Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. et al
Filing
502
Administrative Motion to File Under Seal filed by Apple Inc.. (Attachments: #1 Declaration, #2 Proposed Order, #3 Exhibit Apple's Opposition to Samsung's Motion to Compel, #4 Mazza Decl ISO Apple's Opposition to Samsung's Motion to Compel, #5 Ex. 1 to Mazza Decl ISO Apple's Opposition to Samsung's Motion to Compel, #6 Ex. 2 to Mazza Decl ISO Apple's Opposition to Samsung's Motion to Compel, #7 Proposed Order Denying Samsung's Motion to Compel, #8 Apple's Opposition to Samsung's Motion to Permit Samsung's Expert Itay Sherman to Review Design Materials Designated Under the Protective Order, #9 Kim Declaration ISO Apple's Opposition to Samsung's Motion to Permit Samsung's Expert Itay Sherman to Review Design Materials Designated Under the Protective Order, #10 Ex. 1 to the Kim Declaration, #11 Ex. 2 to the Kim Declaration, #12 Ex. 3 to the Kim Declaration, #13 Ex. 4 to the Kim Declaration, #14 Ex. 5 to the Kim Declaration, #15 Ex. 6 to the Kim Declaration, #16 Ex. 7 to the Kim Declaration, #17 Ex. 8 to the Kim Declaration, #18 Ex. 9 to the Kim Declaration, #19 Proposed Order Denying Samsung's Motion to Permit Samsung's Expert Itay Sherman to Review Design Materials Designated Under the Protective Order)(Hung, Richard) (Filed on 12/15/2011)
Exhibit 9
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Published by MIT
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Rethinking the Cell Phone
An Israeli startup has made a modular mobile phone that can work on its own or slip into other
electronic devices. Will it catch on?
By Kate Greene
If you could reduce a mobile phone to its essence, it would look like the Modu. This tiny phone,
which is slightly larger than a domino, is capable of sending and receiving calls and text
messages. It can store contacts and MP3s with up to 16 gigabytes of storage capacity, and it has
a small but usable screen and a sparse keypad that lacks numbers. Launched this week at the
Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Modu can be used as a stand-alone phone. But more
important, it can also be slipped into a variety of "jackets," such as in-car MP3 players, Global
Positioning Systems, and larger cell phones, that expand the Modu's functions and change its
look.
Modu Mobile, the Israeli startup that launched the phone, is hoping to change the way that
consumers think about their handhelds, explains Itay Sherman, the company's chief technology
officer. Today, people generally have one phone that they use all the time, and they use it for a
year or two because it's too expensive to buy a new model more frequently. But Sherman says
that the idea of one phone for all occasions doesn't mesh with people's lifestyle. Sometimes you
want to walk around with the smallest possible phone, he says; other times you want a good
messaging device with a large keyboard, or a media player with a large screen. "Instead of buying
a completely new phone, the jacket enables you to switch."
In making the Modu, Sherman says, there were a number of technical considerations. While
semiconductor technology is at the point where chips are small enough to easily fit into the mini
mobile, his team also had to shrink the phone's other features, such as the screen, keypad, and
battery. The display, for instance, needed to be specially designed: it uses organic light-emitting
diodes and is a mere one millimeter thick. (See "Super-Vivid, Super-Efficient Displays.") Knowing
that it would be impractical to put a full, numbered keypad on the Modu, Sherman says, his team
designed a simpler keypad that lets people access menus on the screen, similar to those of MP3
players. The lithium-ion polymer battery, which uses the same basic technology as traditional
phone batteries, was customized to be thin and long, while still providing about 3 hours of talk
time and 100 hours of standby.
Once a user plugs the Modu into a jacket, however, the features improve. "The jacket may also
have a battery," says Sherman, and the combined device shares the load between the two
batteries. "It extends the talk time and standby time."
One of the main innovations, says Sherman, is that the software that runs the Modu automatically
reconfigures when it is put in another device. A resource file defines the way the Modu and jacket
will work together. "Every jacket you plug into, you'll get a completely different experience, yet it
keeps the basic functionality in all cases so that it's familiar to the user," he says.
Beyond cell-phone jackets, Modu Mobile will offer other consumer-electronics devices in which
the phone module can be inserted, improving the basic functions of the device. For instance, a
camera with the Modu could wirelessly send pictures to other phones, and a car entertainment
system designed for the Modu could let a user access his MP3s while enabling hands-free calling.
This isn't the first time that consumer-electronics companies have tried to build modular phones,
says Avi Greengart, the research director for mobile devices at Current Analysis, a market
research firm. He points to IXI Mobile, the maker of the Ogo mobile messenger. "It had the notion
of connecting multiple devices together via Bluetooth," he explains. A user would have a basic
storage module and then connect to a large display or media player. However, the technology
didn't catch on because few people think to buy a shell of a media player and then the other
pieces to make it work, Greengart says.
Greengart is skeptical that the Modu will take off. "It makes sense on paper, but in the past, every
effort to create modular types of devices has failed because [the companies] miss the way
consumers actually buy products," he says. "It requires a change in consumer behavior ...
Consumers don't buy [multiple] modules at once or have the foresight to know that they're going
to want more ... down the road."
Modu Mobile hopes to buck the trend by getting people used to thinking in terms of jackets and
the Modu. "We want to educate the market on the flexibilities and offerings," says Sherman. The
company's first products will be available in October in Italy, Russia, and Israel. The initial
package, which will include the Modu and two phone jackets, will cost 200 euros, an amount that
the company expects will be subsidized by cell-phone carriers. In 2009, the company will extend
to operators in the rest of Europe and in the United States, Sherman says.
Greengart admits that by inking deals with major carriers in the three initial countries, Modu
Mobile has overcome one of the hurdles in making a marketable phone. "Oftentimes, the biggest
challenge with a mobile device is just getting it in front of the consumers," he says. "They have
carriers in Israel, Italy, and Russia. We'll see how much weight they put behind it."
The Modu is a different idea, and "the industry could use more 'different,'" Greengart says. But it
will be hard for the company to gain traction in the mobile market and, especially, compete with
Apple's popular iPhone. "I hate to say it because it sounds cliché," admits Greengart, "but no
matter what jacket you slip this thing into, it's not going to be an iPhone."
Copyright Technology Review 2011.
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