Mac Rumors: Apple Mac iOS Rumors and News You Care About. In the ongoing Samsung vs. Apple lawsuit, two experts hired by Apple took the stand on Tuesday to explain to the jury why Samsung deserves to pay $2 billion in damages for infringing on Apple's patents. First up was John Hauser, a professor of marketing at the MIT Sloan School of Management, who argued (via CNET) that the specific features patented by Apple, such as slide to unlock, made Samsung's devices far more appealing to consumers. To reach that conclusion, Hauser surveyed 966 Samsung device users (507 phone owners and 459 tablet owners) to measure the percentage of consumers who would buy devices with specific features, including universal search, background syncing, quick links, automatic word correction, and slide-to-unlock, among others.
Those metrics were then used to determine how much people would pay for the Apple-patented features that Samsung included in its devices, with Hauser coming to the conclusion that customers would shell out $32 to $102 for each feature. Apple stuff. Microsoft's Steve Ballmer has plans for more hardware. 25 October 2012Last updated at 14:38 ET Steve Ballmer: 'This is one of two or three big moments in Microsoft's history' Microsoft's chief boss has confirmed he plans to release more devices. Steve Ballmer told the BBC: "Is it fair to say we're going to do more hardware? Obviously we are... Where we see important opportunities to set a new standard, yeah we'll dive in. " The chief executive's comments came ahead of a Windows 8 launch event in New York, following which Microsoft's Surface tablet will go on sale. News other devices are likely to follow may worry other PC manufacturers.
Mr Ballmer caused a stir when he revealed in June that his company was making its own family of tablet computers - one offering extended battery-life powered by an Arm-based chip, the other using Intel's technology to offer a deeper Windows experience. A look at Microsoft's Surface tablet But Dell - the world's third largest computer maker - was less bothered by the move. Continue reading the main story At the launch. Icelanders approve their crowdsourced constitution — European technology news.