Quit hating Nokia please, they aren’t stopping Google from adding multi-user functionality on Android phones. Android 4.2 features the ability to have multiple user accounts on Android tablets, but Google isn’t making the feature available to phones, which was speculated to be because Nokia held a patent on multi-user accounts on phones. However, Nokia has come out and refuted the speculation.
A Nokia representative said that Nokia had abandoned its efforts to patent the feature years ago (they failed to respond to a request from the U.S Patent and Trademark Office, causing the USPTO to cancel the patent application). “Though we did indeed file the patent application which has been cited in some of the coverage, we determined some time after filing that we would not pursue the application further,” according to a Nokia representative, He also said that Google has not approached Nokia to licence any of Nokia’s patents for Android devices.
The feature may come to Android smartphones in the future, though a Google representative declined to comment on when, or if that will come to pass. The Android hacking community is sure to find a way to unofficially do so, but having it officially would be very useful for the majority of Android users out there.
Here’s hoping the version of Android after 4.2 brings the feature to phones.
I hope someone at Google is on this patent because the idiots at Apple get it just to prevent other people from using it
why would you want to share your phone is so completely beyond me
They’re probably just making sure there’s no bugs in such a big change by testing it out on tablets first then very soon adding it to phones.