Macbook Air could be grounded
Seagate may sue over SSD patents
SEAGATE CEO Bill Watkins has said that if the current rash of notebooks using Solid State Drives (SSD) catches the imagination and the credit cards of the laptop-buying public, his legal department may well have to get involved.
Big Tech Bog reports that Watkins thinks Seagate holds patents which could leave the likes of Samsung, Apple and Intel in a spot of bother. With SSD still prohibitively expensive, the current market and margins for these drives is still relatively small, restricted, as it is, to just a handful of über-laptops including Apple's anorexic Macbook Air and Lenovo's relatively portly X300.
But if the SSD v HDD battle really hots up, and prices of the newer, smaller, faster and cooler technology do start to pick up as most tech analysts are predicting, then the gloves could be off. µ
Comments
show me your patents or take a hike
This is FUD, they give no details... the only strength it has is that people publish it! If I threaten to sue Oracle with some secret patents I have if there next financial report ends in an even number will you publish that too?Oh and the "if ssd's become popular" stuff is just crap! If they had a patent they would use it now otherwise there shareholders would string them up for wasting time and money and loosing strength in the case.
Please only publish real news and ALWAYS mention the ASUS eee when you talk about SSD because they are cool!
Margins low ?
'With SSD still prohibitively expensive, the current market and margins for these drives is still relatively small'Sorry, I was under the impression that margins were high on new (read expensive) products and come down with increased competition/lower prices....?
Mugs, sorry consumers, are always prepared to pay higher (relative) prices to be first in the queue for new technology....
Blah
F*** the Cakbook Air. It's not the first thing to have a SSD in by a long shot. Or the most popular thing.No one buys these gimmicks anyway. Why always mention Apple products when a piece of hardware remotely relates to them?
@tom carbert-allen
Actually, it's highly likely that they would only sue provided enough units were sold. If they sue when only a few units are sold, the damages rewarded are likely to be considerably less than the legal fees required. However, if they sue after mass uptake, then the damages rewarded could well be hundreds or thousands of times the legal fees.Seagate Patents
I'll trust the likes of Seagate to backup their words with patents then someone like SCO :)