Android Software

SAN FRANCISCO - Larry Page, the co-founder of Google Inc. who returned as its chief executive one year ago, has commanded respect for making decisive, bold moves to recharge the search giant. But the usually self-assured Page appeared uncomfortable on the witness stand Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. He was there to dispute allegations that his company infringed Oracle Corp.'s patents and copyrights to build its Android mobile software, which now powers more than 300 million mobile devices.

SAN FRANCISCO — It's being called the World Series of intellectual property trials. Oracle Corp. has accused Google Inc.'s top executives of swiping a crucial bit of technology to build its Android software that now powers more than 300 million mobile devices. The showdown between the two Silicon Valley heavyweights got underway in a San Francisco federal courtroom this week with a blast of high-tech star power as the dueling multibillionaire chief executives, Oracle's Larry Ellison and Google's Larry Page, took the stand.

Steve Jobs' legacy at Apple Inc. goes well beyond cool gadgets, a thriving retail chain and a music empire. He also launched the company's all-out legal war on Google Inc. In the last months of Jobs' life, Apple unleashed a patent-suit blitzkrieg on its Silicon Valley rival, filing 10 lawsuits in six countries that accuse the Internet search giant of stealing its smartphone and tablet computer technology. The campaign is rooted in Jobs' belief that Google and mobile device manufacturers that use its Android software copied key design and technology features from Apple's iPhone and iPad.

Naming a powerful ally in its quest to become the king of smartphones, Google Inc. said it was teaming up with Intel Corp. to develop software aimed at running on the chip maker's next-generation mobile microchips. At Intel's annual developer conference in San Francisco, the two companies said Tuesday that Google's Android software would be optimized for Intel's Atom processors. Atom chips are designed to require half as much power as earlier Intel models, so are better suited for portable, battery-powered devices.

Google scraped together $12.5 billion from its petty cash fund this week to acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings, which once was a top manufacturer of cellphones and still is a leading maker of cable-TV converter boxes. Google executives said the primary lure was the cache of patents Motorola holds in the wireless field, which could help Google fend off the litigation that competitors have mounted against the company's Android software for mobile phones and tablets. Other observers suspect that Google plans to use Motorola's hardware acumen to help build its own Android-powered devices, in the hope of challenging Apple's market-dominating iPhones and iPads.

Google's rivalry with Apple heated up as the Internet search giant unveiled its new online market for mobile applications that run on devices powered by its Android software. The new online Android store lets consumers buy and install applications on mobile devices through an Internet browser, the company said during an event at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters. Previously, the apps could be purchased only via the devices. Google also said Wednesday that software developers would be able to create Android applications that charge users for purchases they make, a feature already available on Apple devices.

Oracle Corp. dropped a major legal bombshell on Google Inc. late Thursday, kicking off what could be an epic clash of Silicon Valley titans. "This is a case of Goliath versus Goliath," IDC analyst Al Hilwa said. Oracle, the software giant, filed a patent and copyright infringement lawsuit against Google, the Internet behemoth, over the Android software that uses technology Oracle bought when it acquired Sun Microsystems Inc. in January. Google's Android software is used in mobile phones produced by Motorola Inc., Taiwan's HTC Corp.

Capping a day of dueling announcements from rival cellphone service providers, AT&T said Tuesday that it would allow users of Apple Inc.'s popular iPhone to make Internet telephone calls over its wireless network. Hours earlier, Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest mobile carrier, said it was teaming up with Internet search giant Google Inc. to release a family of cellular devices powered by Google's Android software, whose capacity to run a vast array of "apps" is widely thought to represent a threat to the iPhone.