Nokia might not be able to make more smartphones, but it still owns a sizable amount of related patents, which it licenses to various companies-- with LG being the latest to pay royalties for in order to use.
"We are pleased to welcome LG Electronics to our licensing program," Nokia says. "We've worked constructively with LG Electronics and agreed to a mutually beneficial approach, including the use of independent arbitration to resolve any differences. This agreement sets the scene for further collaboration between our companies in future."
LG is actually the first company to join the patent licensing program since the Nokia devices and services business was sold off to Microsoft for $7.2 billion back in 2014.
Well, we say "most" flavors of Apple device-- the Apple TV was notably absent from WWDC, a curious occurrence considering how busy the rumour mill was with speculation involving the STB getting a major update or two.
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi makes a first entry in European retail with an online store offering a "beta test sale" of four products consisting of the Mi Band fitness tracker, Mi headphones and two USB power packs.
Samsung Electronics has released its unaudited accounts for Q1 2015, and confirmed its continuing decline, but with some signs of a reversal in sight. Notably the next generation Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge did not ship during the quarter, suggesting a recovery is possible in Q2. However China continues to be a challenge for the company, and the overall balance appears to be swinging back towards its OEM businesses.
Apple and Samsung used to be iPhone manufacturing allies, but Steve Jobs dropped lucrative supply contracts to instead engage in seemingly eternal patent spats, all part of the late CEO's war against Android. However current Apple boss Tim Cook appears to have a softer view of the Korean titan-- in August 2014 the two companies agreed to start burying the legal war hatchet (by "drop[ping] all litigation between the two companies outside the United States”), and now Samsung is reportedly back in the iPhone component game.
