LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – A small electronics company that few in the US have ever heard of is now claiming that ASUS’s PadFone and PadFone 2 violate its patents for a laptop/cell phone combo device. The plaintiff, ExoTablet Ltd., of London, U.K., recently filed its first salvo, in what is expected to be a larger patent infringement battle with Taiwanese multinational electronics maker ASUS, against popular US electronics reseller Negri Electronics.

Ryan Negri, CEO of Negri Electronics, confirms the company has been named as the first defendant in the ASUS patent infringement case. He warns other US retailers that they too could become litigation targets for ExoTablet and to refer all calls from that company to an attorney.

“We were extremely surprised by this proxy legal action by ExoTablet Ltd., whose real target is ASUS’s mobile products line, and do not feel that we have violated any US laws by offering the PadFone and PadFone 2 for sale in the US,” Negri said. “We believe this lawsuit to be frivolous and without any merit whatsoever, and plan to defend it vigorously in the courts. The technology industry has been rife with patent trolling in recent years, which we believe is a fair and accurate characterization of this current lawsuit. To our knowledge, there have been no successful patent suits filed against ASUS itself, nor have the company’s products been embargoed from US sale. ExoTablet’s lawsuit is baseless and harmful to US consumers.”

Negri further noted the suspicious timing of the lawsuit filed against his company: “We also find it interesting that before filing its lawsuit against us, ExoTablet spent several months trying to persuade us to sell the TransPhone, the laptop/cell phone product to which it claims a patent. We declined to offer the TransPhone to our customers after determining through independent testing that the product was of inferior quality and should not be on the market. At no time did ExoTablet make any mention of a patent dispute with ASUS, nor did they serve us with a cease-and-desist letter or injunction before filing this lawsuit. Their patent infringement lawsuit came as a total surprise and we believe may be due to our refusal to sell their subpar products.”

Negri says the lawsuit should be a warning to other US electronics retailers that they could be the next targets of litigation by ExoTablet and its law firm Smith, Risley, Tempel & Santos.

The lawsuit, ExoTablet Ltd. v. Negri Electronics, Inc. was filed January 25, 2013 in US District Court Northern District of Georgia.

Credit: Negri Electronics Blog

The carriers are at it again, this time doing what they think is best to protect their discounted equipment they offer customers. What they don’t understand, or are ignoring, is the fact that this will be retroactive; let me explain.

When you purchase a phone from one of the major carriers like AT&T or T-Mobile you sign into a contract that states, in laymen terms, the phone you just paid for is not yours. You paid your carrier $199 for the phone you want, but it’s still theirs until you honor your end of the agreement and pay them for 2 years of service. Anyone with access to a calculator can figure out that the total cost of that “discounted” device isn’t so discounted.

There’s more. The carriers are now blocking access to their network. You read that right. They are blocking cellular devices from using their network. This sounds pretty illogical seeing as though the goal of these carriers is to cram as many possible subscribers onto their network as possible – but not if you are trying to use a phone that was purchased at a discount and the contractual obligations of that device were not followed through with.

Let’s dig deeper into this with some examples of how a device could be blocked. If you are a customer that purchased your device with a subsidy and decide you are happy with your monthly service and decline to pay, the IMEI of that device will be blocked on your current network by the carrier. If a Craigslist seller goes into AT&T and opens 2 lines in order to purchase the devices at a discount to resell them and does not fulfill the contractual obligations the network requires, the IMEI’s are blocked and – in this particular example – the Craigslist seller is not the victim, his customer is. Unbeknownst to him, when he purchases the device from the Craigslist seller and attempts to activate on the AT&T Network, the customer service rep will actually inform the user that the device was “stolen” – instead of explaining to them that the account the device is registered to is past due or in collections. Aggravated and discouraged, this user will likely simply attempt to resell the device on eBay or Craigslist to try to recover some of the loss – without disclosing his newly acquired information about the device – another victim becomes involved. The process is repeated until the end user gives up, chalks it up as a loss and seeks a new device that is not restricted – or he uses that same device on a different carrier. Wait, a different carrier? Yes, the device can be unlocked and used on another network (or resold overseas, but I’ll cover that later) perfectly without interruption.

Why would a carrier force a potential customer to use the device on another network or in another country? I asked myself the same question and to this day do not have an answer. They are attempting to discourage the reselling of their discounted devices – that’s evident. But it’s not working. Every “stolen” AT&T and T-Mobile device available will be exported to another country. While they work hard to deter fraud and reselling, it actually has the reverse effect due to the expanding market of unlocked phones in other countries. They have likely invested millions to develop this program to restrict IMEI’s when all they had to do was hire better educated staff and have tougher restrictions in stores and online.

Just recently AT&T has started to restrict IMEI’s of devices on their network, however, T-Mobile has been doing this for the past 8 months or more. T-Mobile reported earnings down about 6% last quarter, while profit is down 15%. Is this a direct relation to this master plan they had – it’s likely, but the true test will be in January when they report Q4 2012 earnings.

MVNO’s aren’t even safe. Carriers are hurting the MVNO’s that they have agreements with (not just by offering competitive pre-paid plans themselves) but if the phone is reported “stolen” on a T-Mobile network, it won’t work on a T-Mobile MNVO either (e.g. Simple, NET10, Spot, Solavie and more).  So these MVNO’s that try so hard to gain market share are going to suffer because their parent (carrier) wants to crack down on their discounted devices being resold for profit.

Carriers generally know what they are doing, but they did not forecast this plan very well. This will end up being detrimental to the carriers that take part in this act. It will push customers to other carriers without these restrictions, it will increase the sales of OEM/Unlocked devices in the US and increase the exports of all carrier branded devices from the US.

For the carriers, restricting access to your network is not the correct avenue. It’s also not my job to explain to what the correct avenue is and it would in fact be foolish to do so. You, the carriers, are a big enough thorn in my company’s side already. You block IMEIs of these “stolen” devices; you discount devices so much that people confuse the subsidized price as the actual cost of the device; and you restrict the sale of devices at the full retail price to other customers in order to lock someone else into a contract. Do the manufactures know you are doing this – employing a sales team that all but prohibits customers from coming into your store and paying full price for the device they want? RIMM’s legal team would have had a field day with AT&T had they been made aware of this before it was too late; and yes it is too late for RIMM.

While I won’t tell you how to fix the above issue here are some helpful tips to help you control your customer base, increase loyalty, decrease losses on discounted devices and not be generally hated by a large portion of your customers:

1. Sell your hardware full price, don’t offer the discounts. Discount the service instead.
2. Write off the losses to Marketing. Your devices have your logo and shitty software all over them already.
3. Treat customers with respect. You have loyal customers that never receive any discounts or incentives. It’s always a push to increase your subscriber base – but first you need to make the current subscriber base happy. Lower their plans cost if they are with you for 1-2 years. That’s a long time in this day and age. People spend 2 hours porting their number just to save $5 a month.

To conclude this rant, I’d like to thank you for your time in reading. Hopefully you were able to gain some insight from these details. To be safe, purchase a device directly from the carrier or a trusted company that will honor a return in the unlikely chance of a restricted IMEI.

There has been an on-going discussion on why people hate Lebron James and it all comes down to envy. If you look at what he did – became a free agent, made a big deal out of it, went to Miami and had a party, lost in the finals (still successful), played a 2nd season and won another MVP, and now won the Finals MVP and the championship – you’ll see that he did exactly what he wanted to do, with who he wanted to, when he wanted to do it.  But you hate him? If you do, you are jealous. The guy is the best player in the league, hands down. Kobe used to be, but he is getting old and without a supporting cast he doesn’t look that good anymore and his stock is down.  An objective person would agree that Lebron is the best in the league. But, Lebron will never be the best ever for 2 reasons. 1) The game has changed. It used to be a big man’s game where the SG & Center would be the scorers and the rest would knock down shots to fill in the blanks. Now there are PG’s scoring 40+ points, in a loss, and the top 2 main scorers are a PG and SG with the Center picking up 8 offensive rebounds and scoring 15 points on 8-15 from the line. The game has also changed because it’s no longer about the “team”. Its about the “brand”. The singles. The stars. The Studs. So it’s not all for the “glory of the game” or “for the win”, it’s for the check – and not the paycheck from the NBA – the endorsements! That is what makes these players rich. Back in 96-98 Jordan was making $33M a year for playing and $47M in endorsements, and just back in 2010 he was still the highest paid person in the NBA, why? Endorsements. His team isn’t making anything, but he is through Hanes, Nike, Jordan, Gatorade, 2K Sports, and many more. That’s what it’s about now, but let me get to point #2 here. 2) Regardless of if he wins 6 championships, he will never been seen as the best there ever was due to the fact that people will think that he ‘cheated’ the system in a way. In the way the Oakland A’s did by putting together a team on statistics, or how the Yankees bought A. Roid, or how Boston traded for KG to round out the first “Big 3”. There will always be an asterisk next to Lebron’s name, and not for reasons like Clemens, and Bonds and McGuire, but for reasons that writers use to justify their hatred toward the best player in the league.
Now dissect what he did in more detail, as an objective person, and try to imagine yourself in his shoes. This will allow you to comprehend his actions and things he did wrong. He is quick to recognize these wrong-doings and has matured into what may be the best show that the NBA has ever put on, and that’s what it’s all about anyway.  LeBron was sick of Cleveland. They were garbage; even with him they knew they could never get to the very top (and stay there) without someone else, someone with a name, someone the defense had to actually guard instead of triple teaming James; he didn’t want to stay in Cleveland, who would? So his buddy Dwayne Wade proposed that he and Bosh come to Miami to play (just as if they were building a team to play in an AAU tourney back in High School), and he entertained that offer. His immature management team decided to blow this up and put on some show and they proposed this to the “brains” at ESPN and they loved it. So came “The Decision”. But don’t think Lebron didn’t regret this immediately after it was done and blown out of proportion. I firmly agree that he did not think it would be the sole reason he would be hated for the rest of his career by the envious mob that reads the headlines in newspapers located in a town with a competing NBA team, but it was the best thing to happen to him. That chip on his shoulder made him wiser, made him stronger and made him more eager to win. He was loved in Cleveland and now hated in Miami by everyone except the people in Miami – but that isn’t really all that different than when he played in Cleveland. Everyone hated to play him, and all the fans hated to watch him score 40+ on their team, but no one hated him with this passion that he created by an hour long ESPN special. This drove him to mature quicker than any player I have ever seen. He went from the kid that took off his jersey at the end of his career in Cleveland to the MVP that stood up in front of the entire world and told him what hurt him the most is that he was called “selfish”. Lebron proved to the world that he IS the best in the league. The guy had 2 triple doubles in the finals that only lasted 5 games; only 3 others have ever had multiple triple-doubles in a Finals and Magic was the only other one that did it in 5 games – in a loss to the Bulls in 91.
You can hate the guy for what he did, but you have to also love him for what he did. He took the team on his back this year and came through with one of the best overall playoff performances ever. He was called “selfish” but he is the only guy with a pass-first mentality to ever score like he does. Hate him because you are envious of what he wanted to do. He wanted to go to Miami and play ball with his buddies and win some championships. Do you hate Eli Manning? That guy refused to play for the team that drafted him, ended up winning 2 Championships for another team. And if you hate Manning you have to hate Kobe. Kobe won 3 championships with an organization that went to bat for him through all his off-the-court problems only to later demand a trade when he felt there wasn’t enough talent around him. And you don’t think that he had a say in who the Lakers picked up? Are you mad at Wade for constructing this team? It wasn’t Pat Riley or Eric Spoelstra.  The guys wanted to have fun and win, and everyone hates Lebron for the way he did it.
Lebron will wear that ring on his middle finger and he too will burn his old Cleveland jerseys. I’d send the ashes to Dan Gilbert in a letter reading, “This is what I owe Cleveland in return.” You hate because you’re envious. You hate because you couldn’t do what he did. You hate because he proved you and the rest of the country wrong. You hate because he’s the best. But most of all you hate because he did what he wanted and got what he wanted. That should be everyone’s goal. That IS everyone’s goal, but many are too scared to act on it, or make progress on it, or achieve it. Lebron wasn’t worried about being hated, he welcomed it and it matured him not just as a player, but as a person. It would mature you as well to be hated that much, but no one person can ever be hated as much as Lebron, so that leaves you with no reason why you shouldn’t do what you want to achieve the goals that you have. Lebron made himself a better person; now his actions can maybe make you a better person.

Created by: OnlineCriminalJusticeDegree.com

People in the wireless industries “Grey Market”, so to speak, (I will touch on that BS in another post later) are hurting. Prices are dropping. The quality of products is dropping and so are the ethics of dealers/vendors. With sales down and people worrying on which way this market is going to go, these dealers are looking for other ways to make up for the lack in sales. You might find these ways to be troubling, you may even find them unethical; and they are all illegal.

Let’s start with the reason the market is so dismal. The market is so saturated with dealers, vendors, and suppliers that it’s impossible for anyone to be competitive. The issue is that these dealers will sell to anyone; even potential scam artists and failing companies. Others are so desperate they will simply sell their product just to get it off of their hands. The issue with this is they are only hurting the market by providing these morally confused dealers with products. When you sell a product to someone that will resell it, you are helping them remain in business. If they are corrupt or decide to be unethical down the road you just did this industry injustice. You must do your research first, or only deal with reputable companies or companies you have a relationship with. By searching and seeking out people to sell to (or even buy from) you are not only opening yourself up to a potential scam, but you could also be hurting yourself in the end.

On to my favorite part; the scams! Let’s start with the most influential company in the wireless device market; eBay. I will only briefly touch on this topic because we all know how difficult it is to find a quality product, sold by a quality seller that you won’t have to immediately return once received. Only on eBay can you find 4 different variations of the word “New”. (Find them yourselves). If you shop on eBay, good luck. Next…

You  think you are selling to someone ethical right? Wait until you find out what they do with your product once they buy it. We have experienced firsthand on many different occasions how these scum-of-the-earth companies degrade/dilute the products we sold them. Here is how: First they purchase a new product, brand new in box, with all accessories. Why mess with it, right? Wrong. Did you know that if you remove the new phone, and all accessories and replace it with a refurbished product and china-imported accessories, you can almost make 50% more? All you need to do is remove the bar code from the side of the box, tell the customer you are selling to that you submitted them for “rebates” and be on your way. Now they take the brand new equipment and accessories and purchase OEM boxes, and sell as new. | This is wrong, and illegal and one of the major reasons this industry is looked upon so poorly- but that’s not all. You also have your dealers that pay others to open up business accounts at major carriers. They open lines, purchase the equipment with the discount offered and never pay their bill. They flip the merchandise as quickly as possible (before the carrier has a chance to disable the IMEI/ESN) and stick you with the phones. You verify the IMEI’s and they all come back clean…until 45 days later when they are all recorded as “stolen” for your end user to discover first hand when their device stops receiving signal. Another “shady” way of doing business is lying. What? Lying? Yes, people in every industry, not just the wireless industry lie. They lie about the stock they have, the quantity they possess, the location of said stock and not to mention the current owner of that stock. These are called “brokers”. They do not help the industry; they simply pollute it with more uncertainty. If you do not own the stock, and it’s not in your hands – it’s not “in stock”! There is no reason that you must tell someone that you have products in stock when you don’t. They do not need to know you have it in your possession, but they also do not need to be told that you do.

Many of the newer ‘scams’ haven’t caught on as of late. The newest we have seen is the iPhone 4S scam. Did you know the only location of the IMEI of your 4S is on the SIM card trey? So these dealers purchase Sprint iPhone 4S, purposely ‘brick’ them. Return them to Apple with a Factory Unlocked SIM card trey and receive a brand new Factory Unlocked iPhone 4S for the cost of a Sprint locked device.

The people you deal with every day do not participate in these activities. It’s the scum behind the scenes that are causing this global issue. Look at who you are dealing with. Do you want them to stay in business? Are they providing a positive influence into the industry? Are they ethical? If you can not answer “yes” to every one of those questions; stop selling to them. You are only promoting their unethical behavior. The more people you deal with (companies), the more people that remain in this already overcrowded industry. You wonder why you can only make $5 a phone, the industry is so overcrowded and you keep fueling it by selling to them. Stop! Get smart and deal with a company you have developed a relationship with. Be picky who you buy from, but be even more picky on who you sell to. Once you realize the company you are dealing with can be trusted, do not lose them. They may be the only one left soon. It’s ok to burn bridges, especially if those bridges only connect you to scum.

Some would say that this is standard; I would argue that this is poor customer service. Sure Best Buy benefits from the service plans; but what they should value more is customer satisfaction. Take us out of the situation for the time being (we have our ways to get these devices repaired by Samsung). Let’s say this was you. You ordered online and there is a defect in your $699.99 product you purchased from this reputable location. You’re in shock that they provide absolutely NO assistance to you if you did not purchase their plan. How do you feel? Does this make you want to purchase the plan next time? Or simply order from someone else next time?

This post isn’t meant to boast our credibility; it’s meant to show you what it’s really like out there. If you don’t follow the “big box stores rules”, you are S.O.L. Some of you might just buy the service plan next time, but the rest of you are smart enough to understand that every device sold by Samsung (in this instance) does come with a 1 year Manufactures Warranty from Samsung. (You would simply need to contact Samsung in the country your device originated from in order to get assistance), and the place you purchased your device from should assist you in any way possible.

Should Best Buy deny you this information if you did not purchase their plan? What does this say about this company?

Keep your distance from the “Big Box Stores” that value sales volume and add-ons more than individual customers. Customers are your primary concern, without customers all you have is a warehouse full of products that no one needs.

About a month ago you were the only phone I used. I put up with your freezing, your stalling, your resetting and your dropped calls, your horrible web browser and countless other issues. When I came home with the iPhone 4S, I knew you were angry. You worked flawlessly that night trying to keep up and earn my attention, but the iPhone had captured it and hasn’t let go.

You have the best keyboard, hands down; no one is taking that away from you. You have a dynamic communication piece in Blackberry Messenger. Plus, you feel good in the hand, sturdy, solid, no plastic feel- but you suck. I can’t get to my email without your “waiting” clock showing. I can’t answer the phone sometimes because you are too slow to tell me I have a phone call; you’ve even froze on me in the middle of a call so I couldn’t hang up. Ended up leaving a message (which I never do) because it was already at the end of the other persons recording and I had to. Talk about embarrassing. I consistently showed you love by never dropping you, screen-protecting you, cleaning you…what else could I do? As soon as I got you I knew you were special, but then at the end of a 12 hour day you needed your 3^rd (yes 3^rd) battery replacement; you’re lucky I carried them with me. Anyway…I have put up with you throughout the years, from the 9000, to the 9900 and now- it’s time for me to say goodbye.

Do not be sad. I will still carry you with me, for BBM and for Emails that need to be sent in long form with your perfect keyboard. But I will not use you for the majority of my daily tasks and will never give your replacement an honest chance either.

What did it for me was your updates. How can you not alert me when there is an update? Why do you I need to go through so much just to update you? You should be plug and play. These last 3 days have been horrible for us (you and I). I spent all day today trying to get you updated. First you froze when I was backing you up, then I found a fix. You were backed up. I wiped you. Went to the security Wipe, typed in “blackberry” and you hung there for 45 minutes while I read your warning not to do any battery pulling during this process, so I waited. You finally finished, and powered down. But wait…you aren’t suppose to power down, you are supposed to restart after this. So I pull your battery and you come up with a white screen.

Everything I could have done on my Blackberry, I can do better on the iPhone with the exception of a few things like typing. I have picked up the Keyboard attachment for the iPhone, and will give that a try when it arrives. Maybe this will allow me to leave you completely; once I repair you that is.

The Blackberry is a communication device and nothing more. People argue “how could you use that?”, but as I just explained, it’s pretty easy to use (when it doesn’t freeze).  The iPhone is a toy. It also doubles as a work device to an extent. I often find myself picking up the iPhone to do something, and then being distracted by everything else there is to do on it. I must say, it is the best ‘bathroom device’ in the world. But as the iPhone is the “bathroom device” the Blackberry is a piece of shit.

I will miss you Blackberry, I will not use you as much, but you will be with me for a few more weeks.

UPDATE: 2/21/2012

My blackberry has never ran better. No freezes, no stalls, no restarts and very smooth operating. I did wipe the device completely and restore only email and BBM info, but it’s still all I will use it for. I may keep this around as my  ‘communication device’ and the iPhone my ‘toy’. Damn thing; every time I pick up the iPhone I forget what I was going to do in the first place.

UPDATE: 5/15/2013

Many people have asked for an update about the iPhone Keyboard that we offer, and that I used for a short (very short) period of time. To put things in perspective, picture a thin plastic case that installs on your iPhone., add a slide out keyboard with flat keys (not raised) and a space bar on the bottom row to the right of all the other keys. (Yes, to the right, ridiculously difficult to get used to). The keyboard does work, and if you are not worried about how your phone feels or looks with this plastic housing/keyboard installed – go for it. If you are looking for something to speed up your typing – don’t use this. This will not make you quicker, it will make you more frustrated in that the keys are not where they should be. (not just the space bar). It’s a very cheaply manufactured product that did not pass my test. In fact, it broke while trying to remove it from my iPhone. If someone is interested in designing a higher quality detachable keyboard for the iPhone 4S or the new iPhone5 you will be successful if you are able to manufacture them around the $19 price point, and distribute at $59, and retail for $79. Kickstarter & Crowdbacker are calling your name.

A personal blog is used to express a person’s view on a particular topic of interest to them. To them. Not to you. So while some of these topics that I talk about might not have any relation or interest to you. Don’t feel down about this, as I will cover many different topics throughout all of these posts.

I want to thank you for your initial interest in this blog, and hope that you find some of the things that are said to be interesting. A blog is a great way to express a person’s ‘personal feelings’ about a topic; while these words are my own, they are in no way a reflection of my companies views. These thoughts and words are my own.