson believed had been prospering from the ideas of its older rival. The complaint alleged that Facebook infringed on 10 Yahoo patents covering Internet advertising, privacy controls and social networks. Yahoo Inc. later added two more patents to the lawsuit.

But Thompson's attack on Facebook Inc. quickly turned into a public-relations disaster. Much of the technology industry railed against Yahoo's tactics. Critics viewed the lawsuit as a financial shakedown by a desperate company whose well of innovation had run dry.

New York venture capitalist Fred Wilson summed up the enmity toward Yahoo in an acerbic blog post that ended with this denouement: "I am writing this in outrage at Yahoo. I used to care about that company for some reason. No more. They are dead to me. Dead and gone. I hate them now."

When Yahoo replaced Thompson in May with interim CEO Ross Levinsohn, it opened the door for the company to settle the dispute under a reshuffled board of directors. Six of Yahoo's 11 directors joined the board after the patent suit was filed.

Yahoo's legal assault had exposed Facebook's vulnerability to patent claims as it prepared to complete the biggest initial public offering of stock by an Internet company. Facebook insulated itself by buying 750 patents from IBM Corp. for an undisclosed amount and spending $550 million to acquire another 650 patents that one of its biggest shareholders, Microsoft Corp., had purchased from AOL Inc. Armed with its own arsenal of intellectual property, Facebook signaled that it wasn't backing down and filed its own patent infringement lawsuit against Yahoo in April.

With Thompson out, Levinsohn quickly began working on a deal with Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg. The two issued statements Friday praising each other for working toward an agreement.

Yahoo already had been tying many of its services and content to Facebook before the lawsuit was filed. Now the two companies plan to display ads on each other's sites, while Yahoo plans to feed even more of its coverage of major events to the social network.

Although it has been growing at a robust clip, Facebook is still trying to win over skeptical investors. Doubts about the company's revenue potential have weighed on Facebook's stock, which has remained well below its IPO price of $38. The stock gained 26 cents, or nearly 1 percent, to close Friday at $31.73.

Yahoo is trying to snap out of a long-running financial funk brought up by Facebook's success and Google Inc.'s dominance of Internet search and advertising.

Yahoo has gone through four fulltime CEOs in five years in the hopes of engineering a turnaround and sparking revenue growth. The foibles have depressed Yahoo's stock, frustrating shareholders still angry about a squandered opportunity to sell the entire company to Microsoft in May 2008 for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share.

The stock dipped 7 cents to close at $15.78 Friday.

The Facebook pact may have pushed Levinsohn closer to being anointed as Yahoo's permanent CEO. Jason Kilar, CEO of online TV service Hulu, had been under serious consideration for the top job at Yahoo, but Hulu said Friday that he had decided not to pursue the position. The statement was issued in response to several published reports citing unnamed people who described Kilar as Levinsohn's primary competition for the Yahoo post.

Ice Cream Sandwich is the third favorite flavor of Android

Although Google continues to make improvements to its Android mobile operating system, users of devices designed to run it are still a few steps behind. According to the latest stats released by the search engine giant, only 10% of Android device owners are running version 4.0 of the software, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich.

The most-used variant, Gingerbread (Android 2.3), was released in December 2010 and has an install base of 64%. After that is Froyo (Android 2.2) at 17.3% and Eclair (Android 2.1) at 4.7%. Ice Cream Sandwich debuted in October 2011 on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and, according to Google, is compatible with any device that's able to run Gingerbread.

That said, there's a good reason why all those devices that should be able to run it aren't: fragmentation. Hardware manufacturers actually need to tweak Android releases in order to make them work with each individual device, which means that older handsets and tablets are pretty low on their priority lists. What's more, cellular carriers have to agree to roll out each version of Android to each device individually. Time will tell if Android 4.1, aka Jelly Bean — which made its debut on the new Nexus 7 tablet from Google — fares better in this regard than its frozen-snack-themed predecessor.

Microsoft debuts Windows Phone 8

Microsoft took the wraps off its next-generation mobile operating system Windows Phone 8 (codenamed Apollo) and revealed it would be arriving on brand new Nokia, Huawei Samsung and HTC phones soon.

Google unveils first tablet

Google Inc unveiled its first tablet PC on June 27, as the Internet company looks to replicate its smartphone success in a tablet market where it faces stiff competition from Apple Inc, Microsoft and Amazon.

Hugo Barra, Director of Google Product Management, holds up the new Google Nexus7 tablet at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, Wednesday, June 27, 2012.

Google's futuristic glasses move closer to reality

Google helped create a world brimming with digital distractions for people spending more of their lives tethered to the Internet. It's a phenomenon that seems unlikely to change so Google is working on a way to search for information, read text messages, watch online video and post photos on social networks without having to fumble around with a hand-held device.

The breakthrough is a wearable computer — a pair of Internet-connected glasses that Google Inc. began secretly building more than two years ago. The technology progressed far enough for Google to announce "Project Glass" in April. Now the futuristic experiment is moving closer to becoming a mass-market product.

Google announced Wednesday that it's selling a prototype of the glasses to U.S. computer programmers attending a three-day conference that ends Friday. Developers willing to pay $1,500 for a pair of the glasses will receive them early next year.

The company is counting on the programmers to suggest improvements and build applications that will make the glasses even more useful.

"This is new technology and we really want you to shape it," Google co-founder Sergey Brin told about 6,000 attendees. "We want to get it out into the hands of passionate people as soon as possible."

If all goes well, a less expensive version of the glasses is expected to go on sale for consumers in early 2014. Without estimating a price for the consumer version, Brin made it clear the glasses will cost more than smartphones.

"We do view this is as a premium sort of thing," Brin said during a question-and-answer session with reporters.

Brin acknowledged Google still needs to fix a variety of bugs in the glasses and figure out how to make the battery last longer so people can wear them all day.

Those challenges didn't deter Brin from providing conference attendees Wednesday with a tantalizing peek at how the glasses might change the way people interact with technology.

Google hired skydivers to jump out of a blimp hovering 7,000 feet above downtown San Francisco. They wore the Internet-connected glasses, which are equipped with a camera, to show how the product could unleash entirely new ways for people to share their most thrilling — or boring — moments. As the skydivers parachuted onto the roof of the building where the conference was held, the crowd inside was able to watch the descent through the skydivers' eyes as it happened.

"I think we are definitely pushing the limits," Brin told reporters after the demonstration. "That is our job: to push the edges of technology into the future."

The glasses have become the focal point of Brin's work since he stepped away from Google's day-to-day operations early last year to join the engineers working on ambitious projects that might once have seemed like the stuff of science fiction. Besides the Internet-connected glass, the so-called Google X lab has also developed a fleet of driverless cars that cruise roads. The engineers there also dream of building elevators that could transport people into space.

While wearing Google's glasses, directions to a destination or a text message from a friend can appear literally before your eyes. You can converse with friends in a video chat, take a photo without taking out a camera or phone or even buy a few things online as you walk around.

The glasses will likely be seen by many critics as the latest innovation that shortens attention spans and makes it more difficult for people to fully appreciate what's happening around them.

But Brin and the other engineers are hoping the glasses will make it easier for people to strike the proper balance between the virtual and physical worlds. If they realize their goal, it will seem odd in three or four years for people to be looking up and down on their phones when they could have all the digital tools they need in a pair of glasses

Isabelle Olsson, one of the engineers working on the project, said the glasses are meant to interact with people's senses, without blocking them. The display on the glasses' computer appears as a small rectangular on a rim above the right eye. During short test of the prototype glasses, a reporter for The Associated Press was able to watch a video of exploding fireworks on the tiny display screen while remaining engaged with the people around him.

The glasses seem likely to appeal to runners, bicyclists and other athletes who want to take pictures of their activities as they happen. Photos and video can be programmed to be taken at automatic intervals during any activity.

Brin said he became excited about the project when he tossed his son in the air and a picture taken by the glasses captured the joyful moment, just the way he saw it.

robotics technology ,won’t crush us… on accident, at least

Already created robots that are better at driving, cleaning, and detecting pollution than humans, so it was only a matter of time before they outpaced our sense of touch as well. The robotics masters at USC's Viterbi School of Engineering are working on tactile technology that allows robots to identify objects simply by grabbing them.

Using a robotic hand modeled after that of a human, the scientists overlaid rubberized "skin" capable of gripping delicate objects without crushing them. Using feedback from the fingertips — including resistance and friction readings — the robot can be trained to identify each item based on how they feel. Currently, the bot has 117 everyday materials in its memory banks, with more on the way.

The feature could be used in the future to allow robots to test consumer goods before sending them to market. Some day, a robot hand may judge the softness of your clothing, or even how ripe your vegetables are, before you ever see them in the store.

Poll: Half of Americans call Facebook a fad

Half of Americans think Facebook is a passing fad, according to the results of a new Associated Press-CNBC poll. And, in the run-up to the social network's initial public offering of stock, half of Americans also say the social network's expected asking price is too high.

The company Mark Zuckerberg created as a Harvard student eight years ago is preparing for what looks to be the biggest Internet IPO ever. Expected later this week, Facebook's Wall Street debut could value the company at $100 billion, making it worth more than Disney, Ford and Kraft Foods.

That's testament to the impressive numbers Facebook has posted in its relatively brief history. More than 40 percent of American adults log in to the site —to share news, personal observations, photos and more— at least once a week. In all, some 900 million people around the world are users. Facebook's revenue grew from $777 million in 2009 to $3.7 billion last year. And in the first quarter of 2012 it was more than $1 billion.

Just a third of those surveyed think the company's expected value is appropriate, while 50 percent say it is too high. Those who invest in the stock market are more likely to see shares as overvalued, 58 percent said so. About 3 in 10 investors say the expected value of shares is fair. Facebook on Tuesday lifted the expected price for its shares to $34 to $38 apiece from $28 to $35 each.

But price worries won't necessarily stop would-be investors. Half the people surveyed say they think Facebook is a good bet, while 31 percent do not. The rest aren't sure. Americans who invest in stocks roughly agree, although investors who are more "active" — those who have changed their holdings in the past month —are more negative. Nearly 40 percent say Facebook would not be a good investment.

Young adults, a majority of whom log on to Facebook daily, are more willing to dance to their hoodie-wearing piper, 28-year-old CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Among Zuckerberg's peers, adults under age 35, 59 percent say Facebook is a good bet. Compare that to the views of senior citizens: Only 39 percent age 65 and over say Facebook shares are a good investment. Nearly half of Gen X'ers (ages 35-44) say the company is a good bet, as do 55 percent of middle-aged people.

Those under 35 are the generation most interested in Facebook's IPO because they've grown up immersed in the social network. They were the first users, logging in from their college dorm rooms. Later, Facebook expanded to allow high school-age and even younger students to sign up. It's become an integral part of their lives, giving them a launching pad to spread the news of life's major developments through posts and pictures.

Conversely, it's the rare senior citizen on Facebook: Just 21 percent have an account. Half of baby boomers — the generation born in the years after World War II — have one. But most of the 56 percent of the country that's on Facebook is young — two-thirds of Gen X'ers and a staggering 81 percent of people 18-35 use the social networking site.

Young people aren't just connected. They are constantly tethered to smartphones, tablets and notebook computers. Even with the rise of alternative social networks like Twitter and Google Plus, 55 percent of Zuckerberg's peers go on Facebook every day. A third log on several times a day. Despite the intensity of their use, a narrow majority of young adults predict Facebook's appeal will fade down the road (51 percent), fewer think it will stick around as a service (44 percent).

The public overall is similarly divided on the company's future. Just under half of adults (46 percent) predict a short timeline for Facebook, while 43 percent say it has staying power.

Young people are more aware of Zuckerberg and have more positive views of the CEO, who celebrated his 28th birthday on Monday. Overall, one in five Americans say they've never heard of him, 30 percent don't have an opinion and 14 percent plain don't like him. Only about a third have a good impression of the CEO, who has alienated some with Facebook's ever-changing approach to user privacy.

But 46 percent of people under 35 like him. And a scant 4 percent of those younger adults say they've never heard of him.

The privacy issue is a stinger. Three of every five Facebook users say they have little or no faith that the company will protect their personal information. Only 13 percent trust Facebook to guard their data, and only 12 percent would feel safe making purchases through the site. Even Facebook's most dedicated users are wary — half of those who use the site daily say they wouldn't feel safe buying things on the network.

As for how Facebook makes most of its money —selling ads— 57 percent of users say they never click on them or on Facebook's sponsored content. About another quarter say they rarely do.

Despite user discontent about privacy, Facebook and Zuckerberg have connected with many Americans. The survey suggests that his reputation and youth seem more like assets than liabilities. For those who have heard of the CEO, two-thirds are at least somewhat confident in his ability to run a large public company. Twenty-two percent doubt he can handle the leadership role. As for the social network he created, 51 percent of Americans clicked "Like."

The Associated Press-CNBC Poll was conducted May 3-7, 2012 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,004 adults nationwide and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

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Fans, entrepreneurs among first buyers of new iPad

Apple's latest iPad drew the customary lines of die-hard fans looking to be first and entrepreneurs looking to make a quick profit.

Many buyers lined up for hours, and in some cases overnight, as thetablet computer went on sale in the U.S. and nine other countries. They did so even though Apple started accepting online orders a week ago.

The new, third model comes with a faster processor, a much sharper screen and an improved camera, though the changes aren't as big as the upgrade from the original model to the iPad 2.

As with the previous models, prices start at $499 in the U.S.

"I don't think it's worth the price but I guess I'm a victim of society," Athena May, 21, said in Paris.

Dan Krolikowski, 34, was first in line at a Madison, Wis., mall. He arrived 14 hours before the store's opening and was buying an extra one to sell on the "gray market."

"Last year I sold one on eBay and made over $500 in profit," Krolikowski said, leaning back in a reclining lawn chair he brought. "I'm hoping to do that again this year."

Those who ordered iPads online started getting them delivered Friday. However, Apple now says there's a two- to three-week shipping delay for online orders. There's also demand in countries where the new iPad isn't available yet.

In Hong Kong, a steady stream of buyers picked up their new devices at preset times at the city's soleApple store after entering an online lottery.

The system, which required buyers to have local ID cards, helped thwart visitors from mainland China, Apple's fastest growing market. A release date in China has not yet been announced. Apple will begin selling the iPad in 25 additional countries next Friday, mostly in Europe.

At Apple's flagship retail store on New York's Fifth Avenue, the composition of the line, and the way many customers were paying for two iPads each with wads of cash, suggested that many of the tablets were destined to be resold abroad.

The gadget also drew entrepreneurs of a dubious nature. In Orlando, Fla., authorities arrested a Best Buy employee and a former worker early Thursday on accusations they schemed to rob a store at gunpoint and steal more than $1 million in iPads and other Apple products, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

About 450 people lined up outside Apple's Ginza store in downtown Tokyo. Some had spent the night sleeping outside the store.

Dipak Varsani, 21, got in line in London at 1 a.m. Thursday local time and said he was drawn by the new device's better screen.

"You've got clearer movies and clearer games," he said. "I use it as a multimedia device."

Despite competition from cheaper tablet computers such as Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle Fire, the iPad remains the most popular tablet computer. Apple Inc. has sold more than 55 million iPads since its debut in 2010.

Apple says the iPad is propelling us into a "post-PC era," with computers that work very differently from the traditional laptops and desktops.

Two years after the debut of the first iPad, the device's launch has become the second-biggest "gadget event" of the year, after the annual iPhone release. In Atlanta, one kid in line carried a sign that read "Happy iDay!"

Many said they lined up for the atmosphere, rather than ordering online.

"Sure, it's a marketing ploy, but I still love the experience," said Pam Johnson, 58, a Portage, Wis., writer who traveled about an hour to the Madison store. "You have great conversations. You learn a lot. You don't get that when you just sit at home and wait for it to be delivered to your doorstep."

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Google versus Facebook

Google Inc. is taking the threat posed by Facebook Inc.'s Internet social network more seriously since co-founder Larry Page returned as CEO a year ago. Although Facebook is far smaller than Google, Page is worried the social network is gaining valuable insight into its users' lives that could lure away online advertisers.

Here's how the two companies compare, based on the latest available data:

ANNUAL REVENUE: Google, $38 billion; Facebook, $3.7 billion.

ADVERTISING REVENUE: Google, $36.5 billion; Facebook, $3.2 billion.

ANNUAL NET INCOME: Google, $9.7 billion; Facebook, $668 million.

SOCIAL NETWORKING USERS: Facebook, 845 million; Google, more than 100 million.

EMPLOYEES: Google, 32,500; Facebook, 3,200.

CEO: Google, co-founder Larry Page; Facebook, co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.

iPad dominates due to Apple's supply deals

Apple certainly has lots of buzz and corporate cache behind its products, but there's a hidden — almost mundane — reason its newest iPad is likely to dominate the competition: the advantageous deals the company cuts with components manufacturers.

Apple's size, and the fact that the iPad shares components with the highly popular iPhone, means that the company can buy crucial parts such as processing chips and display screens at lower prices. Any company that wants to make a tablet computer that matches the iPad's $499 starting price has to endure higher costs.

As a result, Apple's tablet-making competitors have flailed — and failed. And with the new iPad, Apple is expected to extend its 62 percent market share in the tablet computer category it created. IMS Research expects Apple to capture 70 percent of the market this year.

A year ago, scores of companies all thought they had a shot at emulating Apple's success. More than 100 tablet models were on display at the annual consumer electronics trade show in Las Vegas in January 2011. Many of them ran on the Android operating system, developed by Silicon Valley powerhouse Google.

As the year progressed, those dreams crumbled. The iPad 2, launched in March, proved nearly unassailable.

A big part of the reason was that Apple has priced the iPad aggressively. At just under $500 for the basic model, Apple's profit margin on the device is lower than on the iPhone, a smaller device for which it charges phone companies a wholesale rate of $600 or more.

On Wednesday, Apple stuck to that price point when it unveiled the new iPad model. It has a screen that displays sharper images and deeper, more vibrant colors to set it apart from the competition. The new tablet goes on sale March 16 in the U.S. and several other countries.

Apple has other advantages, too. The company sells about a third of all iPads in its own stores or from its website. By cutting out the middleman, Apple is able to keep more of the slim profit margin for itself.

Because it produces tens of millions of iPads and uses some of the same components as the highly popular iPhone, Apple can buy crucial components such as chips and displays at lower prices.

According to research firm IHS iSuppli, Apple is the world's largest buyer of the microprocessor chips that serve as the "brains" of various devices. In January 2011, Apple said it had spent $3.9 billion on long-term contracts to secure supplies for two years of a "very strategic" component it wouldn't name. Few other companies are able to commit that much money.

Many suppliers are happy to sell to Apple, given the company's success in mobile products. ARM Holdings PLC, a British chip-maker that licenses the technology used in iPhone and iPad chips, for instance, saw its stock rise nearly 4 percent Thursday, a day after Apple unveiled iPads with faster processors. Other Apple suppliers, including Cirrus Logic Inc., Jabil Circuit Inc. and Skyworks Solutions, have all experienced healthy stock gains in recent months.

The iPad's pricing created an odd situation. Usually, the first gadget of its kind to hit the market is expensive. Competition then gradually brings prices down.

With the iPad, the reverse happened: Competing products from makers such as Samsung Electronics Co. and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. were more expensive, at least for the first year.

The most extreme example of a tablet failure comes from Research In Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry.

In late 2010, RIM's co-CEO at the time, Jim Balsillie, said interest in the planned PlayBook tablet was "really overwhelming," particularly from corporate customers, a key market for BlackBerry phones. In March, just before it launched, Balsillie said the PlayBook "may well be the most significant development for RIM since the launch of the first BlackBerry device back in 1999."

But the PlayBook was widely panned because of its software, which RIM had put together. It was also expensive. It cost the same as an entry-level iPad 2 despite being half as big.

When sales failed to materialize, RIM had to slash the price of the PlayBook from $500 to $200. It ended up taking a pre-tax charge of $485 million for the declining value of its inventory.

Other manufacturers slashed prices too, culminating in a "fire sale" during the recent holiday season, said Rhoda Alexander, an analyst who covers tablets for IHS iSuppli.

"Those price discounts have come out of the profit margin, to a large degree," she said.

Hewlett-Packard Co., meanwhile, left the market completely. In August, it decided to discontinue the fledging TouchPad tablet along with its line of smartphones, despite great reviews for the in-house software running them.

Samsung has been one of the survivors, selling 6.1 million tablets last year, according to IHS iSuppli. That makes it the second largest tablet maker after Apple, with a market share of 9 percent compared with Apple's 62 percent. Samsung is also one of the world's leading makers of smartphones, chips and display screens. The company is, therefore, big enough to capture some of the advantages that Apple has as a buyer of components in bulk.

Samsung has put out a bevy of tablets in different screen sizes, hoping to capture buyers, who for one reason or another, want something other than the 9.7-inch screen of the iPad.

In November, another successful challenger appeared: Amazon.com Inc. The Internet retailer figured out that people would buy a device other than an iPad if the price was considerably lower. It put together a Spartan tablet with a minimum of frills and started selling it at $199. Amazon doesn't make a profit on its Kindle Fire, according to IHS iSuppli, but it hopes the device will help boost sales of movies, music and electronic books at its online store.

Analysts estimate that Amazon sold 3.9 million to 6 million Kindle Fires in the first six weeks, making it the third-largest seller of tablets last year. Looking solely at the last three months of 2011, Amazon beat Samsung as the second-largest seller of tablets.

Barnes & Noble Inc. adopted a similar strategy and was also successful, at least considering that it's a bookseller venturing into consumer electronics. It updated its Nook Color e-reader to make it more of a general-purpose device and called it the Nook Tablet. ISuppli estimates that it sold 3.3 million Nook tablets last year.

During this year's holiday shopping season, a new raft of challengers will appear: tablets powered by Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 8. Microsoft has provided software for PC-style tablets before, but they've never been more than a niche product. Now, the company is creating a version of Windows that runs on phone-style processors such as those used in the iPad. Reviews of the pre-production software have been positive. It will allow users to do some things they can't on an iPad, such as running two applications side by side on the same screen.

Apple's China legal battle over iPad spreads to U.S.

A Chinese firm trying to stop Apple Inc from using the iPad name in China has launched an attack on the consumer electronics giant's home turf, filing a lawsuit in California that accuses it of employing deception when it bought the trademark.

A unit of Proview International Holdings Ltd, a major computer monitor maker that fell on hard times during the global financial crisis, is already suing Apple in multiple Chinese jurisdictions and requesting that sales of iPads be suspended across the country.

Last week, Proview Electronics Co Ltd and Proview Technology Co filed a lawsuit in Santa Clara County that brings their legal dispute to Silicon Valley.

Some legal experts said there could be different outcomes from the U.S. and Chinese cases, but a spreading of the lawsuit and delay in coming to settlement terms could hurt Apple more.

"In relation to the U.S., Apple is going to somewhat have a homeground advantage," said Elliot Papageorgiou, a Shanghai-based partner and executive at law firm Rouse Legal (China).

At stake for Apple is its sales and shipments in China, where its CEO Tim Cook said it was merely scratching the surface. Debt-laden Proview International, meanwhile, needs to come up with a viable rescue plan before mid-2012 or else it faces delisting from the Hong Kong stock exchange.

"Given the current timeline, Apple would have the greater impetus to come to settlement simply because the ability to disrupt shipments is more immediate than the pressure faced by Proview and its potential delisting," said Papageorgiou.

Proview accuses Apple of creating a special purpose entity -- IP Application Development Ltd, or IPAD -- to buy the iPad name from it, concealing Apple's role in the matter.

In its filing, Proview alleged lawyers for IPAD repeatedly said it would not be competing with the Chinese firm, and refused to say why they needed the trademark.

Those representations were made "with the intent to defraud and induce the plaintiffs to enter into the agreement," Proview said in the filing dated February 17, requesting an unspecified amount of damages.

Apple on Friday reiterated its statement saying that it had bought Proview's worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in 10 different countries several years ago. It also said that Proview had refused to honor their agreement and a Hong Kong court had sided with the U.S. technology giant in the matter.

"Our case is still pending in mainland China," Apple said.

DISPUTE HINGES ON 2009 DEAL

The battle between a little-known Asian company and the world's most valuable technology corporation dates back to a disagreement over precisely what was covered in a deal for the transfer of the iPad trademark to Apple in 2009.

Authorities in several Chinese cities, such as Shijiazhuang and Huizhou, have already banned the sale of iPads, citing the legal dispute.

Proview, which maintains it holds the iPad trademark in China, has been suing Apple in various jurisdictions in the country for trademark infringement, while also using the courts to get retailers in some smaller cities to stop selling the tablet PCs.

Major electronics retailer Suning has resumed selling iPads online this week in China after it stopped sales last week due to a supply shortage, rather than because of the lawsuit, company executives said.

China is becoming an increasingly pivotal market for Apple, which sold more than 15 million iPads worldwide in the last quarter alone and is trying to expand its business in the world's No. 2 economy to sustain its rip-roaring pace of growth.

It now has a 76 percent market share in China's tablet PC sector, followed by Lenovo Group Ltd and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd that have a combined share of only 10 percent, data from research firm IDC showed.

The country is also where the majority of its iPhones and iPads are now assembled, in partnership with Taiwan's Foxconn.

A Shanghai court this week threw out Proview's request to halt iPad sales in the city. But the outcome of the broader dispute hinges on a higher court in Guangdong, which earlier ruled in Proview's favor.

The next hearing in that case is set for February 29. Proview lawyers said there might not be a decision immediately and it could take weeks or months before there was an outcome.

"It is more appropriate for both parties to mediate. I think that is the best outcome," David Chen, senior partner at Allbright Law Offices in Shanghai.

China's trademark system is a minefield of murky rules and opportunistic "trademark squatters" that even the world's biggest companies and their highly-paid lawyers find hard to navigate.

Legal experts say the onus is on companies looking to do business in China to understand how China's trademark law works, as it differs greatly from that of the United States.

Industry executives have said employing special-purpose entities to acquire trademarks is a frequent tactic in China.