Oracle wants a big piece of Android’s ad revenue
Oracle (ORCL) is known for some epic lawsuits, often throwing its weight around in California courtrooms over software licensing and patents. Coming off a recent victory against SAP (SAP), Oracle’s throwdown against Google (GOOG) is just getting warmed up, as the software maker seeks billions in damages over claims that Android software uses technology related to the Java programming language. It’s a drama that’s been building its plot since Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems, and Java along with it. The full extent of Oracle’s claims were finally disclosed yesterday in a San Francisco federal court, when the company sought to prevent Google from filing under seal documents in the case stating Oracle’s monetary claims.
Google’s fighting back, especially since Oracle’s looking to get royalty payments from Android-related ad revenue. The mobile platform owner has called out Oracle’s expert testimony as inflated, saying that “Oracle’s ‘methodology’ for calculating damages is based on fundamental legal errors and improperly inflates their estimates.”
Next Nexus 4G goes button-less?
While Oracle seeks royalties, Google is steadily working on its next Android device. Speculation around the next Nexus phone are running high, with the latest rumors suggesting that the presumed Nexus 4G will do away with hardware buttons. With the expectation that the next Google phone will run Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), a combo of Android’s smartphone and tablet OS, it wouldn’t be entirely surprising for the now familiar home, menu, back and search buttons to become part of the software. But those buttons are an important distinction between Android and iOS devices, and I find them a comforting necessity for touch-based devices.
(Source: androidapps.com)
