While September looks to be a month of product launches, August was most certainly a month packed with rumors and hype in anticipation of the fall launch season -- oh yeah, and a good helping of courtroom drama.
That also made the month chock full of posturing, bantering and bold talk from the executives at all of the big mobile companies. As we wrap up the month, we look back at our favorite quotes -- stuff said on the record, in tweets and in leaked internal memos. Next month, we'll see who's still standing tall and who's eating their words.
Here they are, in no particular order.
9) "I mean, come on. Seventy-five pages! Seventy-five pages! You want me to do an order on 75 pages, (and) unless you're smoking crack, you know these witnesses aren't going to be called when you have less than four hours."
— U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh to Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) attorney Bill Lee, on his 75-page witness list in its trial against Samsung Corp. (See Jury: Apple Guilty, But Samsung Much Guiltier.)8) "Nonetheless, in another knee-jerk reaction, some groups have rushed to judgment and claimed that AT&T’s plans will violate the FCC’s net neutrality rules. Those arguments are wrong."
— AT&T Senior Vice President-Federal Regulatory and Chief Privacy Officer Bob Quinn, in a blog post about AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T)'s plan to include FaceTime only on its Mobile Share plans. (See AT&T Plays FaceTime Defense.)
7) "Samsung take note, next generation Lumia coming soon."
— Nokia VP Chris Weber in a tweet. (See Nokia Puts Itself on the Map.)
6) "The mobile industry is moving fast and all players -- including newcomers -- are building upon ideas that have been around for decades. We work with our partners to give consumers innovative and affordable products, and we don’t want anything to limit that.”
— Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), in a statement reacting to Apple's courtroom win over Samsung. (See Apple vs. Samsung: Who Is the Biggest Loser?)5) "We are no longer a consumer hardware brand, we are a different company with focus on software, User Experience, Cloud, engineering and partnering. This change in identity will take some getting used to and that’s normal."
— HP Chief of Staff Martin Risau, in an internal memo on the company's reviving webOS under the brand Gram. (See OS Watch: HP Unit Resurrects WebOS.)
4) "I don't think about rewinding the clock and thinking about competing elsewhere."
— Nokia CEO Stephen Elop to reporters in Oslo, Norway, defending Nokia's decision to team up with Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT). (See Euronews: Nokia Won't Waver on Windows.)
3) "Clearly, the evidence, to us, spoke overwhelmingly. There was no question about it."
— Velvin Hogan, jury foreman on the Apple vs. Samsung trial, to Bloomberg TV about the verdict. (See Apple Patent Win Puts Carriers in Driver’s Seat.)2) "We have said [to Microsoft] think it over. Think twice; It will create a huge negative impact for the ecosystem and other brands may take a negative reaction."
— Acer CEO JT Wang to The Financial Times about Microsoft's strategy to build its own tablets. (See Microsoft Surface Poll: Price Trumps LTE .)1) “Today, let’s be frank, I’m participating mostly in the qwerty market. ... I’m not really participating in any meaningful way in the [touch-screen] segment. So with BlackBerry 10, I will maintain and stay the leader in [devices with physical keyboards]. On full-touch, I’m in attack mode.”
— BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins to The Globe and Mail in an interview on RIM's recovery strategy. (See RIM Hopes BB10 Roadshow Will Wow Carriers .) — Sarah Reedy, Senior Reporter, Light Reading Mobile