Federal Bill Would Mandate Anti-Theft ‘Kill Switch’ in All Smartphones

Following last week’s introduction of a California State bill that would require all cellular phones sold in the state to include antitheft technology, four senators have today introduced (via Re/code) The Smartphone Theft Prevention Act, a similar federal bill that would mandate the inclusion of such a “kill switch” in all smartphones sold across the country.

The bill would require smartphones to be equipped with both a kill switch to make a lost or stolen device inoperable and a system allowing consumers to remotely wipe their personal data.

“This legislation will help put consumers in control of their cell phone data through a ‘kill switch’ to immediately disable a stolen phone. Victims of cell phone theft should be able to fight back so they aren’t victimized again through data and identity theft. And thieves should know that whenever they steal a cell phone, they won’t be able to use it or sell it.”

Introduced by U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar, Barbara Mikulski, Richard Blumenthal, and Maize Hirono, the act is also supported by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, who have both been highly vocal about decreasing smartphone theft through a kill switch system built into smartphones.

As with the California bill, it is likely that Apple’s Activation Lock, introduced alongside iOS 7, satisfies the listed requirements. Activation Lock effectively disables a stolen smartphone by preventing it from being wiped and reactivated without an Apple ID and password. Apple’s Find My iPhone also allows for devices to be remotely wiped and locked.

Cellular industry group CTIA has already spoken out against the newly introduced legislation, calling on lawmakers to criminalize tampering with mobile device identifiers rather than requiring cell phone manufacturers to build kill switches into their devices.

“Rather than impose technology mandates, a better approach would be to enact Senator Schumer’s legislation to criminalize tampering with mobile device identifiers. This would build on the industry’s efforts to create the stolen device databases, give law enforcement another tool to combat criminal behavior, and leave carriers, manufacturers, and software developers free to create new, innovative loss and theft prevention tools for consumers who want them.”

The CTIA has long opposed kill switches and instead supports a nationwide database of stolen phones as an alternative solution. Though a database of stolen phones was created in cooperation with the four major U.S. carriers in 2012, it is said to be largely ineffectual.

Apple Sold More Macs and iDevices Than All Windows PCs Sold in Holiday Quarter

Apple sold more iPhones, Macs, iPads and iPod Touch devices than the total number of computers sold by the entire Windows PC industry in the holiday quarter, according to research done by analyst Benedict Evans. According to the data, it’s the first time that Apple has surpassed the PC market in hardware sales.

The company has long said that it believes the tablet market will eventually be larger than the PC market. If iPhones are considered, Apple’s iOS ecosystem alone — never mind its Mac sales — is already very close to surpassing the PC market in unit sales, and perhaps even in dollar sales as well.

Two years ago, we noted that Apple’s hardware ecosystem — the iPhone, iPad and Mac — had a combined average selling price well above that of the PC market as a whole, and that statistic remains accurate to this day. For the just-ended holiday quarter, Apple saw an average hardware selling price of $584 across the iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Mac lines, according to MacRumors research.

For the third quarter of 2013, the most recent quarter with data available, the average Windows PC sold for just $544.30. This suggests that not only is Apple selling more devices than the entire Windows PC market, but it is making more revenue as well.

Apple Marketing Chief Phil Schiller to Testify Again in Upcoming Apple vs. Samsung Case [iOS Blog]

Apple’s Chief of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller, will be among the witnesses that both Apple and Samsung lawyers plan to call to the stand when the two companies return to court in March, reports PCWorld. The second trial will cover newer products that were not able to be included in the first jury trial.

Phil Schiller was first called as a witness during the initial patent dispute between Samsung and Apple in 2012, and again in a damages retrial that took place in November of 2013. Schiller told the jury Samsung made it “much harder” for Apple to market and sell its devices. Samsung made it “harder for us to get new customers and bring them into our ecosystem,” he said.

In the second trial, Schiller will be asked to testify on several different aspects of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod, including design, development, and marketing.

“Mr. Schiller will be called to testify regarding design, development, promotion, marketing, advertising, consumer demand for, and sales of the iPhone, iPad, iPod, and other Apple products, including the features accused of infringing the Samsung feature patents, the smartphone and tablet markets, the Apple brand and Apple’s marketing and advertising efforts,” Samsung said in a filing Thursday with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Samsung also plans to call Hiroshi Lockheimer, VP of engineering at Google, and Todd Pendleton, Samsung’s marketing chief for its U.S. telecoms division. As for Apple, along with Schiller, the company expects to call Tony Blevins, VP of procurement; Gregory Christie, VP of human interface; Bruce Watrous, its chief IP lawyer; and possibly Scott Forstall, Apple’s former SVP of iOS software.

Following the conclusion of the initial patent dispute that covered older devices from both Samsung and Apple and the subsequent damages retrial to redetermine a portion of the reward, Samsung was ordered to pay Apple $890 million.

This second trial covers newer devices, such as the Galaxy Note, the Galaxy S III, the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the iPhone 4/4s/5, the iPad 2/3/4, and the iPad mini. As with the former trial, both Apple and Samsung are accusing each other of patent infringement, and laid out a list of asserted patents earlier this month.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung Electronics CEO Oh-Huyn Kwon are scheduled to attend a mediation meeting ahead of the trial, but if an agreement is not reached, the trial will proceed in March.