MacRumors

With the landmark Apple vs. Samsung patent and design lawsuit resulting a $1 billion verdict for Apple late last week, considerable discussion about the jury's decision-making process has been making the rounds. Several members of the jury, including foreman Velvin Hogan, gave interviews after the trial, but a new video interview of Hogan by Bloomberg Television's Emily Chang provides some additional insight into the jury's thinking. The nearly 17-minute segment covers a number of topics including the jury dynamics, calculation of damages, and how Hogan's own experience with patents and financial statements helped guide the discussion and evaluation.

Hogan notes that he initially thought the case might swing Samsung's way as the jury initially had some difficulty assessing how the validity of the patents should be decided and applied to the case.

We were at a stalemate, but some of the jurors were not sure of the patent prosecution process. Some were not sure of how prior art could either render a patent acceptable or whether it could invalidate it. What we did is we started talking about one and when the day was over and I was at home, thinking about that patent claim by claim, limit by limit, I had what we would call an a-ha moment and I suddenly decided I could defend this if it was my patent…And with that, I took that story back to the jury and laid it out for them. They understood the points I was talking about and then we meticulously went patent by patent and claim by claim against the test that the judge had given us, because each patent had a different legal premise to judge on. We got those all sorted out and decided which ones were valid and which ones were not.

Hogan also reiterates the jury's view that comments by Google demanding that Samsung tweak its product designs to look less similar to the iPhone and iPad were particularly damning, indicating that Samsung's infringement was willful as it took in Google's advice and opted not to follow it.

Overall, the jury found that the evidence in the case "spoke overwhelmingly" to Samsung's infringement, with the jury having put "each side to the test" equally in weighing both validity and infringement claims, working through each of the involved devices and claimed infringements to reach the $1 billion verdict. Hogan also walks through how that dollar amount was reached, using their own calculations of how much Apple lost in profits from sales of the infringing Samsung devices and then adding in royalty amounts to achieve a final number.

Gizmodo reports that it has obtained a complete copy of Apple's training manual for new retail store Genius hires. The manual includes an overview of the two-week training new Geniuses go through, along with detailed information on how to handle customer service issues across a broad variety of scenarios.

The manual could easily serve as the Humanity 101 textbook for a robot university, but at Apple, it's an exhaustive manual to understanding customers and making them happy. Sales, it turns out, take a backseat to good vibes—almost the entire volume is dedicated to empathizing, consoling, cheering up, and correcting various Genius Bar confrontations. The assumption, it'd seem, is that a happy customer is a customer who will buy things. And no matter how much the Apple Store comes off as some kind of smiling likeminded computer commune, it's still a store above all—just one that puts an enormous amount of effort behind getting inside your head.

The report highlights several topics from the manual, including training on how to empathize with customers to build a relationship, recognizing body language and other cues to help understand each customer's emotions and guide the interaction to a resolution, and Apple's "banned words" along with the preferred terms that should be used to describe certain issues.

Apple's retail stores have long been highly regarded for their customer service, with staff providing significant levels of free support through the Genius Bar while sales associates training in helping customers find solutions to their problems assist with purchases. A number of Apple's customer service interaction technique have even been adopted from the Ritz-Carlton luxury hotel chain, itself famous for attention to customer service.

But as the chain has continued to grow there have been signs of strain on this outlook for retail, with staff reportedly being asked to do more with less amid claims that operational efficiency has risen in significance at the price of reduced customer and employee satisfaction.

Apple has introduced a new perk for Apple employees, giving them a free 50GB upgrade to their iCloud storage -- a $100/year value. This is similar to the free MobileMe subscription that employees received until last year when iCloud replaced that service. The standard iCloud account includes 5GB of storage.

Earlier this year Apple employees were granted a new discount on Apple hardware, offering employees $500 off a Mac (excluding the Mac mini) or $250 off an iPad -- and that discount was recently extended to the Retina MacBook Pro as well.

With Apple having announced its new Passbook digital wallet for iOS 6, speculation regarding the potential for the incorporation of near field communications (NFC) in the next-generation iPhone has ramped up. The technology would allow for contactless payments that could be closely incorporated into the Passbook functionality. Rumors of NFC capabilities for the next-generation iPhone received another boost of speculation after photos of an assembled front panel surfaced showing an unknown square feature that Japanese blog Mac Otakara said was part of the NFC system for the device.

As part of an extensive analysis of likely features for the next iPhone, AnandTech laid out the case for why NFC is unlikely to appear in the device.

Given the primarily metal backside of the new iPhone, it's highly unlikely that NFC is in the cards for this generation. In fact, given the very little space at top and bottom dedicated to those glass RF windows, you can almost entirely rule it out.

The well-connected Jim Dalrymple has now added his perspective on the matter, sharing a simple "Yep" confirming that AnandTech was correct in its conclusion: There will be no NFC capabilities in the forthcoming iPhone.

TmoNews reports (via Engadget) that it has received a pair of photos from T-Mobile USA's internal news system announcing that the carrier will be rolling out new training programs focused on "selling against the iPhone". The new training modules are being deployed on September 21, the rumored launch day for the next-generation iPhone in the United States.

Perhaps it’s coincidental that the information for employees to utilize against the iPhone will drop on September 21st, a date being tossed around as a possible release date for the next-generation iPhone. Perhaps it’s just coincidence but we can’t envision a scenario in which T-Mobile would prepare their employees to sell against a product they are about to receive.

T-Mobile is the only one of the four major U.S. carriers to not officially offer the iPhone, hampered by its use of 3G spectrum bands that are not supported by iPhone models released to date. That has not stopped customers from bringing their GSM iPhones to the carrier for use on its 2G network, and T-Mobile has been working to increase support for the over one million iPhones in use on its network even as it seeks to downplay the impact of its official absence to potential customers.

Following its failed merger with AT&T, T-Mobile USA announced earlier this year that its work on refarming spectrum would make the carrier's 4G HSPA+ network compatible with a broader range of devices, including the iPhone, by the end of 2012. Today's report from TmoNews reveals that T-Mobile is also rolling out new Monthly4G SIM kits that are compatible with the iPhone 4S and 4 later this month, perhaps signaling an increased effort to attract iPhone customers as its iPhone-compatible HSPA+ network reaches critical mass.

Earlier this month, we reported on several changes at Apple retail stores that were reportedly seeing some employees being laid off or seeing recent promotions being retracted, while other part-time employees were seeing their hours reduced significantly, in some cases to zero. Our report was followed several days later by an acknowledgement from Apple that the company had "messed up" in adjusting its staffing formulas for its retail stores.

ifoAppleStore now takes a close look at the situation, tying changes in the philosophy of Apple's retail experience to the passing of Steve Jobs and the operational focus of Apple CEO Tim Cook and new retail chief John Browett. At the most basic level, Jobs served as the champion for former retail chief Ron Johnson's vision of Apple stores focused on consumer satisfaction, and without Jobs to protect that vision Apple has slipped into a numbers-focused perspective for its retail operations.

Johnson was champion of customer satisfaction, designing and staffing the stores to provide a superior experience for visitors and buyers alike. He was able to win over Steve Jobs with the concept that revenue and profit should be a secondary goal of Apple’s retail stores.

But in 2009, Jobs took six months of medical leave and put Tim Cook in charge of the company, including the retail stores. Cook is primarily an “operations guy,” sources explain, and his natural focus is revenues and profits, not customers. While Jobs was away, Cook and chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer began to confront Johnson on his customer-centric retail philosophy—both felt the stores didn’t generate enough revenues to justify operating expenses.

The report claims that Cook hired Browett to replace Johnson, who departed Apple to lead department store chain JC Penney last year, specifically because of his focus on "traditional concepts of retailing" that prioritize revenues and profits as the key performance metrics.

Even with Apple reportedly having reversed a number of the staffing changes that brought the company such significant publicity earlier this month, stores are reportedly still subject to directives reducing workshop offerings for customers and specifying policies on staff evaluation and compensation that prioritize profits over the customer experience and employee satisfaction.

Back in May, Apple announced that its annual iTunes Festival in London would be moving to September for 2012, with the event once again offering 30 days of free concerts at The Roundhouse. While tickets to the shows have been awarded on a lottery basis, Apple this year is offering access to the concerts with a number of live streaming options including through the iTunes Festival website, through a dedicated universal iOS app, and through Apple TV.

For those interested in watching the shows on Apple TV, the company has just pushed out an automatic update adding the iTunes Festival app to users' set-top boxes, making it easy for users to access the shows from the main menu of the device.

This is not the first time Apple has experimented with delivering live content directly to the Apple TV, as the company earlier this year offered a live stream of a Paul McCartney concert through both iTunes and the Apple TV.

The 2012 iTunes Festival kicks off on September 1 with Usher and runs daily throughout the month until closing with Muse on September 30.

Apple today announced that Craig Federighi and Dan Riccio will be joining the company's senior executive team, receiving promotions to the Senior Vice President level.

Federighi succeeded Bertrand Serlet as head of Mac Software Engineering in early 2011, but was not elevated to the senior executive team at that time. Riccio is currently transitioning to lead Hardware Engineering as Bob Mansfield steps down.

As senior vice president of Mac Software Engineering, Federighi will continue to be responsible for the development of Mac OS X and Apple’s common operating system engineering teams. Federighi worked at NeXT, followed by Apple, and then spent a decade at Ariba where he held several roles including vice president of Internet Services and chief technology officer. He returned to Apple in 2009 to lead Mac OS X engineering. Federighi holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Riccio, as senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, will lead the Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod engineering teams. He has been instrumental in all of Apple’s iPad products since the first generation iPad. Riccio joined Apple in 1998 as vice president of Product Design and has been a key contributor to most of Apple’s hardware over his career. Dan earned a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1986.

Apple has also announced that Mansfield will remain with the company rather than retiring as previously announced, staying on to "work on future products" and reporting directly to CEO Tim Cook.

A New Jersey teenager was arrested this weekend for allegedly attempting to shoplift a pair of headphones from the Fifth Avenue Apple Store in Manhattan, reports Macworld. Eric Shine says he scanned the barcode of a pair of Bose headphones, and navigated the EasyPay purchase process to the final screen, but failed to complete his purchase. Upon trying to leave the store, he was stopped by store employees who accused him of shoplifting and called the police to have him arrested.

I pulled out my iPhone, and realized it still showed the Pay Now button, and not the receipt," Shine said. "I told them I had no intent of stealing; I’ve been in the store for an hour, and I’m still willing to purchase the headphones."

That didn’t satisfy the Apple Store staff. "They said, they see this all the time, and that they knew I had the intent to steal, and this was an easy excuse," said Shine, who pointed out to the manager that he had asked for—and received—a bag from an Apple Store employee for the headphones. When you successfully complete a transaction, the Apple Store app clearly states that, to get a bag, "just show a specialist your receipt." Shine says the Apple Store employee he spoke to didn’t ask to see his receipt, compounding his own error with the app.

Last year, the 'Apple Store' iPhone app was updated with a new 'EasyPay' feature that allowed users to purchase products in the retail store without interacting with any salespeople. This benefits both customers and the store by freeing up store employees to deal with customers that need one-on-one attention.

EasyPay has been popular with Apple's more tech-savvy customers, but the risk of misunderstandings like this are easy to foresee. Shine was offered a plea bargain for one day of community service and attending a class on larceny in exchange for having the charges against him reduced, but he declined. He told Macworld that he "didn't try to steal anything" and will instead face larceny charges in October.

Yesterday, we pointed to a report from The Korea Times quoting a senior Samsung executive as saying the $1 billion judgment against the firm in its patent and design dispute with Apple was the "worst scenario" for Samsung. Several senior executives were reportedly holding an emergency meeting yesterday to discuss Samsung's next moves in the case.

Reuters now notes that Samsung CEO Kwon Oh-hyun, who took the reins of the company as part of an executive reshuffling in June, was not present at that meeting. According to the report, Kwon's absence was part of Samsung's efforts to compartmentalize the patent and design dispute within the company. While he does serve as CEO, Kwon's primary responsibility is to oversee the company's component business, a division that maintains a close relationship with Apple.

The clear message from Samsung is that a strict internal firewall between its handset business and its components operations remains intact.

While it plans to appeal the U.S. verdict, and a damages bill for $1.05 billion for copying critical features of Apple's popular mobile devices - a sum that could be trebled - Samsung will not want to put at risk its Apple supply contract which is worth billions of dollars.

The report notes that both Samsung and Apple have been seeking to diversify their supply relationships to reduce their reliance on one another, but the two companies remain very close partners on the supply chain side. According to statements by Apple's lawyers during the trial, Samsung parts currently comprise 26% of the component cost of the iPhone, even with Apple taking steps to move contracts for some commodities such as DRAM from Samsung to competitors Elpida and Hynix.

Yesterday, TechCrunch reported that AT&T had issued a vacation blackout for September 21-30 ahead of an "iconic release", coinciding exactly with a similar blackout at Verizon.

9to5Mac now reports that AT&T has specifically denied that a company-wide blackout is in effect for that time period. Anecdotal reports from store staff do, however, suggest that the carrier may be increasing its staffing levels around that time.

This morning, an AT&T spokesperson told us that there is no company-wide vacation blackout at the end of September.

We’ve also talked to AT&T reps at other stores who’ve implied that, depending on staffing levels of that particular store, more people are being put on duty – but there is no “blackout”. In fact one New York employee will be sitting out the first week of the iPhone launch on a long planned vacation.

Numerous sources have indicated that Apple will be introducing the next-generation iPhone at a media event on September 12, but the actual launch date for the device has been somewhat less certain. Several sources have pointed to September 21 as the launch date for the first group of markets, a timeframe that does fit with Apple's typical pattern seen in previous launches.

We've been following Apple's efforts to open retail store locations in Sweden for some time, noting last November that the company had filed for a business registration certificate. The company began hiring for its new stores in February, although the locations for those stores were not disclosed at the time.

Over this past weekend, 99mac reported [Google translation] that a new location listing in Swedish search engine and mapping service Hitta.se has revealed Apple's forthcoming store in the Täby Centrum shopping center in Stockholm. According to sources, the store is scheduled to open on September 15.

IDG.se followed up [Google translation] with a visit to the shopping center, where it discovered the under-construction store covered by Apple's traditional black construction barrier emblazoned with the Apple logo and the URL for company's Swedish site.

Apple is reportedly working on several other Swedish retail store sites, with a location in Malmö said to be planned for an October 25 opening and a second Stockholm site also said to be under consideration.

Sweden appears set to become the 14th country with an Apple retail store presence, with the company counting China and Hong Kong as separate markets. Unlike Apple's high-profile entry into the Netherlands earlier this year with a flagship store, the first Swedish store appears to be of the more standard mall-based variety, although with a very wide storefront indicating that it should be of substantial size.